New Outdoor Campaign that has Travelers Targeted

Starting next month, airline passengers around the world will be targeted with giant ads located underneath flying planes, most likely on the runways of some of the world's busiest airports. Each advertisement is twice the size of London's Trafalgar Square (or three football -- soccer-- fields together). World’s biggest ads network launched, an article posted on utalkmarketing.com explains that marketing company, Ad-Air, is offering the world's first in-flight outdoor advertising sites. Basically billboard space on the ground so big you can see the ad from the sky. This will give brands new exposure to a giant global audience through these massive digitally printed advertisements.

The first giant ad will be on display for 12 months in Dubai starting next month. After this, the company plans to have 42 sites in operation within the next year. The highest concentration of sites will be at London Heathrow and Dubai.

Ad-Air has spent the last five years researching and securing placement spots around the world's busiest airports. These include Paris, Madrid, Atlanta, Denver, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Beijing, and Bangkok. The plan is that each airport will have up to four placement sites.

According to the article, each advertisement will be held in a non-permanent frame just above ground level. They will be surrounded by fencing and landscaping to ensure that it is not a visible annoyance to local residents. To protect fertile land, the digital ads will be created out of a lightweight woven PVC mesh, which allows air and moisture through. This will decrease the environmental impact on land.

Ad-Air aims to reach a high quality audience of passengers. The best segment th
at will be reached through this new form of outdoor advertisement is the hard to reach business travelers who will be exposed at a moment when they have little to distract them.

In terms of cost, advertisers should expect to pay about $200,000 (£100,000) for production and $30,000 for installation. These numbers may seem absurdly high, but the number of passengers that could be exposed are even higher. For example, London Heathrow has had 67.5 million passengers pass through its terminals in the past year.

The article stresses that feedback from clients and agencies around the world has been extremely positive. I have to say I am not surprised. Advertising in this way is completely new and revolutionary. Marketers will be reaching their audience (millions of airline passengers) while they are free from the distraction of other marketing messages. This is a massive audience, bored with looking down at monotonous land below, who will be surprised to find a new creative billboard looking up at them. This will definitely expand into a powerful word-of-mouth campaign, which serves great to better reinforce the brand. If the creators can maintain their guarantees relating to the environment and the neighboring communities, then I think this plan could possibly pave the way to radical ideas in outdoor advertising. Digital advertisements you see from the sky while flying from London to do business in Dubai ... what next?

John Sharkey, Ad-Air chairman and former Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi, is extremely excited about the implications of this new form of outdoor advertising: “The launch of Ad-Air is one of those rare moments in advertising that really changes the face of the industry and the possibilities we can offer clients."

As the article notes, the kinks aren't all worked out yet: The ad areas are not floodlit, which effects exposure during the evening. This problem, they hope, will be addressed where legislation allows.

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