Nationwide Pasting Ads on New Skybus Plane

If you fly on a Skybus plane, Nationwide will be on your side. It'll also be on your tray table, overhead bin and bathroom door.

That's because the startup airline has tapped its biggest hometown investor, Nationwide, as the sponsor of its first "branded airplane."

In a move aimed at defraying ticket costs, the airline will sell advertising on both the inside and outside of its fleet of Airbus A319 planes.

"This is one way Skybus plans to deliver outrageously low airfares," said Skybus CEO Bill Diffenderffer, who was at Port Columbus yesterday morning, showing the Nationwide plane for the first time to Nationwide CEO Jerry Jurgensen. "People are going to see our fares and say, 'How do they do that?' Then they're going to see this plane and say, 'Aha, I get it.' "

Skybus hopes to get permission within two weeks from the Federal Aviation Administration to announce routes and fares and start selling tickets, allowing flights to start by late May.

The Nationwide plane features the orange Skybus logo on its tail and engines, and a giant "Nationwide: On Your Side" message and the company's blue rectangular "framemark" logo on the side of the plane.

"This is our first airplane," Jurgensen said. "But the field of corporate branding is changing. This is just one of the different things we've been doing."

Jurgensen said the Nationwide paint job is a demonstration for Skybus' purposes and was given to the financial-services company as part of their overall relationship. According to filings with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Nationwide Mutual Capital owns a little more than 5 percent of Skybus, or an estimated investment of $8 million. Jurgensen added that Nationwide will pay an undisclosed amount for the interior advertising.

The amount being discussed for a company to sponsor the outside of a Skybus plane is $500,000 for one year, Diffenderffer said. By comparison, the average rate for a national 30-second spot in a top-rated TV show such as American Idol or Desperate Housewives easily can exceed that amount. Closer to home, the Germain Motor Co. dealership group reportedly pays between $300,000 and $500,000 per year for naming rights to the Germain Amphitheater at Polaris.

Advertising on tray tables, overhead bins and restroom doors would be at an additional charge and could be sponsored by different companies. Diffenderffer said Skybus has not signed deals with other advertisers but that "multiple conversations" are going on with interested parties.

Several airlines in the U.S. and abroad have used the outside of their planes as advertising space before. Southwest Airlines has done it in limited instances, such as to promote its role as the "official airline of SeaWorld." The former Western Pacific Airlines featured a decorated fleet including planes advertising Fox TV's animated smash The Simpsons. But Skybus officials think theirs will be the only U.S. airline currently selling its planes' surfaces consistently as ad space.

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