Two Colorado companies are taking direct aim at their competition with aggressive new advertising campaigns.
Frontier Airlines launched its attack Sunday with new TV ads touting itself as “Denver’s Favorite Airline.” Denver-based Quiznos is to launch ads taking on Subway today.
Thirty-seven percent of metro Denver travelers named Frontier their favorite carrier, compared with 22 percent for United Airlines, according to a survey commissioned by Frontier and conducted in July by independent market research firm Harris Interactive Inc.
“It is exciting, definitely good news for us,” said Frontier spokesman Joe Hodas.
The Quiznos ads use man-on- the-street style interviews where people including police, a firefighter and a construction worker are asked to compare a Quiznos cheesesteak sandwich with one from Subway.
Graphic text in the ad notes that the Quiznos sandwich has twice as much meat and is made from prime rib. One man in the commercial quips that he can’t even see the meat in the Subway sandwich.
“There’s no comparison between Quiznos and Subway. We’re taking on Subway to prove that point,” said Quiznos chief concept officer Tom Ryan.
The ads were done by Ogilvy & Mather of Chicago and production was overseen by independent auditors who purchased both Subway and Quiznos sandwiches at the same time, the company said. Company spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer said she did not know how much the company spent on the campaign.
A representative from Subway, the country’s largest sandwich chain, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Frontier declined to say how much it was spending on the six-week campaign, which was created by New York advertising agency Grey Worldwide. It consists of TV ads featuring Frontier’s animal pitchmen hiding from the paparazzi, as well as an outdoor component.
Rochester, N.Y.-based Harris Interactive surveyed 595 metro Denver adults who have flown commercially at least once in the past three years. It has an accuracy rating of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
“Frontier Airlines really resonates very strongly with Denver travelers,” said Jim Quilty, vice president of travel and tourism research for Harris Interactive.
But United, the largest carrier at Denver International Airport, refuted the survey results.
“Our studies say that we take better care of Denver customers,” said United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.
Staff writer Julie Dunn can be reached at 303-954-1592 or jdunn@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-954-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
