Left Coast Airlines [ENCORE]

Welcome to the Sound In Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner and founder of Dreamr Productions and Sound in Marketing Learning. I create, consult and educate on the power of sound in marketing. This episode is actually an encore episode from last season. Why? One, My next episode is taking a bit longer to finish than I'd hoped and two- It totally applies to the theme of this season. anyways. In fact, Left Coast Airlines was where it all started.

This was my first go into the world of creating fake companies and fake case studies to demonstrate a real sound in marketing solution, and I am pretty darn proud of it. I say it's worth an encore, and seeing as there are no real rules to podcasting yet, we're going to go for it. Left Coast Airlines wanted a podcast to advertise to both new and existing customers. Dreamr Productions went a step further, creating an unending universe of branded sound possibilities. Cue the dream sequence.

I don't know about you, but flying has always been really fun for me. I love getting on a plane and staring out the window, watching the ground get smaller and smaller. I watch the cars turn into fast moving ants until the clouds swallow them up. Then it's time for a good book that I can't ever seem to concentrate on at home. Lord of the rings, namely, flying is fun for me, but probably because I don't do it that often. For some, flying has become so commonplace that it's boring.

I'm primarily speaking of business people who weekly board a 6 a.m. flight from Boise to make their 9 a.m. meeting in Seattle. Then it's a full day of work at some temporary workspace, followed by another plane flight to get home in time for dinner. Flying isn't fun for them, it's just another task. One company has taken it upon themselves to make that task just a little bit more enjoyable. Left Coast Airlines is a small commuter airline that has served the US West Coast since 1995.

Left coast strives to make that mundane business commute a little bit more fun. As they so eloquently state in their newest commercials. Happy clouds for normal people. How did they go about doing that? First off, they get that their customers generally would rather be anywhere but there. So their marketing and customer service team is packed full of humor and sarcasm. Secondly, because these customers are frequent fliers, the staff have gotten to know them on a first name basis.

They know all about the meetings they are going to and the annoying reports they'll have to write. They bring them their coffee at 30,000ft and commiserate with them for an hour or so. Every single week. Left coast was founded by Alex Sandberg. He bought a fleet of 20 commuter airplanes to serve short distance commutes only. Alex knew he couldn't compete with American and United, so he never tried. Alex's goal was simple get the customer from point A to point B cheaply and efficiently.

There was no first class. There were just seats to fill. He hired hard working average Joes and taught them to be great customer relations agents. Alex knew that his planes weren't very flashy and the seats weren't the most comfortable. He also knew that the flights that he offered weren't to prime vacation destinations. He didn't offer hype. He provided a service that was realistic and necessary. So he kind of made it the thing the average Joe airline for the average Joe.

He encouraged his staff to keep that in mind as well as the staff were working class too. That was easy. Everyone got along because they understood each other. And a boring flight became a fun one because of the company that was kept. The airline grew and came to be known as the Business Person's Airline. Left Coast Airlines is now in the middle of an expansion. They purchased 50 midsize aircraft to join their 150 small size commuter planes to offer longer flights to more locations.

This is where I met up with them. Left coast approached Dreamr Productions to help produce a podcast. They were about to launch their new series of commercials, Happy Clouds for Normal People. They wanted a way to create more buzz around it. Left Coast Air has always been known as the short commuter airline. That's Jerry Morgan, Left Coast Airline's chief marketing officer with flights to Canada, Mexico and Alaska. We wanted to start reaching vacationers and weekend warriors on a budget.

Our prices are highly competitive and our customer service is always is top notch. We’re perfect for the middle class travelers trying to fit in a mini vacation or two. Although they may look great on paper, they're offering isn't very flashy. They acknowledge this with a relatable sense of humor. We believe in what we offer, but we also know the offering is pretty boring. So a good sense of humor is essential. It's what we market to our staff as well. Work hard, but have fun.

Listen to guest stories and tell them some of your own. Their new campaign was heavily focusing on just that hard working people with real life stories. It's relatable, funny, and shareable. We shared the commercials with Jeanna, and she suggested adding a sonic logo to the end of the commercial. I didn't know what a Sonic logo was, but when she explained that, it was just another element of brand personality.

I said go for it and personality it brings. SFX: Sonic Logo Here's a sample of the new radio spot with the addition of Left Coast's new Sonic logo. Hey Fred, did you hear that? Left Coast Airlines flies to Alaska now. Oh, great. That means my boss is going to start sending me to meetings in Anchorage. At least you'd be able to watch a whole movie on the plane. Do you know how many times I've tried to see if Jason Statham is expendable or not?

Oh, yeah. Don't worry. He'll show up again in the next one. Whether your destination is exciting or not, we've got you covered. Our staff is standing by and ready to serve. Left Coast Airlines happy clouds for normal people. And here's the commercial focused on their new targeted market. So Julia wants me to meet her parents. Oh, yeah? Yeah. They have a big family thing coming up in Victoria, BC. Who flies there anyway? Left Coast Airlines does. Really?

