Virgin America is the latest marquee brand - and the first airline- to partner with IFC for a multi-platform integrated partnership around the network's hit comedy series PORTLANDIA. The partnership included an airport tarmac event, Facebook competition, national sweepstakes that awarded one lucky consumer a walk-on role in the current season of Portlandia, and this week, an in-show integration. The partnership is designed to promote Virgin America's new daily nonstop service between Los Angeles and San Francisco to Portland International Airport (PDX).
In addition, this month Virgin America is bringing
Portlandia up 35,000 feet via RED, the airline's state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system. The series will be available onboard fleetwide on all of Virgin America's 52 aircraft from February through May 2013.
"We are always looking for ways to reach like-minded consumers in unexpected ways and Virgin America was the perfect partner," said Blake Callaway, IFC's SVP of marketing.
"They were opening a new route to Portland, so we worked with the show to feature Virgin America in a
Portlandia sketch, and the show received exposure on all Virgin America flights and social pages. Virgin America also helped us fulfill a fun fan promotion. A cool show, a great airline, and a unique city all benefitted. That's a great partnership."
"Virgin America is known for being irreverent and the entertainment fan's airline of choice so we were thrilled to partner with
IFC in such a unique way," said Lu
Anne Calvert, Vice President of Marketing at Virgin America. "And we know that when
Portlandia makes its debut at 35,000 feet on our flights that it will also be a hit with our flyers."
Titled "Third Date Italy," the storyline integration appears in this week's episode. The sketch features
Fred Armisen and guest star
Rose Byrne, a newly dating couple headed to Italy for a third-date romantic getaway via Virgin America. Scenes of the sketch were shot aboard a Virgin America plane at Portland International Airport using real life Virgin America flight attendants, "in-flight teammates." The episode is set to air on
IFC at 10 pm ET/PT on Friday, February 8, 2013.
Last summer, guests onboard Virgin America's first SFO-PDX flight were welcomed at a Portlandia-themed celebration in an aircraft hangar - just steps off the PDX runway and included
Portlandia mayor and award-winning actor
Kyle MacLachlan, Portland Mayor
Sam Adams as well as winners of a unique
Portlandia promotion. In a nod to one of the show's
Cult favorite sketches - "Put a Bird On It" - where characters apply pictures of birds to everyday items turning them into instant "art," the airline and
IFC teamed up to create an "Arts & Aircrafts" Facebook competition that invited guests to upload their favorite photos and "put a bird on it" to score a discount off Virgin America's new PDX flights and a chance to win a spot on the inaugural flight itself.
IFC and Virgin America continued their partnership by offering guests the chance to win a walk-on role in season three of the hit original series.
The partners also launched the "Take a Trip to Portlandia...Literally" national sweepstakes, awarding a walk-on role to Jannette Bloom of Los Angeles, Calif. Jannette was flown to Portland on Virgin America, filmed in Portland, and was featured in the season's debut episode, "Bring Back MTV."
Known for its hip, mood-lit cabins, touch-screen in-flight entertainment and innovative features like fleetwide WiFi and power outlets at every seat, the California-based Virgin America has captured a list of industry best-in-class awards since launching service in 2007, including "Best Domestic Airline" in Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards and Condé Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards. The Red entertainment platform offers every guest a personal touch-screen entertainment center at their seatback - with 24 television channels, more than 35 on-demand films, a 4,000 MP3 library (with the ability for travelers to build their own playlist in-flight), a Kid's entertainment platform (with parental controls), videogames, music videos, interactive Google Maps that track a flight's journey, a seat-to-seat text chat system and more.
About Virgin America
Headquartered in California, Virgin America offers guests attractive fares and a host of innovative features aimed at reinventing air travel. Virgin America was named "Best Domestic Airline" in the Condé Nast Traveler 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 'Readers' Choice' Awards and "Best Domestic Airline" in Travel + Leisure's 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 'World's Best' Awards. The airline's base of operations is SFO's sleek and sustainable Terminal 2. The airline's new aircraft offer interactive in-flight entertainment systems and power outlets near every seat. Virgin America was the first airline to offer Gogo InFlight Internet on every flight and hosts the largest in-flight entertainment library in the U.S. skies, via the touch-screen Red platform. Virgin America offers daily nonstop service to Portland International Airport (PDX) from both Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). For more, visit: www.virginamerica.com
About IFC
IFC creates and champions authentic, original comedies that are "Always On. Slightly Off," which air alongside an extraordinary collection of films and comedic
Cult TV shows. IFC.com features exclusive video, web series, podcasts, blogs and additional content that engages fans with
IFC originals. The network's On Demand offering,
IFC Free, gives viewers the opportunity to watch select content from
IFC whenever they want. Established in 1994,
IFC is owned and operated by
AMC Networks Inc. and is available in over 70 million homes on every major cable, satellite and TelCo provider.
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