Aer Lingus officially joins the Oneworld global alliance of airlines today, which means it can participate in a $35 million (€37.6 million) global marketing communications campaign created by M&C Saatchi, Temerlin McClain, Claydon Heeley and agency.com.
Up to $500,000 will be spent in the Irish market over the next six months, initially on a "welcome Aer Lingus" segment, followed by an extensive consumer benefits campaign.
Aer Lingus and LanChile are the latest members of the alliance formed last year which includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Iberia and Finnair.
The campaign is mostly print, with some outdoor as well as online advertising. Print was chosen over television because of the logistics of translating the campaign into the 15 languages used by alliance members.
A further reason for choosing print is that the campaign targets almost exclusively business travellers and frequent flyers so the ads, which feature black-and-white portraits of business types, will appear in 200 newspapers and business-related magazines.
There is also a significant direct mail component and the 170,000 members of Aer Lingus's frequent flyers' TAB club will be receiving mail shots advising them of the consumer benefits of the alliance.
"There are a number of airline services such as transit lounges that used to fall into the category of nice to do, rather than need to do," says Mr Declan Conroy of media relations manager at Aer Lingus.
"That's changed now, particularly for business travellers." Air Lingus will stress the Oneworld benefit of access to 340 lounges in member-airlines. Another benefit featuring in the marketing campaign will be the linking of frequent flyer programmes, with members able to earn and then cash in their air miles with any of the eight member airlines. Alliance membership also allows Aer Lingus to offer new products such as round-the-world tickets.
Last year, in its first year in operation, member airlines carried almost 200 million passengers - equivalent to one in 30 of the world's population. In branding terms, however, Aer Lingus is playing down the David and Goliath aspect of the alliance. Instead, the company is confident of retaining its identity within the group and believes the Oneworld signage and corporate identity which lists the eight members will bring the Aer Lingus name to places it has never been before.
"What it means is that when you check in at any of the 550 destinations which the alliance serves, you'll see the Aer Lingus name behind the desk, whether it's in Kalamazoo or Hong Kong," says Mr Conroy.
The company also believes there is a further benefit for Ireland Inc. Acting Aer Lingus group chief executive Mr Larry Stanley said alliance membership would deliver significant benefits to its customers and the Irish economy by providing greatly improved access.
"Our customers will now be able to gain benefits on a worldwide scale. Exposing the Irish market to this massive global audience will reap benefits for Ireland beyond the normal tourism and commercial business markets".
Bernice Harrison can be contacted at bharrison@irish-times.ie
