As if the airline industry didn't have enough problems

The UK's celebrity culture appears to be reaching a low point (in the high life!).

Mainstream broadcaster ITV is to launch its own celebrity-run airline for a new reality TV show.

The airline will have 12 "famous faces", according to the Guardian, taking on such roles as cabin crew and complaints handlers.

Monarch is reported to be the airline canny enough to associate itself with some free marketing for such a, er, high quality programme by lending the aircraft.

The terrifying news for Travolution readers is that producers will also create a bookable website!

The mind boggles.

Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Technorati tags: celebair guardian

Some bloke singing opera

Delegates from the Travolution Conference last week will understand why we are including this clip.

[ITV speaker Caroline Knight played this to demonstrate the power of user generated content - 15 million hits]

Anyway, back by popular demand.



Kevin May, editor, Travolution

Travolution Autumn Conf: Quotes #1

David Soskin, CEO of Cheapflights tells it straight:

If people spend time on media, sure as night follows day the money will follow. Social networking sites will be a huge recipient of travel advertising dollars.

Caroline Knight, online commercial partnerships manager for ITV.com allows her masterplan to slip out:

Total freedom of entertainment. This is what ITV.com - sorry, I mean ITV - is aiming for...

Travolution Autumn Conf: Broadcasters talk multi-channel

Some interesting examples from this morning's speakers on multi-channel media.

Broadly, we hear it conceptualised two ways. First as a way of reaching multiple audiences with varied media preferences (Caroline Knight of ITV.com observes that a show might have 10 million TV viewers with limited interest in consuming content online, but another smaller audience whose preferences run the other way).

Second, as a way of extending core content to create several touch points for each individual. Red Bee Media's Sarah Alexander points to the success of the Life on Mars series two campaign, whose 1970s-themed posters and booklets so enthused the audience in the real world that they were pinched and hawked on eBay.

Similarly, Caroline points to I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, which used several channels (TV, online video feeds, mobile voting and so forth) to create 'five impact points a day' for fans.

Medianiks note that you now have two five-a-day regimes: fruit and veg, and channels.

Both ways of approaching multi-channel are arguably extremes - one has consumers approaching the choice of media monogamously, the other promiscuously.