Thanks to a startup called Sojern, customers of some of the nation’s biggest airlines will soon see ads on the boarding passes that they print at home. Lets examine what that really means. Consumers will see advertising in a place where for the previous 50 years or so they did not see it. I have one question. What took so long!?!? Is there a more natural place for airlines to cross promote and sell advertising? I think not….a consumer books a trip to Orlando for instance, and then when they print their boarding passes they will see information and advertisements that they can react to at their destination. Pretty smart. And with the airlines hurting so badly it was an easy decision for them to participate in an opportunity where a new line of revenue was the result. Now, these ads are most likely for spur of the moment type things: restaurants, attractions, local weather, etc…
I have a message for the 6 airlines that are participating. HEY, LOOK OVER HERE. WRAPMAIL CAN PROVIDE THE SAME OPPORTUNITY!!! Every carrier sends emails to confirm travel plans. What better place than to cross promote and sell advertising. Same concept. Low barrier to entry and a new revenue opportunity. The main difference with WrapMail is the timing of the delivery of the message. With Sojern, the consumer will see the offers very close, if not on their travel date which right away eliminates hotels and car rental companies. With WrapMail, an airline could include ads in a confirmation email that arrives months prior to travel which opens more opportunities to sell advertising. More opportunity = more revenue.
Lets take it one step further. The scenario I describe above is related to automated confirmation emails. WrapMail could do the same thing in EVERY email from EVERY employee. Delta has 1,000’s of employees sending emails every day all day. Literally millions of potential impressions to potential consumers. All of which could rotate in every email – offers for hotels, concerts, attractions, car rentals, restaurants, museums, etc….The airlines are leaving a ton of money on the table.
Maybe we should call Sojern?
Dave Kustin – EVP Marketing, WrapMail
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