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Old (Classic) Slogan, "Come Fly the Friendly Skies Again", Returns to the New UNITED.

Old (Classic) Slogan, "Come Fly the Friendly Skies Again", Returns to the New UNITED.

Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:42 am
  #91  
 
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Just watched all four of the new commercials. (available at United Hub )

Liked the orchestra one the best, but the taxi one was clever too!
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:43 am
  #92  
 
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Originally Posted by UA Insider
Hi everyone,

Thanks for your (always honest!) feedback on our new ad campaign. As promised, we've posted much more information at this link on the United Hub, including additional videos and more background on the campaign. We'll also issue a news release in the next few minutes. Enjoy!

Aaron Goldberg
Sr. Manager - Customer Experience Planning
United Airlines
I'm trying to read the text to the left of the head of the pilot on the billboard.

It seems to say "whatever it takes"

Is that true?

Really?

Anyone who has actually flown UA knows that "there's nothing I can do" is the mantra of this organization now.

Go anywhere. Ask anyone. For anything.

The answer, from everyone, to everything, is always: "there's nothing I can do"
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:43 am
  #93  
 
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Interesting they are very specific that the targets of the campaign are the high yield customers and explicitly employees:

Mr. O’Toole said the campaign was aimed primarily at United’s “most frequent-traveling, high-yield customers,” as well as at employees “who will enable United to deliver exactly what we’re talking about. It sets an aspirational target for the customer experience United delivers.”

But television is such as wide reach medium for such a narrow target. I guess they figure the potential disappointment a 'regular' flyer faces when they don't fulfill on 'friendly' is OK.

Wish them well with it - there have been some service attitude improvements, but not yet close to the well oiled machine that's running at Delta. If Delta were to run this campaign it would be spot on.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:49 am
  #94  
 
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It is their new marketing campaign, "Flyer Friendly"


https://hub.united.com/en-us/flyerfr...s/default.aspx

Looks like a concerted effort to change the (well-deserved IMHO) perception that United is..... lets just say, not so friendly!
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:51 am
  #95  
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Originally Posted by aacharya
The picture is clearly that of a cockpit.

Are you now agreeing with us, or sticking with the "changes you will like" mantra?
both. agreeing that the twitter posting is about the ad campaign, and surmising the ad campaign will be another 'change i will like' or probably more accurately, change that will not change anything substantive about my experience on UA.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 9:56 am
  #96  
 
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^

FINALLY!

They may have gotten the message.

Even if these ads are more the ideal than the reality, at least United is finally putting its theme song and network to good use.

(Rhapsody in Blue always thrills me. It is uniquely theirs, and I am glad they are using it.)

I think that it was genius to rebrand "The Friendly Skies". It has become an advertising icon. I am glad that they are finally recognizing what the pre-merger United had - not just what pre-merger Continental has/had.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:09 am
  #97  
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Originally Posted by entropy
Its a reheated slogan, it goes along with the poor reheated food onboard...

I'd rather they fixed their awful changes and THEN brought the brand back.
Yup!

Originally Posted by demkr
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11A465 Safari/9537.53)

"wifi-friendly"--- This is an insult because its not even remotely close to the truth
e pluribus unum

And while the words and music may be pretty, afaic, it's all just fluff as (and yes, I'm being "over-entitled" ) CodbaUA has a long long long way to go to win back the hearts and minds of those who were loyal and have gotten "catch of the day'd*" since 3/3/12

*schrod
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:14 am
  #98  
 
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This whole debacle is going to make the most amazing case study for future MBA classes.

First, the pathetic "cut and paste" PowerPoint style branding ...

Then, the lying and cheating, and "changes you're going to like" ...

Then, the SHARES disaster ...

Then, the "war against customers" ...

And, now, they just pretend none of this happened, and do a "make believe" branding campaign?

What I find most interesting about this, and what I think is the point of failure, is the disconnect between the branding and the reality. Everyone knows it. It fools nobody. And, therefore, it's a waste.

