Opinions about Ted

United Airlines has launched a "guerilla marketing" campaign for their
new low-cost subsidiary. They call it "Ted". Get it?

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/trav...27/detail.html

When they're done right, these types of campaigns are pure gold. But
for every successful "Blair Witch Project" campaign there are numerous
Miller Beer "****" and Burger King "Herb" campaigns.

In the interest of discussion, any opinions on Ted?

On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 17:03:29 +0000, Lou Minatti wrote:

>
> United Airlines has launched a "guerilla marketing" campaign for their new
> low-cost subsidiary. They call it "Ted". Get it?
>
> http://www.thedenverchannel.com/trav...27/detail.html
>
> When they're done right, these types of campaigns are pure gold. But for
> every successful "Blair Witch Project" campaign there are numerous Miller
> Beer "****" and Burger King "Herb" campaigns.
>
> In the interest of discussion, any opinions on Ted?

Do you have any examples of these types of campaigns that worked? I can
only think of Jared from Subway - any others?

The reason Jared worked where "****" and "Herb" didn't is that Jared was a
real person, who experienced just what the target market did. Jared isn't
a spokesman - he's your next door neighbor giving a refferal!

**** and Herb were obviously created in a marketing department. Jared is
real. Ted is another marketing creation. And people don't get emotionaly
attached to marketing the way they do real people.

Ted may find some initial success. People will be curious. Then they
will realize that it's just another airline and that for $5 more on
priceline.com they could have got peanuts with their flight.

I don't think airlines have a very good handle on image. When I purchase
a flight I want to know the plane isn't going down in the Pacific and that
I could afford the flight. Everything else is detail. If I flew all the
time other "extras" would appeal to me - elbow and leg room, comfortable
seats, Internet connection, etc.

But Ted just seems to be a cheap, jeans and t-shirt kinda guy with a
slightly intriguing sense of humor. Maybe the price will be low enough to
draw people after they get curious enough to look into it.

Maybe.

-JD

"John Doe" <a4a@1086.org> wrote in message
news:<boopiv01g7n@enews4.newsguy.com>...
> On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 17:03:29 +0000, Lou Minatti wrote:
>
> >
> > United Airlines has launched a "guerilla marketing" campaign for their new
> > low-cost subsidiary. They call it "Ted". Get it?
> >
> > http://www.thedenverchannel.com/trav...27/detail.html
> >
> > When they're done right, these types of campaigns are pure gold. But for
> > every successful "Blair Witch Project" campaign there are numerous Miller
> > Beer "****" and Burger King "Herb" campaigns.
> >
> > In the interest of discussion, any opinions on Ted?
>
> Do you have any examples of these types of campaigns that worked? I can
> only think of Jared from Subway - any others?

Other than Blair Witch (brilliant, IMO) and Jared, not off the top of
my head. I'm sure there are other examples out there. Good guerilla
campaigns are fantastic in that they produce amazing results for
little (relatively speaking) money.

> The reason Jared worked where "****" and "Herb" didn't is that Jared was a
> real person, who experienced just what the target market did. Jared isn't
> a spokesman - he's your next door neighbor giving a refferal!
>
> **** and Herb were obviously created in a marketing department. Jared is
> real. Ted is another marketing creation. And people don't get emotionaly
> attached to marketing the way they do real people.
>
> Ted may find some initial success. People will be curious. Then they
> will realize that it's just another airline and that for $5 more on
> priceline.com they could have got peanuts with their flight.

I agree 100%. UAL's target for Ted appears to be 20-30 year olds who
are tech savvy. These people can easily scour the Web looking for
better deals. They've been doing so for years. High-dollar business
people and wealthy travelers aren't going to be attracted with this
campaign, which appears to be deliberately stupid.

> I don't think airlines have a very good handle on image. When I purchase
> a flight I want to know the plane isn't going down in the Pacific and that
> I could afford the flight. Everything else is detail. If I flew all the
> time other "extras" would appeal to me - elbow and leg room, comfortable
> seats, Internet connection, etc.

The Southwest Factor will continue to grow, and high-cost airlines
like UAL better figure out ways to cut costs while still appealing to
the limited number of people who are still willing to pay lots of
money to fly. Southwest is a lot like Walmart, when you come to think
of it.

> But Ted just seems to be a cheap, jeans and t-shirt kinda guy with a
> slightly intriguing sense of humor. Maybe the price will be low enough to
> draw people after they get curious enough to look into it.
>
> Maybe.

Personally, I think it's just pathetic. Here's their web site:
http://www.meetted.com

Yes, that's what United is betting their future on. (The domain was
registered by UAL's advertising agency, in case you're wondering.)
They even use a Hotmail address for responses!

I said:

"Personally, I think it's just pathetic. Here's their web site:
http://www.meetted.com

Yes, that's what United is betting their future on. (The domain was
registered by UAL's advertising agency, in case you're wondering.)
They even use a Hotmail address for responses!"

Correction. Someone on another newsgroup did a DNS lookup (not sure
how these things work) and the site is hosted on UAL's ad agency's
server.

lame.