Delta launched a new national and local
advertising campaign May 7 to give itself a post-bankruptcy boost,
capping a week of events that followed its April 30 emergence.
The multimillion
dollar campaign will include local ads in the key markets of
Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles and will involve television
spots, billboards and online and print media, including lifestyle
magazines such as Conde Nast Traveler, Golf Digest and Vanity
Fair.
The New York blitz
will include ads at bus shelters and phone kiosks, branded subway
trains and subway station "domination."
May 7 is the
official kickoff date, although Delta also ran an ad in the Wall
Street Journal May 3 to promote its return to trading that day on
the New York Stock Exchange.
The campaign does
not include a tag line, but it is titled "Change," as in, "Delta
means change" and "change means signature cocktails at 30,000
feet," Delta spokesman Andy McDill said.
The focus, he said,
will be on how Delta is "changing the travel experience." That will
include its new check-in kiosks and Web site improvements, services
such as on-demand entertainment on its transcontinental flights,
celebrity chef-prepared menus on international business class and
upgrades to airport lounges and other airport
facilities.
"It's not anything
that we're over-promising," McDill said. "These are things that
customers already are experiencing."
The TV ad debuting
May 7, however, will be a bit different. The ad, which will run for
one to two months, focuses on what would have happened if Delta had
not emerged from Chapter 11, McDill said. It will show empty Delta
gates, talk about the airlines that didn't make it out of
bankruptcy in the past, and explain why Delta did.
The ad campaign
comes after an event-filled week for Delta, which sought maximum
exposure for its emergence from bankruptcy.
It began April 30
with a ceremony in an Atlanta airport hangar in front of nearly
10,000 raucous employees to unveil its new corporate brand image,
its 20th in 79 years.
Delta CEO Jerry
Grinstein opened the ceremonies by announcing Delta had officially
emerged from bankruptcy and telling employees, "This is your
triumph."
With U2's
"Beautiful Day" blaring in the background, Delta leaders then
unveiled the first 757 with the new brand image incorporated into
its livery.
Delta describes
that livery on the tail as a "red 'widget' icon flying across a
blue background," which replaces a red and blue "flowing fabric"
design. The widget itself, with the familiar "delta-shaped
triangle," will be entirely red when displayed separately instead
of the current red and blue.
The new brand will
appear on more than 900 Delta and Delta Connection aircraft, in
more than 300 airports, on Delta's Web site and in all of its
advertising and printed material, and it went up overnight on
Delta's Web site and at several of its key airports. Delta said it
expected to update all of its airport signage by the end of 2007
and to repaint its entire fleet within four years.
Delta said the new
brand identifier "honors Delta's heritage while at the same time
reflecting a modern look for an airline that is focused on the
overall customer experience."
The new design also
will be less expensive in the long run because it halves the number
of paint colors and shades and requires fewer paint layers, which
also reduces aircraft weight.
Delta's emergence
celebration continued May 1 with an executive barnstorming tour,
traveling on one of the newly painted aircraft to Delta's key
cities for meetings with employees and local
dignitaries.
On May 3,
Grinstein, CFO Edward Bastian and COO Jim Whitehurst rang the
opening bell on Wall Street as shares of the company's new common
stock began trading on the NYSE under the DAL ticker
symbol.
The executives rang
the bell remotely, from Delta's redesigned international check-in
lobby at the Atlanta airport, and DAL opened at $21.75. Following
the opening bell, Delta executives, employees, customers and guests
flew to New York, traveling aboard a 757 with the new livery and
the NYSE logo.
They went to New
York for a "customer recognition" luncheon at the stock exchange
that included its marketing and distribution vice presidents and
"key customers and partners" such as American Express, Carlson
Wagonlit, Travelocity and the National Business Travel
Association.
They also rang the
closing bell at the exchange, where DAL closed at
$20.72.
To
contact reporter Andrew Compart, send e-mail to [email protected].