I thought they were only for the US West Coast. Nope. They've expanded to Canada and Mexico. Oh, great. What's wrong? Julia wants to go to a resort in Mexico. Now, I've been saying it's too expensive. But. But I can afford left coast. They always have the lowest everyday prices. Well, who knows if your Victoria trip doesn't work out. You won't have to worry about Mexico. Thanks, man. No problem brother. No matter your destination,

you can count on us to give you the best experience possible. How? We don't know yet, but we're ready. And we serve cocktails when necessary. Left coast Airlines happy clouds for normal people. We were already thrilled with how the commercials came out, but adding the button at the end just sealed the deal. We knew for sure that this was a good partnership. Gina got in on the joke and created something very us.

I wanted the logo to incorporate Left Coast’s slightly sarcastic roots, but still convey trust and commitment to the travel experience. It fit like a glove. We've since added the sonic logo to all of our radio advertising. And will be adding it to our commercial campaigns in the next couple of months. Then it was onto the podcast conversation. Again, we discussed their personality. We all agreed that humor should be first and foremost for this podcast.

Their deals were affordable, but the story was in the stories. We worked together to develop a podcast of stories. Jeanna suggested gathering stories from our staff that they had either heard over the years or experienced for themselves. We even did a blast on social media so that customers could send some of their own. From these stories, we pieced together a template of sorts. The stories would start normal, and every day, but by the end would just get ridiculous.

The endings usually don't make any sense compared to the beginning. But by the end. No one cares. Besides, by the time you're starting to wonder what this has to do with that, you're already hooked. And then it's just fun. Which is the whole point. Here's a clip. Welcome to short stories made ridiculous. Brought to you by Left Coast Airlines. Short stories made ridiculous. Tell stories that started in truth but got way out of hand. We don't get obscene, but we do get ridiculous.

So if you're shaking your head by the end saying what? Then you're welcome. Today's story comes from a couple in bend, Oregon who wanted to go visit their son in hood River. The story starts with a plane ticket and ends with a canoe. So secure those overhead bins and buckle your seatbelts. This is a good one. Enjoy. When Jeanna pitched the idea of focusing on the people rather than the company, we said yes immediately. Our customers always have a good story in their back pocket.

Personally, I can think of half a dozen off the top of my head. We thought, why not highlight with our sense of humor at the end? Jeanna’s thought to go ridiculous was just the ticket. The plan for the Sonic logo was to be the glue between traditional marketing and new marketing. The podcast was new. They hadn't ever created something like this before. It needed to link back to Left Coast as much as possible.

Introducing the Sonic logo in the commercials before the podcast launched helped the listener to mentally note the sound association with the company. Using the Sonic logo as an indicator of sorts helped them to remember. Oh okay, this is from Left Coast. Putting the Sonic logo into the commercials gave Left Coast’s sound a foundation. By stretching and manipulating that foundational piece. I built a theme song for the podcast that was familiar, and the theme song was born.

The sonic logo and theme song complemented each other very well. They're easy to remember and incredibly likable. The results? Our customers can't get enough of the podcast. It's great. Press two. Our social media shares have never been higher. Our Facebook followers started a hashtag Left Coast Laughs, where they're making up ridiculous stories of their own. The Sonic logo is being remixed and parodied on TikTok and Instagram too. It's very fun to watch all of this take place.

All this organic attention and interaction has generated a lot of new inquiries and business for us from new demographics. This was exactly what we were hoping for. Working with Jerry and his team was so much fun. We came up with a concept that everyone was very proud of. The best part? It’s easily repeatable with user generated stories being submitted to them every single day. They've got miles of runway for fresh episodes. They could feed that machine for as long as they wanted.

And the logo, as demonstrated through the theme song, is moldable beyond belief. Left coast can build out this branded sound for all sorts of audio brand touchpoints. Maybe the logo isn't quite long enough. You could build out the logo using elements of the theme song like this. (Example 1) Maybe the pace is too slow. You could speed it up with something like this. (Example 2) Maybe the key isn't quite right.

You could transpose it like this. (Example 3) Maybe you just want a more drawn out romantic version like this. (Example 4) Or maybe you like the theme song, but want to switch the instrumentation all around for a slightly different feel. Maybe something like this. (Example 5) There is no end to what you can do with branded sound. Sound speaks any language that you want it to, which is its own separate episode. So I'll just leave it at that.

If you want to hear the latest episodes of short stories Made ridiculous, you can find it at www. Not a real podcast.com. I hope you enjoyed this episode of my dream client scenario with a real audio branding case study example. If you have a real company and a podcast, or a sonic logo sounds appealing. Dreamr Productions would love to help. We produce branded podcasts, sonic logos, and strategize branded sound plans. Contact information can be found in the show notes.

Thank you so much to David Cole, Jody Krangle, Jason Gilbert and Adam Loftbomm for their help in making these fake characters shine. David, Jody and Adam are professional voice artists and you should hire them for your next project. Their details will be in the show notes. Thank you to everyone who helped me put together this very interactive fake case study. It is my mission to educate brands both big and Small. That sound is available and affordable for us all.

Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.