AirTran advertising?
 

I've noticed that AirTran advertising has largely disappeared here in Milwaukee just in the past few weeks. In recent years, AirTran has had a steady, ongoing diet of outdoor advertising and television commercials here. Especially notable has been a heavy rotation of AirTran ads on high-profile electronic billboards, and those seem to be gone. I think at least some of the static billboards are still up (though at least one is gone) but perhaps if those are also ending it takes longer for those to expire and be replaces. And I have not noticed an AirTran commercial on local TV in a few weeks as well, although that's hard to know for sure.

Anyone else see this where they are? I'm not sure if AirTran's advertising was as frequent and dense elsewhere as it was here, so perhaps a change might not be so noticable.

There does not seem to be any increase in Southwest advertising here at this point. Southwest is in negotiations with the Brewers to potentially take over the AirTran Landing Zone sponsorship at Miller Park, which i think Newsmanhoss already reported thought I can't find it this morning. (The Brewers will only confirm that it won't be AirTran Landing next year but won't confirm the entity or entities looking to replace AirTran Landing -- it had been sponsorded by Mercedees Benz prior to 2009) When Southwest started MKE-DEN and took over MKE-STL from AirTran/Skywest in September, Southwest did a great deal of radio advertising about the new flights, but since then their ad spending seems to have been thin here too. However that might be "normal".

(a) Is this part of a broad wind-down of AirTran advertising? If so, perhaps they are going to start joint advertising and possibly co-branding sooner rather than later.

(b) Is this a Milwaukee-only cut, signaling something about Milwaukee? It could be that MKE is less competitive and not worth focused advertising. That makes some sense in that Frontier is less of a competitor than it was. But on the other hand in the past several months AirTran's electronic advertising has been mostly in markets not served nonstop by Frontier (MKE-LAX, MKE-SFO, MKE-FLL in summer, etc), so it does not seem to have been Frontier-focused. Another possibility if it is MKE-only is that the amount of money AirTran has been sending to MKE advertising may far outweigh the importance of MKE in the combined Southwest system. I spend a lot of time in KC, which is a busier market than WN+FL in MIlwaukee, and there's far less WN money spent there than FL money here.

Has anyone else noticed pullbacks to AirTran's advertisting?

Hmm. I think I've still seen the electronic billboards for FLL (Get some sand in your suit), but now that you mention it, I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if I still see them.

Yeah, my mention of the Miller Park AirTran Landing Zone is in the "Southwest to buy AIRTRAN" thread. I didn't know where else to post it, and that's where the landing zone was mentioned earlier, so that's where I put my update on it.

Some advertising presence in MKE would still help if FL/WN wants to keep putting pressure on F9, but they really don't compete on as many routes anymore, and advertising isn't cheap for heavy rotation like FL was doing on its own.

Yeah, please do. I remember them in early December but I think they've since disappeared.

Although I don't know how much advertising money has been spent in other AirTran cities -- much less what other airlines do elsewhere -- their Milwaukee outdoor ad campaign seems (seemed?) especially dense and long-lived. When I travel elsewhere, airline billboards seem confined to promotion of new service and/or near an airport. I would guess some of the billboards used by them for years (especially those approaching the Marquette interchange southbound and the zoo interchange eastbound) are among the costliest ones in metro Milwaukee. If they are in fact done, I'm sure their spending will be missed.

I noticed today that two more iconic AirTran billboards are gone in Milwaukee -- the big one over the Zoo Interchange facing west/north, and the one on the airport spur. Both of these have been AirTran for several years. The last long-term AirTran billboard left in MKE I'm aware of is southbound over the Highrise Bridge. I'm guessing that will go when it cycles through its contract.

THis is the first time in decades that the MKE airport spur has zero airline billboards. No AirTran, no Frontier, and certainly no Southwest.

A non-MKE item of note on this front is that the February SkyGuide (pocket airline flight schedule) has no AirTran advertising -- again, something which has been a mainstay for years on the front or back cover, or inside the front cover.

Anybody know if there's any active AirTran advertising, or if it's stopped everywhere? It generally makes sense to stop pusing the AirTran brand except that they have done (nearly) nothing yet to tie Southwest's name and image to AirTran yet, and they keep saying AirTran won't totally disappear until 2014.

Of course maybe we're just around the corner from lots of Southwest branding going onto AirTran flights. But that's what I thought months ago and there isn't any headway in that front.

There were still a few television spots airing late last year. Those appear to have disappeared.

It appears things could be starting to transition toward WN advertising, at least here in MKE.

I went to JSOnline tonight, and it's plastered with Southwest ads touting the new nonstops that were just announced.

After quite a long period of time without any AirTran spots running in the MKE market, possibly for 7 or 8 months, a new ad aired during tonight's Brewers' telecast. Thankfully, it looks like AirTran's old ad agency is gone; those commercials were the most sophomoric!

The new ad is promoting the current sale, which runs thru next Friday.

I'll have to keep an eye out for it -- I have to admit that I don't watch as many games since the bullpen can't seem to hold any sort of lead.

Anyone in other cities see AirTran ads return?

Everything did seem to disappear quite a few months back...billboards cycled off, commercial stopped, long-time ad purchase in national travel magazines stopped. I wonder if this ad buy on the Brewers broadcast is something dictated by the sponsorships WN/FL have with them? That could explain it, or if could be a sign that they've reversed course and decided to sink money into AirTran advertising again. With the very last of the 717's not leaving until 2015, and word that the 717's will never join the fleet of Southwest itself, the AirTran name isn't disappearing soon.

The peculiar thing about the timing of AirTran ads in Milwaukee is that they will be shrinking rapidly over the next few months as Southwest takes over most AirTran flying here. A solid chunk switches in August, and much of the rest in early November. To start pushing the AirTran name again right before it's going to shink substantially is a bit odd.

Similar AirTran ads have been running here in Atlanta to promote the current fare sale. Apparently Delta hasn't seen them because they aren't matching AirTran's fares this time around. :(

What's even more odd is the Frontier sponsorship of the radio coverage of the Brewers' games. I imagine that the contract was locked in, prior to the major cutbacks at MKE.

I've seen more user targeted Airtran internet ads while surfing as well.