Zubi Launches American Airlines Effort.

Zubi Advertising launched a powerful, heartwarming advertising campaign for its blue chip client American Airlines. Shot on location in Mexico, the campaign will run for the next year and a half and includes television, print and radio components.

The new advertisements represent an entirely new direction and message for the largest airline in the world. The television spot features poignant vignettes of families, friends and lovers in clearly Latin American settings “capturing” memories that will stick with them forever. A tone of nostalgia and longing runs throughout, effectively conveying an understanding of how much US immigrants miss their various loved ones back home. The new overall message of the carrier for both English and Spanish is “We Know Why You Fly.”

“We are extremely pleased with the work of Zubi Advertising, particularly with this recent campaign,” said Cristina Castro, International Advertising Manager for American Airlines. “True knowledge and understanding of the target audience is what one looks for in an advertising firm, and with Zubi we have found a partner that does just that.”

The campaign will air starting on September 13 on Univision Network, and on the Telemundo Network in 2005. The print ads will begin running today in major daily newspapers in New York City, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Boston, as well as in National magazines such as People en Español, Hispanic Magazine and Travel & Leisure en Español, among others. Lastly, the radio spots will air today on the top rated Spanish language radio stations in the same major markets.

The goals of the advertising campaign are to increase frequency of travel amongst Hispanic leisure and business travelers, continue to “warm” the American brand, increase consideration of American product offers and battle current price perception.

“The final creative product of this campaign is extremely effective in demonstrating the intense emotion of traveling back home for Hispanics,” said Hector Prado, Associate Creative Director of Zubi Advertising.

Zubi provided American Airlines with key insights and trends within the Hispanic market that have been extremely pertinent to their corporate needs:

• In the last few years, the Hispanic middle class has grown significantly, thus creating a larger group of Hispanic business travelers. This group of people has clients in Mexico, Central and Latin America

• As leisure travelers, Hispanics travel as a family. Hispanic parents tend to be very protective of their children, especially in situations where they don’t have control; therefore they like to sit together. With American, one can reserve seats in advance and families with small children are allowed to board the plane first.

• As opposed to the general market, when they travel, Hispanics are more likely to be going back to their native country.

• Hispanics more than likely have family members waiting for them at the airport when they arrive. They are also less likely to check for late arrivals, adding to the importance of direct flights and on-time arrivals.

• Experience is highly valued by Hispanics in an Airline. It is something that they respect and feel comfortable with.

(Source: Nov. 2003 Zubi Advertising Qualitative Groups in MIA, NYC, ORD)

“We are thrilled with the strategic direction, creative work and overall execution of these powerful ads,” said Joe Zubizarreta, Chief Operating Officer of Zubi Advertising. “I am very proud of the entire team and feel confident that we have successfully relayed how much American Airlines truly caters to and understands the unique sensibilities of the Hispanic market.”