JetBlue Commercial … 6 Great Value Proposition Examples

Have you seen the latest JetBlue commercial design? You know, the one with the great use of the analogy using pigeons? And perhaps the best value proposition examples in a commercial I have ever seen.

Quite clever isn’t it, and likely one you will remember and maybe even talk about, right?

Ever written an advertisement, or thought about it? I’ve done marketing for my clients in small businesses for the past 6+ years. Along the way, I’ve learned a few things about making advertising look professional even on a tight budget.

It is a simple concept. People don’t read ads, they read what interests them. So if you are going to generate content marketing campaign designs, you are going to have to create an interesting copy. And, oh, by the way, it must be more interesting than the millions of other advertisements out there. Now that is a daunting task, isn’t it?

The true measure of successful advertising design is having customers remember and talk about the message.

Many small businesses don’t have a lot of time or resources to create ads professionally made. But that may be because they make it too complex.

Remember in marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting, entertaining, and worth talking about and remembering.

Related: Building Key Requirements for a Strong Brand Identity

Does a commercial have the power to encourage the right sort of conversations? That is the objective, isn’t it? Let’s explore why this is so important.

According to Nielsen, there are 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day.

Statistic Brain says that our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds. That is one second less than a goldfish!

We check our phones 150 times per day. We check our email up to 30 times an hour. In addition, the amount of information in the world continues to double every 18 months.

All this available information and data is creating a battle for customer attention between brands, publishers, and marketers. That is everyone who creates marketing content.

But more importantly, it’s forcing businesses to think more and more as creative designers. These are designs where they utilize visual analogies to help carry their messages.

Advertising is a key component of your marketing campaign. Campaigns for awareness or consumer education of your value. So your value propositions are a critical element.

If everyone is creating content, how does a business break through the noise? How do we reach our customers in a way that engages them?

And, oh by the way, it must be more interesting than the millions of other advertisements out there. Now that is a daunting task, isn’t it? JetBlue marketing has sought to overcome this dilemma with a powerful analogy to capture your attention.

If you would like to see this brilliant new ad campaign called “Air on the Side of Humanity”, you can check it out here.

Let me explain why I believe this commercial is so successful:

Value proposition examples … create a visual analogy

 JetBlue ingeniously use pigeons as a transposed metaphor for frequent flyers. Airline passengers who are challenged by business travel and crowded flights.

Believe me, I can relate. The spot shows these crowded skies full of pigeons. This is all the while as an off-camera narrator says “the reality of flying is not very pretty”.

That is an awesome overstatement. It’s a royal headache and a major inconvenience.

Here is a short 3-minute video that will refresh this subject:

5 Examples of Value Proposition You Wish You Had

Makes personal comparisons

They show crowded jostled pigeons on a building ledge lined up single file facing the camera.

As this occurs, the narrator says, “They pack you in there. You hardly have any space for yourself. Hey, I’m a big guy and I need some room to breathe”.

The narrator continues talking about the future situation being bleak. Meanwhile, the camera focuses on a man’s legs sitting on a park bench throwing crumbs to pigeons on the sidewalk.

With humor, the narrator says, “They throw you crumbs and act as if it’s a 5 course meal”.

Next, they show a lonely pigeon on a busy pedestrian sidewalk as people walk around ignoring the confused bird.

Here the narrator says, “I feel completely ignored”.

Then the narrator asks the question, “There’s gotta be a way to fly with a little respect, you know?”

Value proposition examples … connect the dots

Making powerful motivational messages to your target audience, as in this ad, can be very effective. I certainly agree for this ad. It does a great job in getting the viewer to relate to the issue in their own life and to inspire.

So simple that the reader will quickly grasp the motivation. Keep in mind that the analogy is far more valuable than words.

This ad make the desired call to action a part of the story.

How to write a value proposition … a simple story

A good emotional story provides very good connection between the issue and the company promoting their message. The ad does explain the action in the story for the audience.

And it allows each member of the audience to interpret the story as he or she understands the action and the emotion.

This is why people find good stories so appealing. It is why they find advertising that simply conveys information boring.

Experiences that trigger our emotions are saved and consolidated in lasting memory. Why is that?

Because the emotions generated by the experiences signal our brains that they are important to remember. They create a good reason for you to want to back the JetBlue message, yes?

Message

At the end of the commercial, they cut to a different voiceover announcer who says,

“Enjoy JetBlue’s award-winning service, free unlimited snacks and the most legroom in coach.”

An awesome way to engage customers, isn’t it?

What I love about this engagement approach is that it takes a customer experience perspective. A perspective that no doubt was derived through deep customer insights.

As a frequent flyer myself, I was able to relate to the spot on multiple levels. I can just imagine what the creative brainstorming design session must’ve looked like.

It probably went something like this. Let’s find a metaphor for flying. Like pigeons. Lets put them in crowded lines and jostled frustrating situations

Lets show crowded skies of birds flapping their wings. Demonstrate the food is not very good.

Throw some crumbs on the street for the pigeons. And show how nobody cares about the passenger by  showing the birds on a crowded sidewalk alone being ignored.

Then ask the question, there has to be a better way. The answer from JetBlue is simple and effective.

Marketing always has been and always will be about telling stories… stories that influence behavior and convince people to act on value.

Make sure your social media content tells a story and that your story is compelling and relevant–especially your headlines and the value propositions.

Air on the side of humanity! Here is where they simply spell out their 3 point value propositions:

Award-winning customer service

Free unlimited snacks

Most legroom in coach

Simple and easy. And brilliant.

The bottom line 

It is a simple concept. People don’t read ads, they read what interests or entertains them. So if you are going to generate advertising and design, you are going to have to create an interesting copy.

JetBlue marketing has sought to overcome this dilemma with an entertaining commercial as its power of persuasion.

If you remember one thing from this article, remember this:

Marketing or advertising, you need to create information that your customers find interesting. Information that you make worth talking about and remembering.

And stand for things that potential customers value. 

We believe this JetBlue ad is interesting, entertaining, and stands for things viewers can stand behind. We believe it is persuasive and certainly creates the right kind of conversation.

  What do you think?

Heard enough? I rest my case.

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.

It’s up to you to keep improving your innovation and creativity in ad designs. Lessons are all around you. In many situations, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat. 

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your innovation design?

 Do you have a lesson about making your innovation better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.    

More reading on brands and branding from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

What the Lego Brand Teaches About Branding a Business

What 10 Killer Brands Stand for; It’s Personal

Building Key Requirements for a Strong Brand Identity

Branding Your Business … Examples from the Zappos Culture

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.