Saturday Night
The pitch is a straightforward one: readers of Saturday Night magazine will be entitled to a free Sunday night at a hotel in Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa or Toronto when they book their first trip with Executive Airlines.
Travel
And they will be eligible to be one of 10 winners of one year’s worth of free Executive Airlines travel.
But there is more to the campaign than this.
First, as the new player in a highly competitive market, Executive Airlines needs to choose its advertising medium carefully.
By going with Saturday Night magazine, Executive Airlines conveys a credible, trustworthy and prestigious image to its precise target group.
Established quality
Saturday Night’s advertisers benefit from its established quality and its award-winning writing and art direction.
Add to that an audience comprising one of the highest concentrations of mopes (Managers, Owners, Professionals, Executives) of any medium, and the fact that 75% of Saturday Night’s upscale readers are located in the four cities served by Executive Airlines, and the campaign’s potential is clearly high.
But potential is nothing without execution. And the execution of this campaign is critical to maintaining a precise mix of credibility and perceived customer value.
The campaign would be launched with an eight-page insert detailing the mission and benefits behind Executive Airlines, with diagrams showing the special on-board facilities designed to meet the executive traveller’s every need, and a simple, but dramatic flight schedule.
As a magazine, Saturday Night offers an ideal setting for such detailed information – an environment in which the reader is likely to have the time, patience and interest to get all of the facts about Executive.
The launch of the eight-page insert would be accompanied by a special reader reply card detailing the added value of ‘A Free Sunday Night from Saturday Night and Executive Airlines.’
Practical value
This is intended to tip the scale towards the airline by offering the consumer something of practical value, without detracting from the quality positioning of Executive Airlines – no free tote bags here.
Readers would simply mail in the reader reply card, designed in the shape of an Executive Airlines boarding pass, to receive their hotel room voucher.
Cards would be individually numbered and respondents would automatically be eligible to win one of 10 prizes of one year’s free travel on Executive.
If desired by Executive, the offer could be tailored to specific destinations.
For instance, Toronto readers could be offered a free Sunday night in Vancouver, while Montreal readers could be offered a free Sunday night in Toronto.
As an added benefit for Executive, the respondents could be added to a mailing list for future promotional campaigns and offers.
The campaign would continue over the next five issues of Saturday Night, with double-page spreads restating the airline’s pitch.
The detail and length of the campaign would ensure that Saturday Night’s 550,000 readers received the Executive Airlines story in a credible and powerful manner.
Great flexibility
The campaign offers Executive great flexibility in that the creative may be changed from city to city.
As well, Saturday Night would provide additional copies of the magazine for in-flight readership by Executive Airlines travellers.
We would work with the airline to design an overwrap newsletter that could be presented as the Saturday Night Traveller, featuring editorial and Executive Airlines information.
The full campaign provides readers and Executive Airlines travellers with a variety of informative materials, including the in-flight magazine and newsletter, inserts, reader reply cards and hotel vouchers.
Benefits clear
The benefits for Executive and the traveller are clear.
Designated hotels would benefit from extensive promotion tied to a quality service, enabling them to fill otherwise empty Sunday night rooms.
Executive Airlines would pay for the eight-page insert and five subsequent double-page spreads, the overwrap newsletters, as well as the 10 grand prizes.
Saturday Night would pay for the reply cards and in-flight copies of the magazine. And the hotel would provide the rooms in return for extensive, no-cost advertising.
Other magazines
This concept could work in other magazines with upscale, urban readers, although Saturday Night’s concentration of readers in all four of Executive’s destination cities makes it the natural lead media vehicle.
Magazines are the ideal medium for the campaign for three reasons: they are the most targetted of all media, especially with respect to reaching upscale Canadians; they provide a credible and respected environment for the launch of a new service; and they have the flexibility to deliver many kinds of promotions, all within a highly read environment.
Saturday Night is published by Saturday Night Magazine, a subsidiary of Toronto-based Hollinger Inc.
