10-Jul-09 9:00 AM CST

CEO of InterAir Media Drew Stoddard Expounds on Marketing to the Travel Demographic from Ticketing to Taxi

Co-hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens interview Drew Stoddard, Founder and CEO of InterAir Media, a West Palm Beach, Florida-based firm that is the only media buying and placement agency engaged solely in airline/airport marketing and advertising. Other firms may have a division, but InterAir Media exists solely to help advertisers and their agencies design an aviation ad plan that fully integrates into an overall campaign strategy.

The inception of the firm in 2005 was the result of an in-office brainstorming session at his ad agency in which Mr. Stoddard conceived of a solution for the airline and airport media industry, and then began personally approaching individual airlines, airports and airport vendors one by one. The initial concept he began shopping was wrapping commercial airplanes with ads. The first day he began his research, he located a potential partner in Las Vegas. Before that day was over, a partnership was formed with Allegiant Air, giving Mr. Stoddard the right to sell the exterior of their aircraft to advertisers.

Within three months, Mr. Stoddard had executed InterAir Media?s first deal to the tune of half a million dollars, and knew immediately his intuition had been right. He folded his existing agency and officially started InterAir Media with Eric Neff, who is InterAir Media?s National Accounts Manager. The company that Mr. Stoddard shuttered was Ciao Advertising, which was based in Miami and opened in 2002. Ciao was a full-service ad agency with clients that included The Delano Hotel, Raleigh Hotel, China Grill, Tsunami restaurant, and others. Prior to that, he established his own consulting firm with one of the founders of Virtual Access Networks, a dot.com startup he?d worked at as Creative Director in 2000. As a consultant, Mr. Stoddard offered branding, creative strategy, and advertising consulting, and worked with such companies as 15 Group, a real estate investment firm in Miami, System 7, a smart-home technology provider and other boutique clients.

Mr. Stoddard graduated from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2001 with a degree in Computer Science. He is a 1997 alumnus of the country?s oldest boarding school -- Governor?s Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts.

Drew Stoddard?s non-airline-related hobbies include fly fishing, skeet and trap shooting, snowboarding and collecting classic Italian cars. In 2008, he married a woman he met in the seventh grade whom he ran into on the street in Miami five years ago. Mrs. Stoddard is a custom handbag and jewelry designer and the owner of Bunny & Chad, Inc. They reside in West Palm Beach.

For entertaining advice join hosts Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe for a lively and informative discussion.