Marquis Plans Video E-Mail to Lift Jet Charters

December 14, 2001

Marquis Jets will debut a business-to-business e-mail campaign shortly after the new year to a select group of companies promoting its Marquis Private Jet Card program.

It is the first such effort for the private jet time-share provider.

"We want to see what happens with this group before we go forward with any other online efforts," said Kenny Dichter, co-founder of the New York-based company. "We chose this number and group because we think it's a quality audience and big enough to pull some real numbers from."

Marquis will send 2,500 direct e-mails to chief marketing officers at nearly 100 businesses and another 2,400 to athletes, entertainers and "young Wall Street types." The list was compiled in-house and is entirely prospects.

Dichter said the businesses targeted are "high-end travel and leisure companies, high-end hotel chains and cruise lines and five-star resorts who want to bring people to their locations en masse."

The campaign promotes a program offering a minimum of 25 hours per year for $109,000. The centerpiece of the e-mails will be a 4-minute to 5-minute video outlining the benefits of using a private jet and containing commentary from former National Basketball Association great Isiah Thomas and current professional golfer Jim Furyk.

The video will contain not "just straight info on our plan and company," Dichter said. "It will provide information on the safety and benefits of the program but in a 'salesy' package."

The video is completed but the text, which will be two paragraphs introducing Marquis and what it does, is still being hammered out. The video will be provided directly in the e-mail and not through a link.

"The goal is to get as pure a hit as possible," Dichter said. "And in order to do that, it would be best to provide the video right in the e-mail. If they have to click on a link, they may not want to bother."

"It's the difference between being passive and active," said Matt Morchower, CEO of Varsity Entertainment, New York, the television and video production company working with Marquis on the campaign. "Putting it directly in the message would be passive and easier for them to view it. Making them click on a link to get to it would be active. The people being targeted are very busy so we want to make it as easy for them to view it as possible."

Morchower and Dichter think the e-mail will serve more to spark interest in Marquis' services rather than as a deal closer.

"Jets are sexy today," Dichter said. "And with a lot of the concern people have with commercial airline travel nowadays, we are hoping to generate a couple of sales through the e-mail itself. And, if not, we still believe it is going to serve as a great qualifier."