Heliport

From Stuart Elliot of the NYT

The campaign, now under way, introduces a company called US Helicopter, which plans to soon start service between the Downtown Manhattan Heliport and Kennedy International Airport. The campaign includes a Web site (flyush.com), banner ads and search-engine marketing as well as advertisements in newspapers and magazines.

The campaign, from an agency known as The Gate Worldwide in New York, seeks to promote the service by branding it as “the eight-minute airport shuttle.” Calling the scheduled flights a shuttle is, of course, evocative of the airlines, bearing brand names like Delta, Eastern and US Airways, that have for decades linked New York with Boston and Washington.

The goal of the campaign for US Helicopter is to convince the target audience -- among them, well-heeled Wall Streeters,
busy lawyers, senior executives and frequent travelers -- that the time they save in traveling compared with a taxicab
or car service more than makes up for the cost of a ticket(the introductory fare is $139 each way, plus taxes and
fees).

Now here is an underutilized advertising medium: barf bags:

The role being played by The Gate Worldwide, formerly Citigate Albert Frank, extends well beyond creating the elements of the campaign. The agency has been involved in developing and designing aspects of the new service ranging from the interior and exterior of the helicopters to the crew uniforms to the motion-sickness bags.

The introductory ads for US Helicopter, which is now scheduled to start service on March 27, began appearing last week in The New York Times and are to continue this week in The Wall Street Journal. Plans also call for them to run in Bloomberg Markets magazine and on Bloomberg terminals.Later this year, Mr. Fraser says, the ads are to run in publications like Business Week, The Financial Times, Forbes, Fortune, Inc., The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.

Search-engine marketing will be an important part of the online campaign, Mr. McSullivan says, adding, “We've identified as many as 200 keywords, like 'limo to the airport,' 'taxi to the airport' and 'helicopter charter.'”

The total budget for the campaign in the first year, he adds, is $1.5 million to $2 million, which also includes promotion and collateral materials.

I myself haven't been to New York in a few years, but D was just there on business a couple weeks ago, and she payed 85 dollars for a cab ride to the airport (plus tip, I'm assuming). So, if time was really tight after some meeting/appointment, I could see an 8 minute flight as being an attractive option, especially if one of our clients/vendors was picking up the bill, and if I had a camera with me. The charter bus to Newark is about $20, but it takes about 45 minutes of travel time, plus traffic, plus whatever delays. Sometimes, there isn't enough time.

Parenthetical note: I never understood why such a major city like New York doesn't have a subway stop at the airport. Here in the Big Potato, both of the airports have El stops, and there is even talk of adding a direct line from downtown.

Tags: New_York, /traffic