Marketing and all things related

InterAir Media provides in-flight marketing and media placement services.  On Thanksgiving weekend, they rolled out a new type of in-flight advertising with ads on the exteriors of planes.  The ad will be placed on or near the airplane's door where passengers will see it as they board.

This ad placement is restricted to Skybus airplanes, and it includes a package of ad spots:

• A 12"x12" ad showing the advertiser's name, logo and tagline on or near the airplanes door where passengers board.
• 4"x8" seatback cards that will show the advertiser's logo and a paragraph about the advertiser.
• The advertiser is mentioned by the flight crew during takeoff and arrival messages.

Just under 25,000 passengers travel on Skybus each month.  Advertisers can purchase this ad package for $2,082 per aircraft per month with a minimum buy of 6 aircraft for 6 months plus production costs.  Advertisers could also purchase additional ad space on beverage carts or overhead bins, but those placements are not part of this package and would require an additional investment. 

The total amount of time passengers are exposed to the ads is estimated at 30 seconds for visual ads and 10 seconds for audio mentions of the advertiser.  Additionally, 15% of the fee for the ads goes to charity, so InterAir Media calls advertisers who participate in this program 'sponsors'.

One last thing, the ads are available on planes in any market where Skybus operates including, New York, Boston, Hartford, Richmond, Ft. Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, New Orleans, Gulfport-Biloxi, Chattanooga, Milwaukee, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Columbus, Greensboro, Vancouver and Kansas City.

So what do you think?  Does this kind of advertising sound effective or capable of delivering an adequate ROI?  I'm leaning towards no.