Two months before shareholders voted to make United Airlines the nation’s largest employee-owned company, Leo Burnett Co. got started on an ad campaign to announce the decision to the world. But until the day the vote was taken-and the ads were scheduled to appear-no one knew for certain that the employee-ownership vote would prevail or that the ads would run at all.
The result, of course, is that United Airlines has a new slogan-“Come Fly Our Friendly Skies”-to reflect the employees’ ownership. The assignment to introduce the concept to employees and to the public came from the airline’s new leader, Gerald Greenwald, before he was officially named chairman at the company’s shareholders meeting July 12.
To avoid spending money on TV time, newspaper space and billboards where the ads might not be able to run at all, Burnett’s media team had to do a lot of last-minute negotiating.
Arrangements were made with 14 newspapers, including national publications and papers in the top seven U.S. markets, for the purchase
of three-page ads to run July 13, with the provision that the space could be canceled by noon on the day of the vote if the shareholder resolution did not pass. At only one newspaper, said Mary Ann Cycyota, Burnett vice president and media director, did the newspaper’s production schedule demand that Burnett substitute another ad instead of canceling.
Burnett also bought two 60-second TV spots on ABC’s network news and on “Nightline” for the night of the vote. If the commercial that was created to announce employee ownership could not run, the agency would have plugged in other commercials, Cycyota said.
Steve Crawford, Burnett’s senior vice president and account director for United, went to the shareholders’ meeting with John Ruhaak, vice president of advertising at United, and by 9:30 a.m., when it was certain the employee-ownership vote had prevailed, got on the phone to set the rest of the media blitz into operation.
“A crew was waiting to put up the billboard at O’Hare,” Crawford said, “which was completed by 2:30 that afternoon to say `Welcome to Our Friendly Skies.”‘
Cycyota and her team went to work to buy time on CBS’ and NBC’s news programs to create a so-called roadblock-in which the same spot airs on all three networks at the same time-for July 12. “The marketplace is very tight right now, and the networks were not in a position where they could hold spots for us,” Cycyota said.
Although the goal was to get the 60-second commercial on the air simultaneously at the networks, the situation was complicated by the networks’ rules about separating commercials from news about the company.
“They didn’t want the commercial next to the story,” Cycyota said. “They don’t want it to look like we knew they were going to cover the story and that’s why we bought the spot.”
So the commercials ran on the individual networks either minutes before or after the story of the buyout was featured on the news.
Other immediate appearances of media announcements included the display of posters featuring employees at O’Hare and other airports where United flies.
After making the buys on TV and in magazines to cover the next four weeks, the Burnett team’s biggest problem is one they didn’t anticipate.
A supply of about 70,000 buttons and 60,000 bumper stickers saying “Proud Owner” that were distributed through the United employee organization was depleted in two days. The ad agency had to find a new supply-and fast.
