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For many brands, in-flight advertising is an effective way of getting the promotional message across at a rare time when the target audience has few other distractions. Paul Dixon, MD of iCD Research, considers how companies can exploit this promotion tool to best effect.

In-flight and airport advertising has been experiencing something of a quiet revolution; the sector has evolved from branded napkins, head-rests, cutlery and in-flight magazines to more innovative solutions such as airline tray-tables inset with printed advertisements.

Witness also the investment that HSBC has made in branding aircraft boarding bridges at airports including New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. Mircrosoft, Canon, Fujistu Siemens and HP have all gone skywards spending money in-flight to captivate customers in an often solus environment. In fact, this advertising sector has grown rapidly with revenues estimated to have exceeded $1billion in 2006.

Low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and Germanwings who use InviseoMedia's airline tray-tables inset with printed advertisements, are in the vanguard of the in-flight media revolution. Their business model depends on low operating costs and with high oil prices for the foreseeable future, revenue from providing the architecture to advertise on-board is a key income stream.

Is the Chavair label deserved?

Yet some brands have been reluctant to associate themselves with low-cost airlines, perceived principally as carriers of hen parties and football fans.  Some commentators feel that low cost airlines have democratised travel to the extent that audience quality has declined. Yet research that we carried out in 2007 amongst 1000 UK adults revealed that Ryanair carried a greater proportion of ABC1 profile traffic during a six-month period than British Airways. Moreover, 30 per cent of Ryanair's passengers cite business as their reason of travel.

The proportion of business travellers using low cost carriers I believe is set to increase. The uncertain outlook for the UK economy will encourage more business travel budgets to be diverted to low-cost carriers particularly for short-haul and domestic flights. The combination of low fairs, frequency and intense competition between the UK's principal budget airlines, should prove irresistible to business travel budget holders.

Can in-flight be influential?

Research into in-flight media in particular, where B2B brands have unprecedented time and ability to influence customers reveals some interesting findings. Sony Ericsson recently conducted independent research during an in-flight media campaign that highlighted several startling results: customers' spontaneous brand recall; their understanding of the advertising message and their product purchase intentions were superior, compared with traditional forms of advertising.

When asked whether they had seen any advertising at the airport or during the flight, respondents ranked the in-flight Sony Ericsson ad first with an astonishing 28 per cent unprompted recall rate, an unprecedented figure when compared with the low single digit per cent most other media options command.

When asked, "Do you pay more attention to in-flight rather than airport advertising?", 58 per cent of respondents answered positively, a figure further endorsed when 25 per cent of respondents said they were likely or highly likely to purchase the Sony Ericsson product.

Big users of in-flight media tend to be brands from the IT, telecoms, financial services and automotive sectors. In-flight is the perfect medium to communicate often complex, high-ticket propositions using copy-heavy ads, as passengers have little else to do during the flight but to read the communication. Because of this, in-flight advertising is a premium advertising medium. Marketers using the cost per thousand metric may flinch at the price, yet this reaction should be tempered by the extraordinary length of time your ad will have with the audience.

A note of caution however: when advertising in-flight, a common mistake made by some creative agencies is to reuse a press ad that is often very light on copy and essentially no more than a name check for the brand. If your ad is going to be displayed in front of someone for at least 40 minutes, be brave and take the time to expand upon your proposition and use this unprecedented dwell time to engage the audience fully.

Another important development to note is the growth in domestic-focused low cost carriers such as the UK's Flybe. Following its acquisition of BA Connect, Flybe carried 7.5 million mainly British passengers in 2007, presenting national B2B brands the opportunity to advertise to a national audience. ARAG, XING and HRS although not well known brands in the UK, frequently use Germanwings to reach their domestic audiences.

How to make in-flight work

• National brands should consider low-cost domestic carriers that carry mainly a domestic audience to avoid advertising wastage
• Create a specific ad for in-flight passengers that uses the extended dwell time effectively
• Link the creative execution to the in-flight environment for increased relevance
• Use in-flight for premium products, as almost 75 per cent of passengers are from the highest social groups and according to research, spend an average of €510 when travelling
• Take advantage of the aircraft seating by having different ads in different seats to tell a story about your brand.

Greater interactivity

In-flight media is also likely to become much more interactive. From 2008 several airlines will allow passengers to use mobile phones during the flight.  Recent trials carried out by Qantas found that business travellers were delighted to be able to use their mobiles to receive data and SMS. The overwhelming majority of business passengers felt it would allow them to use their time more effectively. Imagine then the opportunities for B2B brands to display direct response ads to a captive and upscale business audience who have a considerable amount of free time on their hands.

So in this age of message clutter, in-flight media is certainly able to captivate, engage and interact with a premium audience. To have the greatest impact, in-flight advertising will of course form part of a larger multi-layered campaign.  The only problem it would seem is having a message interesting enough to engage for 40 minutes.