This has nothing (and everything) to do with naming.

How did we get dragged into running the branding for an airline for five years? One day we got a phone call from Mark Booth at NetJets Europe. He had a fleet of 160 private jets that ferried VIPs all over the world. He said he needed a little help. Well, it turned out he needed a lot of help. Of course we didn’t know anything about aviation. But we said yes because he was a very cool guy and he had an instinctive feel for how to build a brand.

The first job: putting ourselves in our client’s shoes.

Strategy

We spent a month traveling all over Europe getting to know the people. They were doing a very conventional luxury sell: lots of plastic-looking models, wrap-around sunglasses and wet runways. We told them they needed to do a 180 and we laid out exactly what that meant. The answer was, “Do what it takes.” (We always admire decisiveness in a CEO).

Long shadows, long days on the tarmac.

Approach

We worked directly with Mark Booth, his senior team and the market research folks. We partnered with a great designer to shape the brand into something elegant but also very real. We managed everything from a $5 million ad campaign in 14 countries to the creation of a brand new $2 million website. The results: spectacular leaps in image and awareness.