Could it be? Will it be? If you live in the Denver area, you will eventually see subtle orange and blue signs around town that "Ted" is coming. A farmer was on the news last night because someone layed out a huge bunch of sod in the shape of the letters, TED. He has no clue who did it. When the news channel asked around at the garden stores nearby, one simply mentioned that "we will find out who Ted is soon".

Interestingly enough, the farmers land can be seen on approach to DEN.

If you look at http://www.rockymountainnews.com you will see an ad banner that simply says "who is Ted?". When you click on it, it takes you to http://www.meetted.com which has several pictures of the orange and blue stickers at Invesco Field, with Mayor Hickenlooper, and at local malls. If you read into the ad campaign enough, you will start putting the pieces together as I have.

TED is short for uniTED.....

TED ? Hmmm

Tilton's Extremely Desperate ?
Tilton Exploits Denver ?
Tilton (Expletive Deleted) ?
Total (Expletive) Disaster ?
Target Every Dime ?

or my favourite...

Tilton's Eventual Demise ?

Whoever it is, it is one of the most obscure ad campaigns I've ever seen. The intro to meetted.com says things like,

"here's to glazed dougnuts"
"here's to friends that answer the phone AT 3AM"
"get in the car and drive until you're lost"
etc. etc.

opaque to say the least. Although if it's got people talking, I guess it's working!

I'm not in denver, but I too am intrigued.

I just did a whois on meetted.com. I'm not going to post it here but it's registered to an individual in Plymouth, MN. It doesn't look like a corporate registration at all, but again it might be UAL's way of disguising things until TED comes out.

The website is all very cutesy-poo - full of young 'n trendy hip concepts ( "cutting knee deep powder" - one assumes they mean snow not cocaine) mixed with good ol' Amurrican values ("when you shovel your driveway, do the whole block"), intended one assumes to appeal to visceral sentiments rather than putting across a specific idea. Good for a teaser campaign, but a bit obvious.

My guesses on the "clues" - not in any particular order:

Here's to Denim - reference to new crew uniforms

Mogul Runs and Knee Deep Powder - your choice for leisure travel to ski destinations

Sushi, Glazed Donuts (Krispy Kreme), and Mac and Cheese - new in-flight menu offerings?

Lyrics to your own "Songs" - not sure what this is, but it has to mean something is offered that you cannot get with Song.

Here's to Friends (Friendly Skies/Friendships) that answer the phone at 3:00 AM - 24 hour call centers in addition to web site booking.

Vegas with 2 best friends - companion fares built into fare structures

Movies with orangutans - San Diego??

Get into the car and drive until you're lost - most "fly/drive" fare/package offerings.

Know you're neighbors names - whereas Song is hard to tie into Delta, they want us to know that "TED" is a part of United.

Fresh Flowers on Sale - reference to last minute sale fares, rather than having advance purchase requirements.

Next time you shovel the sidewalk, do the entire block - enough of winter, its time to get away to a warm weather destination.

I think I missed a couple, but if you want to read in the clues, TED may be what is coming from UniTED.




[Edited 2003-11-06 19:03:26]

Part of United. Get it...

UniTED !

 

(pity it had to be the arse-end).

Thanks Andersjt...

You just reaffirmed my theory. Now I am CONVINCED its UAL. From being on the inside, I can assure you, UAL employees know nothing about this. Thats how anonymous this is.

If you try to contact them to share sightings, it gives you a hotmail.com email address ([email protected]). As anonymous as you can get.

JC

TED? That's definitely a unique concept, especially coming from United. Probably an attempt to grab the spotlight. I'll have to find out more about this.

Interesting...

The font is *the same* as the Helvetica Bold United uses in many of its marketing materials.

The blue is the *exact* same CMYK color as "United Blue" (I checked it).

And the orange = fun/hip. Note how Delta, in comparison to jetBLUE, used a neon Green. Naturally, the only choices for United's LCO would be red or orange... Orange goes better with blue (United Blue especially).

Althought we could be reading too much into this... it is intriguing.

Good work, JC5280!

Is the Orange the same that is used in the cheat lines of the current and former liveries?

Nice point Andersjt....it may be. And now that I look at that font, it definitely is a UAL font. Anyone familiar with their ads knows that font.

Thanks UAL744flagship! But I hope I am not leading everyone in a wile goose chase here.

