South Florida-based Spirit Airlines is known for being cheap. It boasts "ultralow" base fares and then charges for items such as carry-on luggage or printing out your boarding pass at the airport.
That thrift carries over to Spirit's advertising. Even compared with other low-cost airlines, Spirit spends almost nothing on ads. And yet the company makes a surprising splash with its campaigns. A visit to Spirit headquarters reveals the secrets of its marketing.
Spirit Airlines' corporate conference room is about what you'd expect: A drop ceiling, people in button-down shirts sitting around a dark-wood table, listening to a jargony presentation.
"We've been successful at promoting our ultralow fares in a way that keeps costs down," says Bobby Schroeter, vice president of consumer marketing, while presenting a PowerPoint of successful Spirit campaigns.
One of the ads shows a series of islands and four bright-yellow letters.
"We have our very famous, 'M.I.L.F.' ad — Many Islands Low Fares," Schroeter says. The slogan continues with, "hotter and cheaper than ever."
Not coincidentally, "MILF" is also a crass reference to good-looking moms. It's not the kind of thing you're used to hearing from a publicly traded company. But this ad in particular is a good way to look at how Spirit "shock marketing" works.
The process starts with customers like Yessica Diaz and her boyfriend, Edwin Irizarry. They were flying Spirit out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
"Yeah, because it's cheap," Diaz says.
Diaz is now one of 6 million people on Spirit's email list.
Instead of buying TV commercials, Spirit blasts out email ads like "M.I.L.F." and, unsurprisingly, it gets reactions.
"It's kind of, like, funny and insulting, I guess," Irizarry says.
"That's pretty bad," Diaz says of the ad.
Entertained or aghast, people like Diaz might forward or tweet or blog the ad. Enough of that and the big leagues take note.
Sometimes shows like Fox News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor try to take Spirit reps to task. Discussing the M.I.L.F. ad, Bill O'Reilly said, "A gross expression taken from the movie American Pie was adopted by Spirit Airlines."
Spirit Airlines President Ben Baldanza, who appeared on the show, is very good at turning a scolding into a value proposition. "Our consumer feedback has been positive, and the only thing we think is obscene is the fares that most of our competitors charge," he said.
Just like that, a free advertisement is born.
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