Wirraway
11th Aug 2004, 16:15
Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"
Singapore returns to the girl who serves
By Scott Rochfort
August 12, 2004
She has made millions smile since 1974 and next month she'll be dusted off to spearhead Singapore Airlines's first Australian television advertising campaign in two years.
While Qantas will attempt to tap into the Olympics-fuelled groundswell of patriotic fervour through its I Still Call Australia Home ad series, her return will remind us that, when it comes to customer service, Singapore Girl reigns.
Gone are the sepia tones of previous campaigns; the new Singapore Girl would be more "contemporary looking" and appear in locales around the world, including Sydney, the airline said.
"We did our own focus groups and something that does continue to stand out is the Singapore girl and the representation of the excellent in-flight services she provides," said the airline's Australian manager for passenger marketing, Dale Woodhouse.
Singapore Air will spend up to $1 million on its campaign, which coincides with the airline increasing flights to Australia to 80 a week, up from the 55 during last year's SARS crisis.
In an attempt to blunt Qantas's current SkyBed campaign featuring rugby union heroes, Singapore Air is already reminding consumers it has beds on all of its long-range aircraft.
"Qantas launched [SkyBed] in a big way but didn't have the product on their aircraft," Mr Woodhouse said.
Having finished the refit all of its 747-400 and 777 long-range aircraft during last year's SARS crisis, Singapore Air launched a print campaign three months ago highlighting that all of its flights from Australia to Europe were equipped with the new Raffles Class Spacebed.
But almost a year into its SkyBed campaign, Qantas says the product is now "fully embodied" on its London route. The airline also started to fly SkyBed-fitted Airbus 330s to Hong Kong this week and expects to have its Los Angeles-bound aircraft fitted by the end of the year.
Qantas said it would spend $385 million upgrading its fleet of 30-odd Boeing 747-400s with SkyBeds and other enhancements, such as mood lighting.
Marketing manager Martin McKinnon said: "You've got to invest in your brands and when you have these things like SkyBeds you have to talk about them."
Air New Zealand is also preparing its first TV commercial campaign in Australia since the collapse of its subsidiary Ansett - and nearly itself - in late 2001.
The airline's general manager for Australia, Michael Reed, said the rebranding would represent a "substantial" lift in the airline's advertising budget and focus on trans-Tasman traffic.
Despite a 17 per cent lift in passenger traffic on Air NZ flights since late last year, there is no doubt that Air NZ is determined to prevent the entries of Emirates Airlines and Pacific Blue from spoiling its - and Qantas's - domination of the route.
Given Air NZ will not start phasing in its own beds, and its new premium class and super economy class, until 2005, Mr Reed said: "It won't be the premium brand that we are promoting."
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Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"
Qantas pays up to be first at Games
August 12, 2004
The Flying 'Roo has clinched the first ad spot in the opening ceremony, writes Julian Lee.
As advertising spots go, they don't come much bigger than the first one in the first commercial break in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and Seven and Qantas are banking on a record-breaking number of eyeballs on Saturday to set the pace for the Olympic fortnight.
Qantas has been confirmed as taking the first spot in the telecast, known as the first of the first, as the debut for its new advertising extravaganza, which reportedly cost $10 million to make.
The ad will be seen by millions of Australian viewers in the early hours of Saturday morning and again during the repeat broadcast eight hours later. Solus spots - breaks devoted to one advertiser - for LG and Holden for its new Commodore will follow later in the program.
The Qantas ad, by Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, has been months in the making and cost more than the budget of Australian feature films such as The Castle, Lantana and The Dish.
Companies that paid $4 million to be a top-tier Olympic broadcast sponsor were given the right to dominate one of three 120-second solus spots which, according to sources, were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
But to get category exclusivity and secure the position, Qantas is understood to have paid a $200,000 premium.
"I guess it's worth what Qantas thinks it's worth, it's a matter of pride as much as anything else," says Mike Porter, chief executive of media buying agency Mediaedge:cia. "While Telstra could afford that there certainly isn't another airline that could."
For Qantas, being first is everything and its executives are hoping to replicate the impact that the Westpac ad had in the opening ceremony in 2000.
Sydney Games organisers relaxed the rules to allow an ad break minutes into the ceremony for the first time and Westpac snapped up the opportunity to get the exposure. A record 10.4 million Australians tuned in to the broadcast and saw Westpac's seminal ad showing parents of Australian Olympians proclaiming "I can do that". It was the most-watched program in Australian television history.
