United - Fly the friendly galaxy

United - Fly the friendly galaxy

Just as we were putting this issue to bed, United came out with a new safety video. It is a Star Wars themed one, which looks ahead to the Rise of Skywalker movie out at the end of this year.

The safety video is part of a wider Star Wars campaign, which has seen the airline paint a 737 in Star Wars livery. We covered the announcement of this in April, and United now says the aircraft will be taking to the skies from November.

United says that it will greet customers with classic Star Wars-themed music during the boarding process and distribute commemorative pins throughout December.

The aircraft’s interior will also feature a special plaque reflecting United’s relationship with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and include headrests affixed with the emblems of the film’s dueling factions, the Resistance and the First Order.

The airline says it will also offer Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-themed amenity kits.

In addition, United will provide opportunities for MileagePlus members to attend the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – through MileagePlus Exclusives, the airline’s platform that lets MileagePlus members use miles to bid and buy exclusive items and experiences.

The Rise of Skywalker will be the last movie in the Star Wars franchise to deal with the Skywalker story, and so it’s arguably the biggest film event of the year.

That being so, we felt the video felt strangely flat and low key. It follows the format of previous United videos where the backdrop includes different destinations (London, São Paulo etc).

You get a glimpse of Star Wars characters like C3PO here and there and people sitting in a cinema watching Star Wars, but otherwise it feels like a pretty run of the mill safety video with just a bit of Star Wars branding and music.

This isn’t the first time this year United has created a movie themed safety video, in May the airline released ‘Fly like a superhero’ coinciding with the release of the new Spiderman video.

Is it worth it?

The whole campaign begs the question, is the investment worth it? And what is United trying to achieve and say about themselves as a brand?

Yes, the corporate press release has a quip about customers and employees traveling to places “far, far away.” And yes, there will be a lot of demand for Star Wars premiere tickets.

However, Lucasfilm seems to be adopting an Olympics or World Cup style sponsorship strategy, with there being seven other official partner brands, including Porsche, Samsung and Bose.

Then, there’s the fact that both Virgin Atlantic and LATAM have also painted aircraft with Star Wars livery. True, those planes are not specifically The Rise of Skywalker themed, but a lot of people won’t make the distinction.

As a result, it’s questionable whether this will do much for United as a brand, and whether the airline’s efforts might get lost among all the Star Wars noise.