Southwest Airlines is launching an advertising campaign aimed at introducing itself to Atlanta as a top airline, going up against market leader Delta Air Lines.
The advertisements come in advance of Southwest's planned Feb. 12 debut of service in Atlanta, as part of its acquisition of AirTran Airways. The Southwest-AirTran deal closed in May and integration of the two airlines is expected to take a couple of years.
Although Southwest billboards and online ads have sprouted up in the past week touting features like its no-change-fees policy, with radio ads also debuting, the company is continuing some AirTran advertising.
But most of the advertising will be for Southwest, chief marketing officer Dave Ridley said, seeking to deliver a message that Southwest is "the most popular airline" -- meaning it carries the most domestic passengers among U.S. airlines -- because it is "customer-friendly," with features like its no-change-fees and no-baggage-fees policies.
Perhaps inspired by the newcomer from Dallas, Delta's advertising notes that it is celebrating its 70th anniversary as "Atlanta's hometown airline."
Ridley said Southwest also is reaching out to members of its frequent flier program in the Atlanta area, including those who moved to Atlanta from cities with Southwest service and those who fly Southwest when traveling for business between other cities. Also under way for the next couple of weeks is a sales blitz to corporate travel managers in Atlanta, he said.
When it comes to sponsorships, Ridley said Southwest's support of the Atlanta community may not come in the same form as AirTran's did.
Atlanta will be one of the Southwest's top 10 cities, but for AirTran it was "the motherlode," he said. Atlanta got much of AirTran's marketing focus, but the city is a smaller portion of Southwest's total market across the United States.
Ridley said Southwest will honor all of AirTran's deals, such as its Atlanta Falcons sponsorship. But in deciding whether to renew the sponsorships, "we'll just have to assess those on an individual basis," he said.
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