"That was not the time to try and sell a home loan to the country. They did the right thing and the ad struck a chord," says Paul Fishlock, chief executive of the agency that created it, the Campaign Palace, which was suddenly and inexplicably sacked two years later.
The kudos and publicity the ad generated for Westpac were incalculable and Seven too basked in the reflected glory - one reason some in the industry believe the network should waive the premium for the right ad.
"That's if the quality is good enough. It has to be more than a Harvey Norman ad. A lot more," says Steve Allan of Fusion Strategy, who is predicting an average rating of 17 per cent of the population for the Games.
Samsung, Red Rooster, Telstra, Sorbent and, more surprisingly, retailers such as Target, David Jones and Bunnings - all keen to steal a march on their rivals by taking such a high-profile spot close to Father's Day - will feature in four-minute breaks during the opening ceremony program.
Although no one, least of all Seven, expects to beat the 2000 figures, network executives are hoping it, along with subsequent "moments", can match that other record-breaking moment in Olympian television, when Kieren Perkins's gold medal in Atlanta pulled in 3.4 million viewers for the five main cities.
Seven network sales director James Warburton says he doesn't want to forecast viewing figures for the two weeks but, as a "conservative" guide, Barcelona in 1992, which averaged more than 50 per cent of all viewers for Seven, are benchmarks. "We'd rather not average it out as it's about peaks and troughs," he says. "If you give averages, then that could be seen as some sort of guarantee, which is not really reflective."
If anything, he says, the timing of the programming is better than Atlanta in 1996, when the Sunrise program gave viewers the latest Olympics results, and on a par with Barcelona. "We are going to have 100 medals being contested by Aussies in prime time," he says.
Total Advertising & Communications chief executive Barry O'Brien predicts Seven might have as much as 60 per cent of the commercial audience, which would beat Atlanta, Barcelona and most definitely Seoul - the low point, despite the Games falling in the Australian time zone.
What ratings the Games achieves is anyone's guess; Atlanta, which was shown largely on delay, scored some of the highest peaks in Seven's Olympics history. When Ian Thorpe splashes into the pool at 5am on Tuesday, Seven is expecting a similar spike.
========================================
Singapore returns to the girl who serves
By Scott Rochfort
August 12, 2004
She has made millions smile since 1974 and next month she'll be dusted off to spearhead Singapore Airlines's first Australian television advertising campaign in two years.
While Qantas will attempt to tap into the Olympics-fuelled groundswell of patriotic fervour through its I Still Call Australia Home ad series, her return will remind us that, when it comes to customer service, Singapore Girl reigns.
Gone are the sepia tones of previous campaigns; the new Singapore Girl would be more "contemporary looking" and appear in locales around the world, including Sydney, the airline said.
"We did our own focus groups and something that does continue to stand out is the Singapore girl and the representation of the excellent in-flight services she provides," said the airline's Australian manager for passenger marketing, Dale Woodhouse.
Singapore Air will spend up to $1 million on its campaign, which coincides with the airline increasing flights to Australia to 80 a week, up from the 55 during last year's SARS crisis.
In an attempt to blunt Qantas's current SkyBed campaign featuring rugby union heroes, Singapore Air is already reminding consumers it has beds on all of its long-range aircraft.
"Qantas launched [SkyBed] in a big way but didn't have the product on their aircraft," Mr Woodhouse said.
Having finished the refit all of its 747-400 and 777 long-range aircraft during last year's SARS crisis, Singapore Air launched a print campaign three months ago highlighting that all of its flights from Australia to Europe were equipped with the new Raffles Class Spacebed.
But almost a year into its SkyBed campaign, Qantas says the product is now "fully embodied" on its London route. The airline also started to fly SkyBed-fitted Airbus 330s to Hong Kong this week and expects to have its Los Angeles-bound aircraft fitted by the end of the year.
Qantas said it would spend $385 million upgrading its fleet of 30-odd Boeing 747-400s with SkyBeds and other enhancements, such as mood lighting.
Marketing manager Martin McKinnon said: "You've got to invest in your brands and when you have these things like SkyBeds you have to talk about them."
Air New Zealand is also preparing its first TV commercial campaign in Australia since the collapse of its subsidiary Ansett - and nearly itself - in late 2001.
The airline's general manager for Australia, Michael Reed, said the rebranding would represent a "substantial" lift in the airline's advertising budget and focus on trans-Tasman traffic.
