Those of you who remained glued to your TV sets on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day for the annual college football marathon (Quick, who won the Carquest Bowl? Extra credit if you know what a Car-quest is.) got your first look at Delta Air Lines' new ad campaign: "You'll Love the Way We Fly."
"You'll Love" replaces the venerable "We Love to Fly and It Shows" campaign. I know, it's a little confusing, but you'll get used to it.Delta's new ad campaign made its debut during ESPN's New Year's Eve broadcast of the Peach Bowl game (Clemson beat Ken-tucky in a thriller. I was one of those demented souls who watched all 627 games.)
On New Year's Day, the new Delta spots aired during the Citrus, Rose, Fiesta, Orange and Sugar bowl games, and just in case there was anyone out there in videoland who somehow managed to miss the "bowling" extravaganza, Delta followed up on CBS's "60 Minutes" and "Sunday Morning."
If you watched last night's Monday Night Football telecast - poor Al, Frank and Dan didn't get a decent game to talk about all season, then the longest game of the year when it was meaningless - you saw the 30-second Delta spot again - unless, of course, you were busy channel surfing during the commercials.
If you are wondering why you should care about Delta's new ad campaign, I will remind you that Atlanta-based Delta operates a major "hub and spoke" operation at Salt Lake International Airport and is the dominant air carrier in Utah. That means anything Delta does is important to you whether you are a customer or not. Sort of like Boeing in Seattle or gambling in Las Vegas.
According to Robert W. Coggin, senior vice president, the new campaign is designed as a logical followup to "We Love to Fly and It Shows" and is targeted particularly at business travelers.
The new campaign was developed by New York advertising firm BBDO and is said to be the result of two years of research to identify the particular needs of business travelers, who account for 3 percent of the population, 45 percent of all airline seats sold and 60 percent of all airline revenues.
Coggin said the new campaign shifts the focus from the airline to passengers' perceptions of it.
"We wanted to make clear that it's not business as usual at Delta, but also that new approaches will not compromise Delta's long-standing commitment to put people first," he said.
Delta's national television and print ads are expected to reach 166 million people this month alone.
The decision to more directly appeal to business travelers, reflects Delta's overall effort to remain competitive in a changing aviation market, said Coggin.
"The business traveler is the most demanding and discriminating customer in the airline business. If we can win this customer and show that we understand their special needs, we will win the leisure traveler as well."
(For those who read this far and got stumped by the quiz, Boston College tromped Virginia 31-13 in the Carquest Bowl. Carquest, as near as I can determine, is an auto parts chain somewhere back East.)