Airline looking for partnerships for 2012
In a first for Toronto-based Porter airline, it has partnered with fashion retailer Joe Fresh and Thompson Hotels on a collaborative holiday campaign.
The project sees the Joe Fresh brand appear at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, offering manicures and “winter gifts” to travelers in the passenger terminal.
In turn, Porter has point-of-purchase visibility through a contest running at 50 Joe Fresh locations in Ontario and Atlantic Canada. Participants can enter to win one of two shopping weekends – one to Toronto, one to New York City – with a $500 Joe Fresh gift card and two-night stay at a Thompson hotel.
On Dec. 15, the day after the contest closes, Porter will make its first flight into Burlington, Va. The occasion will be marked with free passenger gifts courtesy of Porter and Joe Fresh.
This is Porter’s first co-branded promotion but something the airline wants to do more of, according to Andrew Wilson, vice-president of sales and marketing at Porter.
“Joe Fresh [is] like us – they started five years ago and they’re proudly Canadian, so there was a lot of alignment,” Wilson said.
From first contact to its Thursday debut, the program was less than 30 days in the making. “If you ask my team, they weren’t particularly happy about that,” joked Wilson.
Other partnerships are in the works (with longer lead times, much to Wilson’s staff’s relief). Porter wants to be selective about what brands it works with in the future – “brands that will help us grow our collective business, because at the end of the day it’s still about revenue,” said Wilson, though he sees many opportunities, especially among companies already advertising in Porter’s in-flight magazine.