Personally, I would like to see United reinventing itself rather than starting a new airline-within-an-airline that probably won't work and may be the final nail in the coffin for UAL! If they can come up with this stuff for a new airline, why can't they do it for United?

A whois lookup shows that the domain is owned by someone in Minnesota:

Organization:
Charles Murphy
Charles Murphy
15820 9th Avenue North
Plymouth, MN 55447
US
Phone: 612-599-9816
Email: [email protected]

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: MEETTED.COM

Created on..............: Tue, Oct 14, 2003
Expires on..............: Fri, Oct 14, 2005
Record last updated on..: Thu, Oct 30, 2003

Administrative Contact:
Charles Murphy
Charles Murphy
15820 9th Avenue North
Plymouth, MN 55447
US
Phone: 612-599-9816
Email: [email protected]

The mac.com lookup takes you right to Apple's website. Also note that the domain was created on October 14, 2003. You'd think their marketing department would have been working on a campaign for at least a month before releasing it...

Isn't United's advertising agency out of Minneapolis??????

When they dumped Leo Burnett, they went to an agency in Minneapolis, but I cannot remember the name.


[Edited 2003-11-06 19:24:39]

Also, a reverse phone lookup does not take you to a business, it takes you to someones home.

Does United use any advertising agencies in MN??

or this is some new apple/mac thing and has nothing to do with UA....

"If you're going to shovel the sidewalk, why not do the entire block?"

Whereas Song focused on Northeast to Florida, TED is the choice for coast to coast. Using DEN as a hub offers more flexibility or options in getting a TED flight from non-TED cities.

Wasn't there a thread mentioning that Delta was starting and planning on increasing Song presence in SLC?

You're probably right Potomac - this may be a lot of wasted energy on our part.

[Edited 2003-11-06 19:31:30]

A search of advertising agencies in Plymouth, MN show two:

Newell Company
Sable Advertising Systems

I have not heard of any of them.

Fallon is a big agency in Minneapolis with BMW and United Airlines as clients. They're the agency that came up with the BMW films with Clive Owen.

Ok...ok...I have to ask:

Will United mainline be renamed to "UNI", in order to seperate the two in customer's minds?

It would make sense...I think...but again, I'm no marketing genius  

FYI...

As United uses 4-digit nose numbers for their fleet, the new nose numbers for the LCO will be 49XX series. The current A320s are 46XX.

B1200

I am willing to put my money on Ted being UA's new LCC. Too many "coincidences" for it just to be a fluke. If you've explored the website and seen the pictures, it appears as if a massive ad campaign and giveaways have begun, one that, considering the size of it, only a corporation with significant assets could fund.

flyted.com is registered to
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione an intellectual property law firm

In 2002 they were named Chicago's largest trademark law firm and United Airlines is one of their biggest clients.

The domain name is registered on 9/26/2003, 10 days after United's press release announcing the LCO out of Denver.

[Edited 2003-11-06 20:14:36]

www.flyted.com would cause this to make more sense that just www.meetted.com - but that website doesnt bring up anything...

"In 2002 they were named Chicago's largest trademark law firm and United Airlines is one of their biggest clients."

That doubles the credibility of it all in my mind...

Potomac:

Nothing may come up, but United didn't plan on starting up "TED" until February 2004. It doesn't change that flyted.com is taken, and there is an indirect connection to United Airlines.

meetted.com is just a marketing tool. Probably someone at Fallon (Charles Murphy?) registered it personally to keep things mysterious.

Are you all sure this is gonna be an airline thing? I mean...maybe a new computer system? A new chain of restaurants? A fanatical religious cult?

I hate mysteries...

If it is a new LCC, that's fine. But, why all they mystery?

well thats what i'm saying - i buy into this connection a lot more with the www.flyted.com site and the indirect links to UA than i did with just www.meetted.com. obviously activating the site now - if we have indeed discovered it - would be letting the cat out of the bag prematurely.

i still think the notion of "ted" as a market-facing name for the LCO is a little wacky though - song, tango, jazz aren't normal either, but this is different. we'll see - maybe this is all a ploy or we're way off base and we'll all look back on this and wish we'd never put forward such conjecture!

