Derrie-Air Generates Lots of Buzz But Is It Good Marketing?

Many marketers are more concerned about showing off their creativity rather than creating meaningful results for their clients. A great example is the recent advertising effort from Gyro, an ad agency in Philadelphia, to build buzz for a Philly Media Holdings which publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer and other large newspapers in Pennsyvlania.

Recently, Gyro launched a spoof campaign for Derrie-Air, a fictitious airline that charges passengers by how much they and their baggage weigh - given the recent cust-costing announcements from many airlines, it's not much of a stretch to believe that such an airline might actually exist. Large display ads ran in various newspapers which Philly Media Holdings controls sending people to a very realistic looking website.

The hoax was set up to see how many people would fall for the idea. It was designed to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces," explained Philly Media Holdings spokesman Jay Devine.

Can this guy be serious? For owners of furniture stores or an automobile dealerships, two of the biggest type of companies that advertise in newspapers, this spoof campaign proves nothing since their products don't lend themselves to such an attention-getting angle. 

Even though the display ads for a fictitious airline with a crazy business concept are humorous, they do fail to counter the argument that newspaper advertising is in steep decline because more consumers are going online for news and advertisers are following them there as Eric Alterman's excellent article in The New Yorker explains. Instead of creating gimmicky campaigns to fool their readers, Philly Media Holdings would be much better served making their websites more robust and user-friendly to attract an increased share of the growing online advertising market.