Mr Jetstream
You've got just a few mis-conceptions there. Innovation does not mean expensive. More than often part of the innovation is because of the low cost.
It's like the bookmakers who latched onto the fact the beer mats were a great vehicle for advertising in the 90s. Straight to target, minimal outlay.
Premium brand marketing can't be achieved by beer mats, posters or sponsoring the odd radio show, the latter being too regional in this country. There's not enough national penetration by commercial radio in the UK - it's all regionalised. Local commercial radio is well off Silverjet's target demographic too. Well off.
Back to my original example, Honda don't throw celebrities at their adverts. Their ads are laden with the brand too, from graphic logos to badge shots and audio references. Believe it or not, they're not overly expensive either. They undeniably make their customers feel smart, though, and Honda has repositioned itself alongside the likes of BMW and Mercedes and away from Ford, Renault and Vauxhall.
Sainsbury's did the same in the 90s, until they got complacent. They told us that they were a cut above Tesco and Safeway and were more of a premium M&S-esque brand, despite knocking out the same own-label stuff as the others from the same supplier base. They knew their market and their customers lapped it up.
Silverjet have a job to do. All the big airlines do. The advertising agencies need to re-define the genre. Airline ads are in danger of becoming monotonous. Fluffy clouds, opera singers, aerial shots... it's all too samey. They're cliche and in too much of a comfort zone, in the same way perfume and after-shave ads fell into a comfort zone with their black and white slo-mo semi-naked models whispering senseless guff like 'chase the day' at the camera. Tired and old. Worked once, but not any more.
For a premium brand, there needs to be style while reinforcing the brand, yet all the while retaining an element of value for money. Silverjet need to tell us that what they've got feels the best, looks the best and delivers in terms of cost, comfort, efficiency and style instead of jumping on the back of advertising by a company that they are considerably inferior to, in terms of a large swathe of their offering: network coverage.
Personally, I'd have saved the bold swipes at BA until I was out of nappies and had developed some momentum through innovation.
Silverjet picking a fight with BA is like putting David Beckham in the ring with Frank Bruno. David's undeinably pretty and is good at free kicks, but his all-round game's not what it could be. Frank's got shakey legs and some issues up top these days, but you can bet your arse he'll still knock the crap out of Becks because he's ten times the size and has got the hooks, the jabs and the jaw, all be they not what they used to be and fading fast.
And to avoid confusion, I'm not saying that BAs marketing is 'all that'. The ad in question did the job at the time, but I don't really recall many BA ads since then. Getting people talking about the brand is only one thing, and the saying 'all press is good press' is a myth. Lots of people talk about Picture Loans. We're aware of who they are and lots of people talk about their ads. Doesn't mean they're good.