The meetted.com website doesn't look very professional to me. Is "Ted" anything like Burger King's infamous "Herb?" Does anyone else here agree that if an airline with a long and proud history has to hire marketing consulatants to create a new, trendy-looking, "internet era" spinoff to differentiate itself, it is essentially admitting that its core brand no longer has equity with consumers? People don't want a free latte on their way to the bus (Airbus?), they want to get where they are going on time, comfortably and for a low price. So ok, it's an LCC and they want to differentiate from the "full service" United brand. But save on intercontinental routes or maybe transcon, is there any demand for fares higher than what the LCCs are offering? Ultimately there will be no shorthaul full service carriers anyway, the public isn't willing to pay for it. So the rich will have private jets (or frax or their charter card more to the point), and the rest of us will be flying Southwest or jetBlue or Song or AmTran or TED or BOB or whatever the majors have to morph themselves into to please the shareholders.

The LCO is due out in February of 2004, but, we start selling tickets on it by December. So it makes sense to advertise with an ad campaign now.

How could it be a computer thing when the advertising is being done primarily here in Denver.

It is certainly something affiliated with United. Here's how:

Registry info for flyted.com (specifically look at the DNS entries at the bottom!)
--------------------------
Organization:
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Crystal Plaza One, Suite 208
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202-3603
US
Phone: 703-415-0305
Email: [email protected]

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: FLYTED.COM

Created on..............: Fri, Sep 26, 2003
Expires on..............: Sun, Sep 26, 2004
Record last updated on..: Tue, Oct 07, 2003

Administrative Contact:
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Crystal Plaza One, Suite 208
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202-3603
US
Phone: 703-415-0305
Email: [email protected]

Technical Contact:
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Crystal Plaza One, Suite 208
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202-3603
US
Phone: 703-415-0305
Email: [email protected]

Zone Contact:
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Crystal Plaza One, Suite 208
2001 Jefferson Davis Highway
Arlington, VA 22202-3603
US
Phone: 703-415-0305
Email: [email protected]

Domain servers in listed order:

DNS01.ULS-PROD.COM 209.87.112.200
DNS02.ULS-PROD.COM 209.87.113.200

--- End of Registry Info ---

So now let's take a gander at who owns the ULS-PROD.COM domain, i.e. the machines that "point" web users to the machine that hosts the flyted.com website...

Registry info for uls-prod.com
----------------------------
Organization:
UAL Loyalty Services
Craig Stevens
8550 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Floor 8
Chicago, IL 60631
US
Phone: 773-557-4000
Email: [email protected]

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: ULS-PROD.COM

Created on..............: Fri, Jan 11, 2002
Expires on..............: Tue, Jan 11, 2005
Record last updated on..: Thu, Aug 14, 2003

Administrative Contact:
UAL Loyalty Services
Craig Stevens
1375 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 300
Schaumburg, IL 60173
US
Phone: 847-969-8150
Email: [email protected]

Technical Contact:
UAL Loyalty Services
Host Info
1375 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 300
Schaumburg, IL 60173
US
Phone: 847-969-8150
Email: [email protected]

Zone Contact:
UAL Loyalty Services
Host Info
1375 E. Woodfield Rd., Suite 300
Schaumburg, IL 60173
US
Phone: 847-969-8150
Email: [email protected]

--- End Registry Info ---

Case closed. Meet your new United LCC.

I look forward to chatting with all of you. I've been reading a.net for years.

Regards,
Mike

Bingo.....nice work Mikey. I knew I was right!  



There are changes abound for the A Concourse in Denver!!!

Gosh, I wonder why the LCO would use the A....cough cough customs and immigration cough cough.

"Why would the LCO use the A"?

Because they can.

Might these be some of the A changes?

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_2406116,00.html

cheers

mariner

Bistro1200...

Dont forget the 47XX series. Those are A320s as well. Not just 46XX

the photos and graphics on the meetted site look real cheap to me...in fact, i did a website for my small, 3 employee business that has graphics and photos like that, and i am no web developer....so unless this is "grass roots" marketing, i.e. designed to look like it was done by an amateur even though it wasn't, maybe things are worse at UA than we thought!

Ted's seats:

Nose 49XX
0F/156Y = 156 seats (new)
Note: 66E (Economy plus)/90Y

Is www.meathead.com any relation to this site you're talking about? Incidentally, I can't help but like an airline that's named after me!  

Wow "TED" makes "Song" sound good...

Greg

Here's to Hollywood blockbusters.

