Targeting a captive audience in the sky

If it's a captive audience you're looking for, then the boom in air travel around Asia is a godsend. More people than ever have the opportunity to travel, it's more affordable than it's been in a decade and -- best of all for advertisers -- passengers are kept sitting still for hours at a time with very little to do but look at what's put in front of them. It's no surprise, then, that inflight advertising is enjoying a surge as well. Inflight advertising specialist Emphasis says its worldwide sales turnover for inflight options rose more than 40 per cent last year to US$15 million, and it's predicting further strong growth this year. ACNielsen data tracking ad revenue based on ratecards with seven of Asia's biggest inflight magazines shows slower growth. Dragonair's 30 per cent rise in sales for its Silkroad magazine in 2004 over 2003, proved an exception. At Cathay Pacific, Discovery's sales climbed 13 per cent over the same period. Bigger spend doesn't mean simply more of the same, however. As passenger demographics shift, the brands looking to target them are changing too. And, with more and more forms of hi-tech entertainment being offered on board aircraft, competition for passengers' attention means that buying inflight requires a more creative approach than simply taking a page in a magazine. While Sars, bird flu and terrorism have all hurt airlines in the past few years, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) says 2005 and the few years ahead should see stable growth in passenger travel worldwide, led by routes in Asia. Passenger numbers flying within Asia-Pacific rose almost 20 per cent last year and are expected to grow at 7.2 per cent this year -- well ahead of the world average of about six per cent expansion. Growth in travel between Asia and Europe is also strong, forecast at 6.2 per cent this year. At the same time, competition in the airline sector has made travel more affordable than it's been in 10 years; IATA says the cost of flying has dropped by more than a third in the past decade. For advertisers, of course, the biggest question is not always how many but which people they can reach. And while budget travellers represent a huge area for potential growth in inflight marketing, it's still those at the front end of the plane that are of greatest interest. "The wealthy, brand-conscious, frequent international traveller is one of, if not the most sought after demographic by advertisers," says Monica Woo, managing director of Emphasis. Inflight magazines remain the favourite way to reach these people, increasingly in conjunction with other inflight or ambient media. While most airlines tend to provide one inflight magazine to all passengers, whichever class of travel they've bought, media agencies say readership by their big-income targets is high enough to justify the spend. A full-page four-colour ad in, for instance, Discovery, costs about US$22,000 for a single insert, compared to about $44,000 for Newsweek and $52,000 for Time. The content is, obviously, very different, but the broad target market is the same. "The appeal to some clients is the thought of access to those front-end passengers who are time-poor, but are potentially held captive for three hours or more in-flight," says Tess Caven, managing partner of MEC in Singapore. "They are light media consumers and inflight can be regarded as a supplement to, but not replacement for, pan-regional media. This said, some clients do see it as a low-cost option when a decent campaign in the wider-circulating titles cannot be afforded." The brands choosing inflight magazines are a fairly similar line-up as those using pan-regional press and television; as well as travel-related brands such as hotels and duty-free liquor, there are financial services, luxury cars and, increasingly, high-end consumer electronics. Recent signings for Emphasis in the region include HSBC, Chivas Regal, Lexus and Shangri-La Hotel Group. Canon recently branded every page of the Cathay Pacific inflight entertainment guide with a strip along the bottom. Sony Ericsson, meanwhile took four small spaces in Singapore Airlines' Silver Kris inflight entertainment guide, followed by a full page -- the first time that the magazine has allowed multiple small spaces to invade editorial. In China, where frequent fliers represent an even more select, elite segment of the population than in other parts of Asia, international car manufacturers such as Toyota and Audi are now taking ads in CAAC Inflight magazine (which has a monthly circulation of 250,000 on domestic airlines across the mainland). Yves N'gakoutou, executive manager of Asia Inflight, which produces the CAAC magazine, says computers, office equipment and home appliances are also going inflight with their ads. "This segment is exploiting the readers' growing sensitivity to international and foreign brands as the Chinese market is opening up to the world," he says. "And the quite recent opportunity for those brands to manufacture their product in China gave them chances to compete with local brands that were supported at that time by import taxes on foreign