Source: NY Times
Author: Jane Levere

AFTER almost a 20-year hiatus, United Airlines is once again urging travelers to “fly the friendly skies.”

The iconic tagline, created by Leo Burnett in 1965 and used by the carrier until it parted ways with the agency in 1996, has been resurrected in a multimedia ad campaign by McGarryBowen that is United’s largest in decades. The campaign also features George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” music United has been using continuously in advertising since 1987.

The campaign — which begins Sunday on broadcasts of N.F.L. football games; the PGA Tour championship; the season premiere of “60 Minutes” and the Emmy Awards program — contains a refreshed, 21st-century version of the tagline.

United is now telling travelers it is everything from “legroom friendly” and “online friendly” to “shut-eye friendly” and “EWR friendly,” which refers to the hub of Continental Airlines at Newark Liberty International Airport, which United inherited when the two airlines merged in 2010 to create the world’s largest carrier in terms of passenger traffic.

Burnett came up with the “fly the friendly skies” tagline in the mid-1960s when it was pitching United’s business. One famous iteration was a TV spot in which wives urged their husbands to “take me along” on business trips, while one print ad featured six United employees, identified by name and position, who urged readers to “come fly with me, and me, and me, and me, and me, and me.”

After United and Continental — whose agency was the Kaplan Thaler Group — merged, McGarryBowen, New York, part of the Dentsu Aegis Network unit of Dentsu, became United’s agency in 2011.

Tom O’Toole, United’s senior vice president for marketing and loyalty, said United had opted to return to the Burnett tagline because it wanted to “re-establish United’s position as the world’s leading” customer-focused airline.

He called the timing of its reintroduction “a convergence of a series of advances.” Since 2010, United has completed installation of premium-cabin flatbed seats on select international flights, expanded its economy-plus seating, improved its on-time performance and invested in new customer service training programs for all customer-contact employees.

“The real aim” of the new advertising, Mr. O’Toole said, is to “say to customers, co-workers and competitors that United is back in the game in a big way.”

One TV spot features musicians playing “Rhapsody in Blue” and shows space available in various classes and in overhead bins, as well as United employees in the cockpit and cabin. The voice-over is provided by the actor Matt Damon, who also did the voice-over on United’s 2012 summer Olympics TV advertising.

One print ad shows a man rushing into his home, arms outstretched, to greet his children. The copy says, “Right place, right time-friendly. Fly on your schedule with over 5,000 daily flights. Fly the friendly skies. United.com/flyerfriendly.”

Besides TV and print, media used by the campaign will include radio; outdoor, including in airports; digital; and social media, all with messages promoting United as “friendly.” All advertising except radio features an abstract route map, one leg of which has a dot at each end that could be interpreted as a smiley face.

Gordon Bowen, chairman and chief creative officer of McGarryBowen, said this design was inspired by the logo United adopted when it merged with Continental, whose own logo was a globe.

Mr. O’Toole said the campaign was aimed primarily at United’s “most frequent-traveling, high-yield customers,” as well as at employees “who will enable United to deliver exactly what we’re talking about. It sets an aspirational target for the customer experience United delivers.”

He said United would spend more than $30 million in advertising air travel in the fourth quarter and maintain the same level of spending next year, when it will sponsor the United States Olympic team at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He called these expenditures the carrier’s “largest in decades.”

According to Kantar Media, in recent years, United has spent from $4.3 million in 2009 to $43.9 million in 2012 to advertise air travel.

Both Michael Derchin, an airline analyst at CRT Capital, and Michael Linenberg, who follows the airline industry for Deutsche Bank, commended United on the timing of the new campaign. “It’s particularly important now because of the service problems they had last year, with the integration of United’s and Continental’s computer systems,” Mr. Derchin said. “They had horrendous on-time performance problems and consumer complaints.”

David Reibstein, who teaches marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, predicted the new campaign would be “more efficient” for United since many travelers will recall the old tagline.

Marty Kohr, a lecturer in integrated marketing communications at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, said it was “very smart” for McGarryBowen to update the “friendly skies” concept.

Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst for Hudson Crossing, called the campaign “a very bold move for United,” but said the advertising carried “the risk of failure: If passengers don’t see United fulfilling its promise of being a ‘user-friendly’ airline, the advertising will be seen as hollow and will backfire.”

Tim Winship, publisher of FrequentFlier.com, a Web site on travel loyalty programs, was dismissive of the campaign, calling “friendly skies” “so last century. In 2013, the skies are anything but friendly, and to suggest otherwise is to insult the intelligence of consumers and invite their scorn.”