Two possible meanings: 1) IFE, 2) service to Hollywood/LA.

The graphics on the meetted.com web site may not be cutting edge, but the other collateral materials (stickers, handouts, jumbotron postings) are definitely not cheap.

I noticed the Blue and Orange are also the colors for the Denver Broncos. Now there is news of a compromise on the "A" gates at DIA. I think TED is definitely United's way of making friends with the city fathers.

Why TED though? How does it sound to everyone? Fly TED?, Fly the Friendly Skies of TED? When planning your next vacation, think of TED?

Here's to Mogul Runs and Knee-Deep Powder with TED? Here's to Las Vegas with your 2 best friends and TED?

I wish I were younger and hipper, I might appreciate it more.

[Edited 2003-11-06 22:26:07]

This whole advertising campaign is strangely familiar to the mLife campaign a few years ago. Spend a ton of money, launch a website, and don't tell anyone what it means.

Regards,
F9W

Here's even more proof:

(CHICAGO) Thursday, May 2, 2002 - UAL Loyalty Services, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of UAL Corporation (NYSE:UAL) responsible for United Airlines website, united.com, today announces the launch of the UnitedEscapesSM travel packaging service, a comprehensive online travel planning tool. Travelers can create their own personalized UnitedEscapes packages by combining travel on United, with car and/or hotel accommodations into a single special-value price. To celebrate the introduction, customers earn 2,500 Mileage Plus® Bonus Miles in addition to standard flight miles for each package purchased.

Link: http://www.neatgroup.com/20020502-united.htm

Although the actual press release has nothing to do with the LCC, it states that UAL Loyalty Services does the web site for the UA sute.

2 more observations
The website is very orange, which is the color associated with Easyjet in Europe. Stelios (Easyjet's founder) said he picked it because it was highly visible and no one else was using it (in Europe). Of course, in the US orange has been a prominent part of UA's identity since the '70s
Also, the website features a couple of pictures of a guy on a Segway scooter. The Segway, aka Ginger aka It, was during the '90s tech boom and before its introduction to the public hyped as being a revolutionary technology that would change the world. When it was finally unveiled, it was underwhelming to say the least and sales have not lived up to the overhyped expectations. It has also had some performance issues.Not the best icon to invoke in unveiling a new airline, so I hope UA has better luck with TED!

I hope Ted isn't an oily stinky businessman soaked in sweat that keeps falling asleep on my shoulder...

Or the dorky kid in the church camp group who can't stop singing...

First TED aircraft:

N495UA. A320, goes into paint shop very soon, possibly this weekend. Delivered to UA 30AUG2002. This times very well with the meetted.com site. I'm sure pics will be coming soon.

One thing I didn't immediately notice about the registry entry was this...

Domain Name: FLYTED.COM

Created on..............: Fri, Sep 26, 2003
Expires on..............: Sun, Sep 26, 2004
Record last updated on..: Tue, Oct 07, 2003

In other words, how much confidence can they have in "Ted" if they've only registered the domain name for one year? By comparison, check this out...

Domain Name: UNITED.COM

Created on..............: Thu, Dec 17, 1998
Expires on..............: Fri, Dec 16, 2011
Record last updated on..: Wed, Oct 08, 2003

...meaning that exactly one day after buying the flyted.com name for one year's use, they made sure that the united.com name was theirs until 2011.

It begs the question: is "Ted" just a temporary fix?

If the rationale behind TED is that it's half of the word United, when can we expect to see an LCC from AA called "Rican"....Of course it will specialize in routes to the Caribbean from NYC...

The website is not supposed to mimick a large corporation. I think is intended to look amateur.

The denim reference could be to the new uniforms or even the seats. I have never seen denim seats before on an aircraft.

9news.com says UA will be giving Frontier 3 gates of theirs on the A Concourse. Now, wouldnt that be nice to have to make the F9 pax walk right by the new TED gates?

From some more inside info I just received, we will be seeing a TED plane here in Denver later this month. If you are a spotter, I wouldnt worry about it, I am sure it will be flown in during the darkest hours of the night.

I can't say too much more...

Maybe they're gonna split up United...

UNI and TED.

Uni...hmmm...wonder what routes they will fly. Central America? Or flights with low revenue (a play on words with "uni").

And then there's Ted...well, why don't we ask Ted!!! That meetted website has a email (A hotmail email!!!) that you can contact them at.