American Airlines is imitating rival Southwest Airlines with a new ad effort that takes a humorous approach to examine why people travel. Similar to Southwest's "Wanna Get Away" effort, one new
spot has an employee furtively calling to try to book an earlier flight to get out of a team-building exercise.
In another, a young employee volunteers for a series of dull business
trips for the frequent-flier miles. "We've lightened up the brand a bit," says Roger Frizzell, the airline's vice president for public relations, advertising and publishing. "Perhaps it's a chapter
we've stolen from Southwest's book."
The new push also includes more focus on online and interactive ads and the carrier plans more advertising about specific markets and routes. It
will be integrated with other promotions and marketing efforts, including using technology to send messages in different ways. The online and mobile advertising portion will take up about 30% of the
total budget, which was undisclosed.
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