Nationwide Financial Services and a start-up airline called Skybus have announced a first-ever ‘co-branded airplane.’ Gee whiz. What a breakthrough concept.
The Airbus 319 will display the Nationwide logo and its long-running tagline ‘Nationwide Is On Your 
Side’ on the fuselage as it trucks around various Midwest destinations.
Nationwide’s Mike Switzer says the branding will allow Skybus to charge ‘outrageously low prices.’ Oh, ok, I get it. Give me a minute while I switch my insurance policy to Nationwide.
The very thought that someone will be influenced on a purchase as important as life insurance just because the plane they ride in has a logo on it is absurd.
It’s also another great example of a marketer missing the key ingredient of connecting with consumers in our information overloaded society: understanding their pain and offering a solution.
And, speaking of pain, is there a more overt symbol of an object that continually causes pain than a plane?
Just wait until the first big snow storm causes massive delays and the Nationwide-branded Skybus is idling on some godforsaken airport tarmac hour-after-hour. I guarantee some sweaty, irate passenger will stand up and shout, ‘Hey Nationwide! If you’re on our side, get us out of this friggin’ plane!’
This looks like the most absurd partnership I have ever seen. In what world would a new budget airline want to associate itself with a life insurance provider? Shouldn’t they want to disassociate themselves from the need for life insurance? Perhaps they actually are selling to their customers’ pain: make sure you have Nationwide life insurance because you’re about the fly on our dodgy low budget plane? Madness.