Given the amount of business Boeing does in Washington, D.C., you’d expect it to try and reach key decision-makers in government
Nowadays, though, reaching those officials efficiently is tough.
In one of the more unusual marketing approaches to date, Boeing has launched a series of sponsored two-minute “radio essays” from top opinion leaders in hopes that those decision-makers are tuning in.
The morning spots are airing on news station WTOP-AM, Washington’s top ratings-getter.
In one spot, Dr. Barry Nalebuff, game theorist and professor of economics and management at Yale School of Management, introduces his business “co-opetition” theory of cooperation and competition.
Another, from U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, is an essay on poetry.
Identifying Boeing at the beginning is an announcer who states, “Boeing presents another in a series of essays from contemporary opinion leaders.”
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It ends with the announcer saying: “Boeing. Forever New Frontiers.”
Boeing’s move comes as advertisers–especially those with a fairly narrow segment of people they are selling to–continue to look for ways to break through the cluttered media landscape.
Which is one of the reasons Boeing narrowed its focus tightly around one station, on one medium and one time during the day when it feels it reaches a captive audience.
“A lot of companies sponsor programs, but we wanted to find a way to really cut through the clutter,” said Anne Toulouse, Boeing vice president, brand management and advertising.
The idea for the two-minute essays was part of Foote, Cone & Belding’s pitch for Boeing’s business last year.
Though different in that the essays aren’t a direct sales pitch to its target audience, Boeing and FCB executives definitely want its customers to come away from the radio essays with a different impression of the company.
“We’re trying to reflect Boeing’s mission that it’s a company that’s not accepting the status quo,” said Mark Baylson, vice president, management supervisor at FCB.
What is not clear is what the audience thinks of the essays. Baylson contends that the essayists can say what they want in the two-minute spiel but are given the option to work with the agency. So far, neither of the two essayists has asked for help.
FCB is working with the company to pick the 10 essayists. The essays will run for 20 weeks mirroring the D.C. congressional schedule.
“This is one of those ideas that is distinctive,” Toulouse said. “It’s something we can own.”
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