Airbus Directs Television Ads At Just Two Customers TV Blitz Intended To Sway Executives At Usair Group, Delta Air Lines

The television commercial touts the virtues of a fast new model: Lots of leg room, great mileage - with room for 300 and the ability to fly from New York to Paris non-stop.

Airbus Industrie is betting that out of millions of viewers a select few will want its A330 jetliner. And at $110 million each, a few buyers is all the European plane maker needs.

The ads are aimed at just two prospects - Arlington, Va.-based USAir Group Inc. and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, both of which are shopping for new jetliners. Airbus says spending thousands of dollars on TV ads is part of what it takes to beat archrival Boeing Co.

“It tells the airline that we really want their business,” said Dave Venz, Airbus’ North American vice president for communications.

The commercials highlight the spaciousness of the A330’s business-class section. In one spot, a diminutive businessman is squeezed in a middle seat between two giant men, and repeatedly has to climb over them to get to the aisle. The narrator points out that this wouldn’t happen on an Airbus plane, which has no middle seats in business class.

“Airbus doesn’t expect Joe Blow to get up in the middle of ‘Seinfeld’ and order an A330,” said Michael Boyd, president of Aviation Research Consultants in Golden, Colo. “Airbus is really hoping that the handful of Delta executives who will decide (which planes to buy) are tuning in.”

Buying TV time is new for Airbus, which is trying to woo U.S. airlines away from Boeing. Delta, the third-largest U.S. carrier, is considering buying Airbus’s A330 or Boeing’s 777 or 767 models.

USAir, meanwhile, has tentatively agreed to buy 120 Airbus jetliners for about $5 billion, which would be one of the biggest orders ever for Airbus. Airbus is doing everything it can to make the order firm.

Airbus’ TV campaign is unusual because it’s aimed at airlines. While aircraft makers do advertise, they usually do so in business publications read by decision makers.

Boeing, though, has turned to TV ads in the past. For example during the Persian Gulf War, when air travel plunged, Boeing ran ads extolling the benefits of flying.

Marketing executives say that TV advertising - each spot costs a minimum of $100,000 to produce - is a costly way to compete for a contract.

Yet, there are sound reasons to use TV.

“This gets the manufacturer’s name out there,” said Dave Capano, media director of Tausche, Martin & Lonsdorf, an Atlanta advertising agency. “If they do win the contract, consumers will know and favor them.”