Despite a 17 per cent lift in passenger traffic on Air NZ flights since late last year, there is no doubt that Air NZ is determined to prevent the entries of Emirates Airlines and Pacific Blue from spoiling its - and Qantas's - domination of the route.
Given Air NZ will not start phasing in its own beds, and its new premium class and super economy class, until 2005, Mr Reed said: "It won't be the premium brand that we are promoting."
========================================
Thurs "Sydney Morning Herald"
Qantas pays up to be first at Games
August 12, 2004
The Flying 'Roo has clinched the first ad spot in the opening ceremony, writes Julian Lee.
As advertising spots go, they don't come much bigger than the first one in the first commercial break in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games and Seven and Qantas are banking on a record-breaking number of eyeballs on Saturday to set the pace for the Olympic fortnight.
Qantas has been confirmed as taking the first spot in the telecast, known as the first of the first, as the debut for its new advertising extravaganza, which reportedly cost $10 million to make.
The ad will be seen by millions of Australian viewers in the early hours of Saturday morning and again during the repeat broadcast eight hours later. Solus spots - breaks devoted to one advertiser - for LG and Holden for its new Commodore will follow later in the program.
The Qantas ad, by Singleton Ogilvy & Mather, has been months in the making and cost more than the budget of Australian feature films such as The Castle, Lantana and The Dish.
Companies that paid $4 million to be a top-tier Olympic broadcast sponsor were given the right to dominate one of three 120-second solus spots which, according to sources, were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
But to get category exclusivity and secure the position, Qantas is understood to have paid a $200,000 premium.
"I guess it's worth what Qantas thinks it's worth, it's a matter of pride as much as anything else," says Mike Porter, chief executive of media buying agency Mediaedge:cia. "While Telstra could afford that there certainly isn't another airline that could."
For Qantas, being first is everything and its executives are hoping to replicate the impact that the Westpac ad had in the opening ceremony in 2000.
Sydney Games organisers relaxed the rules to allow an ad break minutes into the ceremony for the first time and Westpac snapped up the opportunity to get the exposure. A record 10.4 million Australians tuned in to the broadcast and saw Westpac's seminal ad showing parents of Australian Olympians proclaiming "I can do that". It was the most-watched program in Australian television history.
"That was not the time to try and sell a home loan to the country. They did the right thing and the ad struck a chord," says Paul Fishlock, chief executive of the agency that created it, the Campaign Palace, which was suddenly and inexplicably sacked two years later.
The kudos and publicity the ad generated for Westpac were incalculable and Seven too basked in the reflected glory - one reason some in the industry believe the network should waive the premium for the right ad.
"That's if the quality is good enough. It has to be more than a Harvey Norman ad. A lot more," says Steve Allan of Fusion Strategy, who is predicting an average rating of 17 per cent of the population for the Games.
Samsung, Red Rooster, Telstra, Sorbent and, more surprisingly, retailers such as Target, David Jones and Bunnings - all keen to steal a march on their rivals by taking such a high-profile spot close to Father's Day - will feature in four-minute breaks during the opening ceremony program.
Although no one, least of all Seven, expects to beat the 2000 figures, network executives are hoping it, along with subsequent "moments", can match that other record-breaking moment in Olympian television, when Kieren Perkins's gold medal in Atlanta pulled in 3.4 million viewers for the five main cities.
Seven network sales director James Warburton says he doesn't want to forecast viewing figures for the two weeks but, as a "conservative" guide, Barcelona in 1992, which averaged more than 50 per cent of all viewers for Seven, are benchmarks. "We'd rather not average it out as it's about peaks and troughs," he says. "If you give averages, then that could be seen as some sort of guarantee, which is not really reflective."
If anything, he says, the timing of the programming is better than Atlanta in 1996, when the Sunrise program gave viewers the latest Olympics results, and on a par with Barcelona. "We are going to have 100 medals being contested by Aussies in prime time," he says.
Total Advertising & Communications chief executive Barry O'Brien predicts Seven might have as much as 60 per cent of the commercial audience, which would beat Atlanta, Barcelona and most definitely Seoul - the low point, despite the Games falling in the Australian time zone.
What ratings the Games achieves is anyone's guess; Atlanta, which was shown largely on delay, scored some of the highest peaks in Seven's Olympics history. When Ian Thorpe splashes into the pool at 5am on Tuesday, Seven is expecting a similar spike.
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