Falcons Cheerleaders Flex Some Muscle
AirTran’s Falcons sponsorship takes off
By Kelly Yamanouchi
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
October 13, 2009
To raise money for breast cancer awareness month, members of the Falcons cheerleader and drum line pulled the 100,000 pound plane out of the hanger for charity. AirTran made a $10,000 donation to the charity Breast Friends Inc. for their effort. (Photo: Brant Sanderlin, bsanderlin@ajc.com)
AirTran Airways has painted itself into the Atlanta Falcons’ corner, unveiling a jet bearing the team’s colors and logo as part of a new sponsorship.
Although celebs including Elton John and Danica Patrick have graced AirTran planes for marketing purposes in the past, those images were special decals or wraps. This is the first time the airline has had a plane specially painted for a sponsorship. The Orlando-based carrier, which has its largest hub in Atlanta, also plans to paint planes for sponsorships of the Baltimore Ravens and Indianapolis Colts.
“We told [the Falcons] that we were very entrepreneurial as an airline… and we would be sure to activate the partnership in new and exciting ways,” said Tad Hutcheson, AirTran’s vice president of marketing and sales. The specially-painted plane “is a great example of investing in the partnership.”
Since airliners are flying billboards, carriers occasionally use them to promote marketing partnerships or charity tie-ins. For the Falcons deal, AirTran painted one of its 717s black and red, with a bird logo on the tail.
The sponsorship expands AirTran’s use of sports tie-ins. The company has compiled a roster of individual athletes, including Falcons phenom Matt Ryan and Thrashers goaltender Kari Lehtonen, who pitch the carrier from billboards or in TV spots.
The Falcons sponsorship is only skin-deep, however. The team doesn’t fly to away games on AirTran because the carrier’s planes are too small. Instead, it continues to charter flights on Delta Air Lines, which held the sponsorship deal until pulling out of it this year.
Still, AirTran touts the painted plane and overall partnership as a score for both the franchise and the airline.
“The Falcons brand, along with AirTran, will be exposed to millions of passengers,” AirTran spokesman Christopher White said. The partnership also includes joint promotions, signs at the Georgia Dome, billboards and other advertising.
AirTran didn’t disclose how much it paid for the Falcons sponsorship or how long the deal will run. As with all sports sponsorships, from stock car racing to the Olympics, the benefits of such deals are hard to measure. Hutcheson said the company conducts research on factors such as consumers’ awareness of AirTran, how they heard about the airline and their intent to purchase.
“It’s good for reaching frequent business travelers,” Hutcheson said. “You have a traveling sales manager, for example, in Atlanta, who’s gone Monday to Friday and he’s here for the weekends and he goes to Falcons games. It’s perfect.”
When it pulled out of the Falcons sponsorship earlier this year, Delta said it is aligning more with baseball. Delta still sponsors the Atlanta Braves, the Minnesota Vikings and Twins, the New York Mets and New York Yankees, among other teams.
“We’ve known the Falcons people for years and we knew that they had an exclusive deal with Delta,” Hutcheson said. “And we told them if circumstances ever changed, to give us a call, and they did.”
An airliner paint job typically costs about $150,000. The special Falcons design cost roughly $160,000, and was part of a repainting effort AirTran already had underway to repaint planes in its latest white motif, according to the company.
