June 10th, 2015 – Wheels Up recently saw a massive surge in its engagement and traffic mostly due to victories by its sponsorship American Pharoah and its brand ambassador, Serena Williams.
Engagement on Twitter increased 835 percent compared to the previous week with 698 retweets over the weekend. Facebook new page likes were up 165 percent and posts reach was up 662% from last week. On Instagram, the company skyrocketed to the top of the private aviation space category. From Saturday to Monday morning, the company website had over 30,000 hits, representing a 1,857% increase compared to the prior 4 weekends.
Kenny Dichter, the CEO and co-founder of Wheels Up, said the American Pharoah sponsorship was completed in a mere six hours on Thursday. The agency responsible for Triple Crown marketing called him at 6 in the morning, and the legal paperwork and deals were completed by noon.
“When the risk/reward is right, you push the purple chips up,” said Dichter to CNBC’s “Squawk Box” during an interview.
The Wheels Up name was printed on Victor Espinoza’s pants legs and lower back, (American Pharoah’s jockey).
“The leg is in my view the most powerful piece of inventory on the horse,” said Dichter. “And by the way, we had both legs just in case the cameras did a reverse deal and the lower back.”
Another winner was Serena Williams, Wheel’s Up brand ambassador, who won the French Open over the weekend, despite suffering from the flu.
“It’s all about partnerships, Serena has been a good friend for a long time” said Dichter.
Dichter noted that it is a buyer’s market for sponsorship deals currently, with sponsorship investments returning great value. He valued the deals at being worth $20 million for the company, with some analysts saying it may be worth even more than that.
In May, Wheels Up announced they had ordered 35 more King Air 350i for its private flight service. These purchases has been instrumental in creating more job opportunities; especially in Witchita, Kansas.
“Every time a Wheels Up sales person sales a membership: it might be a winglet, it might be a seat, it might be a piece of avionics; we take it really serious and American jobs in Witchita, Kansas are very important,” says Dichter, “I would say we are affecting hundreds of thousands of jobs.”