This article for India's Economic Times by Preiti Sharma Shahane discusses global perspectives about in-flight advertising.
It doesn't take much to attract the attention of a bored airline passenger - after all, who could be more receptive than an audience that's literally bound to its seats? As ads get ever more ubiquitous, the inflight marketer can pick from display areas at airport lounges, branded boarding passes, ticket cases, baggage tags, head-rests, brochures and mailers in seat pockets, menus, food tray mats, F&B items... quite apart from the traditional in-flight magazines.
We think the take-away from this thorough piece is that branding is important for middle class marketers, regardless of altitude.
IFE reader Noah Kagan pointed us to this Washington Post piece a few months ago, Cash-Strapped Airlines Try In-Flight Advertising by Keith L. Alexander.
Marketing now follows potential customers into the skies. In the airline industry's newest way to drum up revenue, carriers have become aggressive pitchmen for a range of products to passengers at 30,000 feet. The airlines say the ad revenue helps in these tough financial times. But some passengers liken the pitches to ads in a movie theater before the main feature.
"It's worse than the idea of cell phones in flights," said frequent flier Sylvia Caras of Santa Cruz, Calif.
Bite your tongue...
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