United Airlines: Teddy Bears and the American Cancer Association Part 2

Susan Hyatt — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:45:31 +0000

On my United flight to DC this week, I found a one page Landing Page article published in the January 2008 issues of Hemispheres, the United Airlines inflight magazine on the Kenny Hugyou teddy bear promotion mentioned in my January 8 blog entry. While I understand there is a different writing style for a magazine versus an online article, I was surprised to find the full details of this effort are only available by reading both versions – something most customers probably won’t do. The magazine piece tells readers “United customers and employees show their compassion with a cleverly named bear.” The promotion appears to be sponsored by the United Foundation as there is a quote from Sonya Jackson, the Foundation president, in the article about cancer being an important issue for their customers and employees. So, the magazine article answers a couple questions I raised previously about why the American Cancer Society, who was responsible for implementing the promotion and the role of employees. While employees are mentioned, their real role is not - are employees (like customers) donors of miles and dollars, project coordinators, teddy bear delivery people, or…? The Hemispheres article mentions joining forces with their many customers who support of the American Cancer Society which tells me there WAS a strategic decision made by the Foundation to support this cause as a way to appeal to customer and employee values and concerns. Glad to see they mentioned that explicitly. The magazine article also provides a sentence educating readers about ACS’s programming.

So I feel better about this initiative now. However, I do wonder why the Hemisphere’s article did not mention that the special opportunity to donate miles or dollars for teddy bears for child cancer patients would end January 31st or give an email link inviting participation as it is only mid-January and there are a couple weeks left before it ends. Unfortunately, interested customers won’t be able to participate unless they do some digging. The online version does mention the window of opportunity and provides buttons making it easy for customers to donate. There is one button for miles and another for dollars. Am I to assume the desired outcome of both written pieces was different? Action online and awareness in the print version?

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United Airlines: Teddy Bears and the American Cancer Association Part 2