Advertisers targeting the ultra-elite who pay $1,600 an hour to charter a helicopter to get to an important meeting or away to the Hamptons now have literally a new vehicle to carry their message.

Logos and taglines are displayed on the helicopter’s exterior, and passengers are handed product samples as they board.

To find out how to get your client’s message in front of business leaders and celebrities while they’re a captive audience, read on.

This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.

Fast Facts

What
Ads placed on the exterior of passenger helicopters.

Who
InterAir Media, headquartered in West Palm Beach, Fla.

How it works
Ads are wrapped around the exterior of charter passenger helicopters. Additionally, product samples are handed to passengers as they board.

“You wouldn’t want to give a brochure talking about the product. You want to give them the product. If it’s a cell phone, you hand them a cell phone. These are the decision-makers of the corporate world, the owners, the board members,” says CEO Drew Stoddard.

The heliport or landing pad can also be branded.

Creative is usually provided by the advertiser. InterAir has an in-house art department that can also design a campaign.

“You can go bigger, but we don’t recommend covering any more area than that,” Stoddard says.

Products to be distributed can be packaged in gift bags. “You could put anything branded with the company’s logo, say a beach towel, into the bag with the product sample,” Stoddard says. “The bag is branded, too.”

Creative can be changed during the course of campaigns that run longer than a week.

Advertisers can be national or local brands.

The branded helicopters fly day and night and all year round, and they're in the air close to 100 percent of the time, Stoddard says.

Condé Nast Portfolio ran with flights from Manhattan to the Hamptons. Other popular routes include runs from JFK and LaGuardia airports into the city. Boston and Providence are also frequent destinations.

Markets
The program is currently available in New York. Other markets can be developed at an advertiser’s request, Stoddard says.

Numbers
There are six helicopters in the fleet. Advertisers can place their message on one vehicle or on the fleet. Flights usually accommodate two to four passengers.

How it is measured
Passenger counts are provided by the helicopter company.

What product categories do well
Financial institutions, computer software and business solutions are top categories. Advertisers have to be approved by the helicopter company.

Some categories, like online gambling, won’t be accepted, Stoddard says.

Demographics
The targeted audience is helicopter passengers and not pedestrian or vehicular traffic.

Passengers generally fall into two categories: business or celebrities and socialites, Stoddard says. “We can target by giving the product handouts only, say, to business customers.”

Making the buy
Lead time is 30 days but can be shortened to two weeks, Stoddard says.

The minimum buy is one helicopter for one week.

The cost is $5,000 per helicopter, per week. The cost includes production. Advertisers provide product samples for distribution.

Who’s already on helicopters
The program was launched with the Condé Nast Portfolio campaign.

What they’re saying
“We thought helicopters to be the perfect vehicle to reach an elite audience, in this case executives heading out of New York City. Because we’re finding that executives are really digging into the magazine in their leisure time, we basically hand-delivered it to them as they headed off to the beach.” – Theresa Gaffney, director of creative services for Condé Nast Portfolio

Web site info
InterAir Media at http://www.interairmedia.com/