First, they failed to do any proper branding or marketing for, what, about 3 years?

And, now, they launch what appears to be a decently thought out and designed campaign, but it fails anyway, because it's demonstrably false and totally disconnected with reality.

I've never seen anything like this.

What they should have done is to develop a thoughtful campaign with a budget > $5,000 *and* grounded that campaign in reality. It would have needed to start with an acknowledgement of failures and reality, and then a humble plea for customers to return, backed with reasons why they should return.

Anything that comes from this company and fails to acknowledge the current state of affairs or recent customer experience, just comes across to me as tone deaf and arrogant.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:15 am
  #99  
 
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Putting aside the question of whether there is a dichotomy between the campaign's reference to "Friendly Skies" and the reality facing travelers on UA in 2013 (I believe there is), I actually really liked the spot.

Part of it is that I've always loved RiB (it was my clarinet audition piece for my college's marching band), but mostly I think it's a good image spot. Now they need to back it up with substance, otherwise it will whiff badly.

People have been sort of tongue-in-cheek referencing the tulip. It's funny, though, when I look at the design features of the ad and the graphics on the website, I really don't see many references to the Globe.

Compare, by contrast, DL and how often you see the widget.

I could totally be imagining this (wishful thinking), but I wonder if we're in a transitional mode here from a design/branding standpoint, and we may see a new logo over the next year or two - it would not be hard to swap the Globe for, say, a new stylized tulip...

Greg
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:19 am
  #100  
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Kudos for bringing back the iconic slogan!

I enjoyed the taxi and the E+ ads. Now, let's see some print ads!
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:22 am
  #101  
 
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oh i didn't know there were four tv ads. just saw them, i actually thought they were pretty good. i would still peg the "new american" ad a little better, but this is worlds ahead of the p.s. ad we saw a few months ago. i do like the friendly theme that's (starting) to look like a semblance of a unified theme, something i think was sorely missing.

i did also like the taxi one, but i thought the E+/BF commercial was good too. in my opinion that ad is what the original p.s. ad should have been. it's also pretty clever when they draw the line connecting the friendly, it gives it a flight map theme, associates each item driving the theme all while doing it with a smiley face (it never arcs downwards).

i mean i get the airline has a ton of problems which have all been beaten over and over on this forum, and after the original p.s. ad there were posts saying there's no good branding and no theme. i'm not going to pretend the operational and service issues don't exist (i think it's clear they do) but it's nice to see this campaign start to roll out. it's a good start and hope they leverage it going forward to firmly establish the brand company-wide, and that's yet to be seen, but i think this is pretty solid as a marketing/branding exercise.
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:24 am
  #102  
 
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Originally Posted by fly18725
I like the campaign (and know I will be attacked for my opinion). This helps re-build the brand and allows United to promote areas where it adds value for frequent fliers (network, mainline hard product, employees) under a common tag line. As noted in the article, this is aspirational and there is real risk under delivers (as opposed to Delta, which literally has to not climb to fail at delivering on its tag line).

It is disappointing (but not unexpected) that so many are quick to disparage new branding - the very thing they've been demanding for so long.
First, I too like the ads. They are well done, attractive. Much better than the PS crap with the ice cream sunday, let alone the CO "we can take you to x on a RJ" campaign. But, its a wonderful shell with nice evocative images and underneath it is? What? A slogan that rings false and untruthful is never a good thing. Had they matched it with a roll-out of service improvements it would have been a good start on rebranding. But rebranding takes changes (for the better) you can tout, and I don't see UAL making any effort in that department.

Second, I find your happiness about this ad to be rather confusing... Weren't you just saying...

Originally Posted by fly18725
... Innovation and creativity have an important role in finding ways to run a leaner and more efficient operation. I wouldn't advocate pulling back advertising , but focusing on branding and advertising is not a good use of resources.
What a difference a day makes (another old slogan)...

