2009 PRO Awards: Entourage Air

Agency: Civic Entertainment Group
Client: HBO

After the hiatus caused by the 2008 writer’s strike, HBO needed to make a big splash for the return of its TV show Entourage. The five-year old series had suffered from maturation and need an infusion of youth. HBO partnered with Virgin America, a young hip airline whose customer base matched the Entourage audience and whom HBO felt closely fit its “Live It” tagline.

Virgin America had recently launched a new route from John F. Kennedy Airport (New York) to Las Vegas and wanted to promote it. For a month starting one week prior to the show’s season premiere, Virgin America rebranded the flight’s exterior and interior with “Entourage Air” graphics. First class was rebranded Entourage Class, where passengers received branded blankets and eye masks, noise-canceling headphones, champagne, Godiva truffles, Kiehl’s personal products and Altoids mints. In addition, all Virgin flights included Entourage as part of its in-flight programming and an Entourage promo spot ran after safety messages on seat-back screens.

On the day of the first flight, a VIP party was held in a private hanger hosted by Virgin group chairman Sir Richard Branson and included the cast of Entourage as well as members of Virgin’s frequent flyer program EleVAte. The season 5 premiere debuted in flight, a first for HBO, along with Entourage-themed in-flight games. When passengers arrived at the after-party held at the Palms Hotel and Casino, they were greeted with a giant Entourage logo and tune-in information on the outside of the building and on their key cards for the week before the premiere. A national sweepstakes was used to drive people to take the flight, with text and online entries. Email was sent to HBO, VX and Palms databases (2.4 million total customers). In addition, 300,000 “tune-in” cards were distributed on all JFK to Vegas flights.

In all, 6.1 million viewers watched the premiere of season 5 and 91,506 passengers watching Entourage episodes in flight. Media impressions for the initial launch topped 15 million, including coverage in USA Today, Advertising Age and Entertainment Weekly. ROI was calculated at $3.5 million.