NY Times article about Up In The Air
This is about Up In The Air and American Airlines and not Anna, but it's really interesting so I figured it was worth sharing. Maybe I'm just a nerd and find this interesting and nobody else will care. It's just about how things worked between AA and the film.
A Dream for an Airline and a Hotel Chain
“UP IN THE AIR,” the Paramount Pictures film starring George Clooney as a peripatetic executive nearing his goal of earning 10 million frequent flier miles, is generating plenty of Oscar chatter. But the film, which opened in 12 cities on Dec. 4 in advance of a wide release Christmas Day, also is causing excitement among marketers, since it prominently features companies, most notably American Airlines, in a favorable light.
Much of the film takes place in airports or on planes, with Mr. Clooney swiping his frequent flier card at American Airlines kiosks, interacting with its flight attendants and ticket agents, and luxuriating in its Admirals Club lounges.
“Does this sound suspiciously like a big-screen American Airlines commercial?” The Los Angeles Times asked recently.
Decidedly unlike a commercial, however, is how much the airline - in contrast to companies that spend millions for a small fraction of screen time - paid for placement in the film.
“We did not spend any money,” said Dawn Turner, manager of promotions at American Airlines. “We don’t have any money to spend - you read the headlines, right?”
The airline saved Paramount plenty, however, because the studio would otherwise have had to pay an airline a location fee for the imposition of filming in a terminal, and a plane rental fee to keep a jet grounded in order to shoot interior scenes.
Now the airline is doing everything but landing planes at cineplexes to coax passengers to see the movie, including showing trailers onboard and at its sports arenas in Dallas and Miami, featuring the film in a cover article in its in-flight magazine, and running movie-related sweepstakes and other promotions on its Web site, AA.com, which draws more than 1.6 million unique visitors daily, according to the airline.
In November, the airline provided a 767 jet for a press junket, with about 50 journalists boarding in New York. While en route to Los Angeles, they saw the movie and interviewed one of its stars, Anna Kendrick.
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Ms. Turner, of American Airlines, said the deal - facilitated by Rogers & Cowan, the entertainment public relations agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies - was attractive because, unlike other films that have made overtures, it treats the upside of air travel.
“If a production isn’t putting together a project that fits well with our brand image, we don’t participate,” Ms. Turner said. “Movies nowadays can be really violent, and if they have a plane blowing up, that’s not good.”
The novel by Walter Kirn on which the screenplay was based created a fictional carrier, Great West Airlines. But LeeAnne Stables, executive vice president for worldwide marketing partnerships at Paramount, said that Jason Reitman, the film’s director, wanted to use an actual airline.
“If we had used a fake airline, it would have taken people out of the storytelling and been an odd distraction,” Ms. Stables said.
Writing on her Hollywood blog, TheWrap, Sharon Waxman lauded the airline-studio symbiosis, calling it “an unusually comprehensive promotional partnership that actually serves the narrative,” adding: “note to branded entertainment managers: It can be done, with skill.”
Like the airline, the Hilton Hotels chain also paid nothing, but figures prominently in the film, with scenes in guest rooms and common areas of hotels in Miami, St. Louis and elsewhere.
The amount the hotel chain saved Paramount was, appropriately enough, paramount: it waived location fees at properties and cleared blocks of rooms.
As for helping to promote the film, the chain held the after-party for the Nov. 30 premiere at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, which included more than 1,000 guests (an event that Paramount and American Airlines also helped pay for). Hilton also is promoting the movie on its Web site, where, besides viewing a trailer, visitors can enter sweepstakes to win one million customer loyalty points and a trip for two to Paris.
The company also is promoting the film on more than a million key cards internationally, a first for the chain, whose cards have never featured anything besides its own logos and amenities.
Andrew Flack, vice president for global brand marketing at Hilton Hotels, said that with properties in 76 countries, the company rarely finds marketing partners with that much reach. “A film like this has a truly global reach and allows global marketing,” Mr. Flack said.
While Hiltons have been featured in movies for six decades, this is also the first time the company has used a tie-in as an internal morale builder. A contest among employees worldwide asked them to submit personal stories about accommodating guests. Two winners won trips to Los Angeles to attend the premiere. One was a concierge from the Hilton Strasbourg in France who, after a guest boarded a barge in a canal without her bag, chased alongside in a car to return it; the other was a housekeeping supervisor in San Antonio who, after a guest forgot to order a birthday cake for her husband, drove to a far-flung bakery and returned with cake, chocolates and balloons.
Hilton also held preview screenings, including one for employees at its headquarters in McLean, Va.; scenes that opened in hotels were met with applause, said Mr. Flack, who was in the audience.
When Mr. Clooney, whom People magazine has twice named the sexiest man alive, appeared on-screen in a white robe that featured the Hilton logo, the response was a bit more primal.