Originally Posted by fly18725
I don't disagree with the premise, but I think the argument is a bit hollow considering that until today, the commonly held position on FlyerTalk was that management should have focused on advertising and branding, rather than dedicating efforts to integration and operations.

The Core of UA's Problems: No Innovation, No Creativity

Weak brand that is easily forgettable
When you participated in these threads you at a very basic level did not understand what UALs customers (and that is what folks on FT are) were saying.

I don't think a single person on this board has ever suggested that United should focus on just selling itself, rather people have commented that UAL needs something to sell, and a combo of Chase selling the "Your in" Geek (now replaced with some busty chick with a weird dimpled smile) with major down grades to service was not doing it.

The entire point of these threads was that a brand/advertisements needed to be linked to something, which (a) other than the Olymic ads, COdbaUAs ads were not, and (b) needed to reflect the reality that passengers are seeing and experiencing and as important hearing from others.

The "friendly skies" campaign is very powerful. It ranks in the top 100 advertising slogans of all time. http://www.taglineguru.com/survey05.html (here at 66). And the problem is that it conjures up a lot of memories and experiences. It is well known in adverting that using these type of old slogans is a major risk in that performance is measured against the expectation of the slogan/brand and what it meant in the past, and if not met product that might be acceptable is rejected. The American Car companies found this out to their detriment.

That UAL would chose to reach for this slogan now, without putting in place either a very solid operational performance and while still cutting product quality is just beyond me. It smacks of "what else can we do" and a fundamental amateurish view of advertising.

Does UALs current management actually think that associating the current UAL [with a goal of being on time 80% of the time, a fee based system of money raising, and its current (poor) soft product and ability to address IRROPS] will work? Do they think that the UAL they created matches the slogan? If so, then they are dumber than I thought.


Originally Posted by BearX220
A lot of us believe branding and marketing are intrinsic to the success of the airline, and find the events of the last two years tragic. But I don't think anyone here has argued that branding and marketing alone, decoupled from the actual customer experience, can redeem a bad airline. UA suffers from operational mediocrity, a demotivated and apparently undisciplined employee base, and an apparently adversarial view of customers, the example being set at the highest levels. Not terribly friendly, no matter what the ads say.
I agree, no one has said what the UAL defenders believe people believe, instead the strong view from former champions of UAL and UAL customers on this board is that UAL needs to improve it product and service and link it to a revamped brand/marketing.

Alas this move says to me that UAL's "savvy" management either actually believes they meet the "Friendly Skies" theme (which is scarey about how out of touch they must be) or believe they can put a storied brand of lipstick on this pig and no one will notice its a pig.

Last edited by spin88; Sep 20, 2013 at 10:29 am
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:29 am
  #103  
 
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Originally Posted by Karl-MDW
^

FINALLY!

They may have gotten the message.

Even if these ads are more the ideal than the reality, at least United is finally putting its theme song and network to good use.

(Rhapsody in Blue always thrills me. It is uniquely theirs, and I am glad they are using it.)

I think that it was genius to rebrand "The Friendly Skies". It has become an advertising icon. I am glad that they are finally recognizing what the pre-merger United had - not just what pre-merger Continental has/had.
I won't believe they have heard the message until the Service levels match the hype. IMO, bringing back this much beloved ad campaign appears to be an attempt to get more bookings in what is probably going to be a very slow fall (especially with the government funding issues). Given how many times we've been lied to (or mislead) in the past 18 months, I don't know why anyone here would believe anything UA says. Actions speak louder than advertising campaigns. I'll believe it when I see a change in the service.

Last edited by FlyingNut724; Sep 20, 2013 at 10:35 am
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:30 am
  #104  
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With a small royalty payment to NBC, they could probably adopt the tag-line from the 1981 SNL airline parody ad: "You feel like you never left the ground. Because we treat you like dirt."
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Old Sep 20, 2013, 10:30 am
  #105  
 
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Bring back the food trolley with chateaubriand and lobster in International First Class.
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