JetBlue Asks Its Fliers to Keep Spreading the Word
Almost 30 years ago, advertising for Pan American World Airways introduced a slogan, 'You canÂ’t beat the experience,' which was ahead of its time in prefiguring the 21st-century focus by marketers on customer experiences with their brands.
(Of course, there was another meaning to the slogan, playing up Pan Am's decades of service, which became moot when the company stopped flying in 1991.)
Now another airline, JetBlue, is introducing a marketing initiative that seeks to convince consumers how much better traveling on JetBlue can be. The campaign is scheduled to begin on Monday as a video-rich online effort — JetBlue is calling it a digital brand experience — whose Web address is meant to say it all:experience.jetblue.com. (It will also be reachable by visiting the JetBlue Web site, jetblue.com, and clicking on "experience.")
The initiative, by a digital agency in New York named Firstborn, is an example of what is known as experiential marketing, which aims to bring brands to life in tangible ways that eschew traditional advertising tactics like television commercials.
The goal is to entice consumers with promises to entertain or educate them rather than bombard them with pitches that interrupt what they are watching or reading.
"Customers who fly JetBlue appreciate it," said Michael Stromer, director for e-commerce and interactive marketing at JetBlue Airways in Forest Hills, Queens, which makes it "so important to generate trial with potential customers."
At the same time, "we're in a world where people do not trust what companies have to say about themselves," he added, "but they trust what other people tell them."
So the online video clips present devotees of the airline, rather than executives, employees, actors or celebrity endorsers, telling stories that extol the virtues of their favorite JetBlue features and amenities.
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Source - New York Times