products." However, even though the vast majority of travellers are in economy, mass-market brands are not yet targeting them in the skies. "It could be argued that back-end, largely infrequent leisure travellers will be more likely to read the inflight magazines for the novelty factor, but as this would provide low-frequency exposure it would be quite expensive and slow to build," Caven says. Anna Azilli, managing director with Carat Asia-Pacific, agrees: "It's an expensive buy for the back-end -- there's probably many better ways of contacting them than on a plane." Budget airlines could change all that. As well as encouraging new legions of holidaymakers on to planes, they're likely to attract a new range of advertisers. Europe's biggest low-fare airline, Ryanair, has Mars chocolate bar-branded headrests in flight. Closer to home, Thai budget carrier Nok Air has set up partnerships with brands like Coca-Cola -- Coke provides the drinks and gets prominent brand exposure, and the airline can promote the fact that passengers get free drinks at check-in. While Nok Air is not yet offering inflight advertising, it intends to top up the slim margins it makes on ticket sales with ad revenue, as well as setting up more deals with non-paying advertisers to 'add value' to a journey. In a recent trial, Thai tea brand Unif branded boarding passes with a voucher that passengers could later use to enter a lucky draw. "Eventually, what we'd like to do is use our planes almost like one big stage," says Nok Air vice-president Pinyot Pibulsonggram. "Anything with an open space is a potential advertising space," he says. A budget airline in the US has sold ads on the luggage bins in the cabin, and others have used flight attendants to promote airline-related products like package holidays by wearing a badge saying 'Fly free -- ask me!', and having brochures at the ready. Asia's major international airlines are unlikely to allow advertising to be quite so prominent. But they are offering increasingly creative ad solutions that go beyond the magazine. "I think that most carriers feel uncomfortable imposing advertising on their passengers, who, after all, have not signed up for a commercial experience," says Kevin Tromp, global account director for Malaysia Airlines with Leo Burnett. Branded A-shaped cards on meal trays are now common, along with branding on boarding passes, radio ads on the inflight audio, and TV commercials on inflight video channels. The development of ever more varied and personalised inflight entertainment options for passengers is both good and bad for advertisers. On the one hand, they're a distraction from the inflight magazine; on the other, they present a new opportunity to reach consumers. "TV ads (inflight) are very effective," says Azilli. "It's not like there's a whole bank of them on together." Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has recently booked inflight TV time with nine major carriers worldwide, including British Airways, Air France, American Airlines and Lufthansa. Interstitials -- still images on screen that require the viewer to push a button before they move on -- are also available with some airlines, perhaps helping overcome some of the viewer fatigue that frequent fliers might suffer if they travel the same routes often. (Inflight TVCs are booked well in advance and usually run for months at a time.) Major international brands are increasingly choosing a combination of inflight media, either as well as or instead of an ad in the inflight title. Citibank is currently running a multimedia inflight campaign promoting credit card services on Cathay Pacific and Dragonair using a TVC on the movie channel, the inflight magazine, a card on meal trays, and branding on Airshow -- the series of data and diagrams showing the plane's current location and the time until landing. And The Economist is using meal tray cards on selected routes, between Hong Kong and Taipei, Sydney and Tokyo, with a branded CNN-style ticker at the bottom of plasma screens showing flight arrival and departure time information in airport lounges. Ever-continuing advances in inflight technology mean the best opportunities for advertisers may yet be to come. Burnett's Tromp says the availability of high-speed internet access on board -- now in the testing stages with airlines such as Lufthansa -- will allow passengers to be served with tailored advertising messages onboard. "The more sophisticated airlines will be able to link the data that they have on passengers in their frequent flier databases to identify the optimal messaging mix by frequent traveller, allowing fine tailoring and targeting -- and serve more generic messaging to others," he says. Inflight games also give advertisers chance to offer specially developed games, or do clever product placement." "The digital area is the opportunity, and forward-thinking airlines and brand marketers will make capital here," Tromp says. "Being internet-enabled allows for greater relevance, greater interactivity and greater involvement. It's an opt-in medium which doesn't intrude on other passengers or compromise the airline's (own) brand experience."