India: Air Deccan targets masses with 'fly cheap' message

The message communicated is that flying in India is surprisingly inexpensive. Thus, the 40-second TVC shows a life-size cardboard cut-out of a superhero, with the face missing. Different characters, including an old man, a little boy, a teenage girl and even a dog, stick their faces in the gap, suggesting that they are ready to take off and fly themselves. The spot closes with the voice-over, "Now everyone can fly".

Orchard managing director Nitish Mukherjee said: "It's about empowering people who want to fly but don't (because of cost), which is the real benefit that Air Deccan brings."

The account is estimated at around US$1 million for the current year. The brief, according to Orchard executive creative director Thomas Xavier, was simple: "To say that flying is now affordable for everybody."

Getting around to a simple execution, however, took some convincing, added Captain GR Gopinath, managing director, Air Deccan: "The biggest problem was that the agency wanted (the communication) to be a little sophisticated."

And while there was a need to talk about the quality of the flying experience, it was more critical to get a larger set of people to start thinking about flying itself: "We had to convince the agency that we needed to stimulate demand, and not stop at a catchy line."

Air Deccan is part of Deccan Aviation, India's largest private helicopter-charter company. By introducing fares that are nearly half of other airlines in some sectors, it has prompted the likes of Air India to announce plans for entering the segment. Air Deccan will begin operating on prime routes connecting the major Indian cities of Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad, thereby directly competing with domestic carriers like Air Sahara, Jet Airways and Indian Airlines.