Ryanair reported earlier this week in a press release that they have signed an exclusive five year deal with InviseoMedia to install seatback advertising across their entire fleet of 737s. This advertising will take the form of the “Inviseo Table,” a custom-made airline tray table with an advertising panel for printed advertisements.
In the press release, Anderson Cheng, the Acting-CEO of InviseoMedia commented, “This is a landmark deal for InviseoMedia. Ryanair have the diversity of routes, passenger volume and flight frequency to offer Europe’s major advertisers exposure to a unique and captive audience.” And that is exactly what it is…a captive audience…forced to look at whatever InviseoMedia and Ryanair want them to. Imagine that…hopefully there won’t be ads for things like erectile disfunction pills and cigarettes. There are very few things we want to stare at for 2-3 hours on a plane.
If you wonder how Ryanair can afford to sell seats at low prices, it is partly their secondary streams of revenue. Their upcoming in-flight cellular service, their seat-back advertising…low baggage allotments, fees per bag…Everything is ala-carte. We don’t necessarilly disapprove of ala carte fares…you can thus save money by taking less baggage along and bringing your own snacks…It is merely this…flying is hard enough with all the security and delays without adding these administrative headaches…and of course, the way Ryanair tends to conduct itself in its press.