Marketing of Aer Lingus flotation gets under way

Filming of television advertisements for the Aer Lingus flotation has just been completed at an estimated production cost of £750,000.

The five-day shoot gives some indication that the advertising campaign behind the flotation will be on a par with that for Eircom.

No date has been set for the flotation and, indeed, the timing has become a bone of contention between the airline and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke. There are several legislative and workers' issues to be decided before the flotation can go ahead.

Aer Lingus wanted the flotation to be in November while the Minister has maintained it should be early in 2001. The time-frame currently mooted is March or April 2001.

However, the marketing campaign is clearly in full swing. The Eircom offering was unique to the State, not just in the number of shareholders it created but in the scale and cost of the advertising and marketing behind it. An estimated £4 million was spent, most of it in just over six weeks.

The fallout from the recent Eircom annual general meeting included several uncomplimentary remarks by disgruntled shareholders about the highly persuasive advertising campaign, which skilfully managed to convey the message that it would be almost unpatriotic not to buy shares, critics of Eircom and many shareholders have claimed.

Despite the small print, which noted the value of shares could drop, it was considered an emotive way of selling what has turned out to be a financial product that did not perform well.

No figures are available for the total budget to promote the Aer Lingus flotation, but the television advertisement will be central to the "communication message".

The campaign is being devised by Irish International, the same agency that devised the Eircom flotation campaign. The Department of Public Enterprise has also appointed the same public relations company, Drury Communications.