Utility premium

The pattern

This commercial ad is filed under Utility premium.

Define

The free thing is kept because it works (a calendar, a tool, a template) and the brand rides along.

Mechanism

Usefulness as media. Frequency of use is frequency of exposure. Distinct from a keepable card: here the object has a job.

Verdict

We can give something people will actually use next week.

Why it works

Priority support during a disruption is hard to photograph, so the image shows what it protects: a business-class passenger at ease in his suite, headphones around his neck, tablet in hand, a drink and a bowl of nuts on the tray. The caption carries the concrete claim, Corporate Care giving eligible Etihad for Business members priority support during travel disruptions, so the calm picture reads as the outcome of that promise.

The big idea

Corporate Care sold through the calm it protects: a relaxed business-class passenger with tablet, drink and snack stands in for priority help when travel is disrupted.

The offer

Corporate Care, a new Etihad for Business enhancement: eligible members and their travellers get priority support during travel disruptions. The rest of the post's detail is cut off.

Lines from the ad

We’ve launched Corporate Care

priority support when it matters most

Eligible members benefit from priority support during travel disruptions

Steal this when

Use when the benefit being launched is operational and invisible, and the picture can show the calm state it protects instead of the mechanism.

The emotion

Written to Anxiety. It does neither clearly.

It names priority support during disruptions for eligible Etihad for Business members, then shows a relaxed passenger with a drink instead of saying what that support does or how fast.