“There was sort of a hush and a buzz, shall we say - and a few whistles,” Mr. Flack said.
source
A Dream for an Airline and a Hotel Chain
“UP IN THE AIR,” the Paramount Pictures film starring George Clooney as a peripatetic executive nearing his goal of earning 10 million frequent flier miles, is generating plenty of Oscar chatter. But the film, which opened in 12 cities on Dec. 4 in advance of a wide release Christmas Day, also is causing excitement among marketers, since it prominently features companies, most notably American Airlines, in a favorable light.
Much of the film takes place in airports or on planes, with Mr. Clooney swiping his frequent flier card at American Airlines kiosks, interacting with its flight attendants and ticket agents, and luxuriating in its Admirals Club lounges.
“Does this sound suspiciously like a big-screen American Airlines commercial?” The Los Angeles Times asked recently.
Decidedly unlike a commercial, however, is how much the airline - in contrast to companies that spend millions for a small fraction of screen time - paid for placement in the film.
“We did not spend any money,” said Dawn Turner, manager of promotions at American Airlines. “We don’t have any money to spend - you read the headlines, right?”
The airline saved Paramount plenty, however, because the studio would otherwise have had to pay an airline a location fee for the imposition of filming in a terminal, and a plane rental fee to keep a jet grounded in order to shoot interior scenes.
Now the airline is doing everything but landing planes at cineplexes to coax passengers to see the movie, including showing trailers onboard and at its sports arenas in Dallas and Miami, featuring the film in a cover article in its in-flight magazine, and running movie-related sweepstakes and other promotions on its Web site, AA.com, which draws more than 1.6 million unique visitors daily, according to the airline.
In November, the airline provided a 767 jet for a press junket, with about 50 journalists boarding in New York. While en route to Los Angeles, they saw the movie and interviewed one of its stars, Anna Kendrick.
•
Ms. Turner, of American Airlines, said the deal - facilitated by Rogers & Cowan, the entertainment public relations agency owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies - was attractive because, unlike other films that have made overtures, it treats the upside of air travel.
“If a production isn’t putting together a project that fits well with our brand image, we don’t participate,” Ms. Turner said. “Movies nowadays can be really violent, and if they have a plane blowing up, that’s not good.”
The novel by Walter Kirn on which the screenplay was based created a fictional carrier, Great West Airlines. But LeeAnne Stables, executive vice president for worldwide marketing partnerships at Paramount, said that Jason Reitman, the film’s director, wanted to use an actual airline.
“If we had used a fake airline, it would have taken people out of the storytelling and been an odd distraction,” Ms. Stables said.
Writing on her Hollywood blog, TheWrap, Sharon Waxman lauded the airline-studio symbiosis, calling it “an unusually comprehensive promotional partnership that actually serves the narrative,” adding: “note to branded entertainment managers: It can be done, with skill.”
Like the airline, the Hilton Hotels chain also paid nothing, but figures prominently in the film, with scenes in guest rooms and common areas of hotels in Miami, St. Louis and elsewhere.
The amount the hotel chain saved Paramount was, appropriately enough, paramount: it waived location fees at properties and cleared blocks of rooms.
As for helping to promote the film, the chain held the after-party for the Nov. 30 premiere at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, which included more than 1,000 guests (an event that Paramount and American Airlines also helped pay for). Hilton also is promoting the movie on its Web site, where, besides viewing a trailer, visitors can enter sweepstakes to win one million customer loyalty points and a trip for two to Paris.
The company also is promoting the film on more than a million key cards internationally, a first for the chain, whose cards have never featured anything besides its own logos and amenities.
Andrew Flack, vice president for global brand marketing at Hilton Hotels, said that with properties in 76 countries, the company rarely finds marketing partners with that much reach. “A film like this has a truly global reach and allows global marketing,” Mr. Flack said.
While Hiltons have been featured in movies for six decades, this is also the first time the company has used a tie-in as an internal morale builder. A contest among employees worldwide asked them to submit personal stories about accommodating guests. Two winners won trips to Los Angeles to attend the premiere. One was a concierge from the Hilton Strasbourg in France who, after a guest boarded a barge in a canal without her bag, chased alongside in a car to return it; the other was a housekeeping supervisor in San Antonio who, after a guest forgot to order a birthday cake for her husband, drove to a far-flung bakery and returned with cake, chocolates and balloons.
Hilton also held preview screenings, including one for employees at its headquarters in McLean, Va.; scenes that opened in hotels were met with applause, said Mr. Flack, who was in the audience.
When Mr. Clooney, whom People magazine has twice named the sexiest man alive, appeared on-screen in a white robe that featured the Hilton logo, the response was a bit more primal.
“There was sort of a hush and a buzz, shall we say - and a few whistles,” Mr. Flack said.
source