Advertising @ Ryanair

Ryanair spend as little as possible on advertising. It is done in-house. O'Leary himself oversees much of the promotion of Ryanair. They use simple adverts that tell passengers that Ryanair has low fares. Ryanair employs controversy to promote its business. For example in 2009, the company reasoned that passengers would be charged £1 to use the toilets on board. O'Leary reasoned that passengers could use the terminals at either the destination or arrival airport, would speed things up. It was reasoned that this is what passengers wanted. O'Leary also argued that larger passengers should be charged more since they took up more room - again it was reasoned that majority of passengers want this to happen.

Ryanair has been a fun little jokster. Take into account that they have a history of pulling April Fools jokes in the past. There was this prank of Selling porn to on-boards, then their was one with providing moon flights

Ryanair launches moon flights , click here for more details.

After you click another message appears: GOTCHA, Happy April Fools Day, we’ve no moon flights yet, but we’ve millions of FREE earth flights! Click here to book your free flight.

Then there was “first class seating” April Fools prank, which goes as follows

The Irish discount airline Ryanair today announced plans to introduce a First Class section on all of its pan-Europeanflights. Aircraft conversion is scheduled to begin after the busy summer travel season and is expected to be completed in time for the Christmas travel rush.
Ryanair's new premium product will provide travelers with a whole list of unprecedented travel comforts at no additional charge. Travelers will enjoy the following amenities:

Use of Check In Desk
Free Hand Luggage (15lbs)
Free Checked Bag (35lbs)
Boarding Pass
Use of Jetbridge (where available)
Guaranteed Seating
A generous 30" pitch
Reading Light
Window Shade
Overhead Luggage Bin
Free Water
Access to the Newly Introduced Inflight Refreshment Center
Valet Luggage Delivery via Baggage Carousels
Free "Ryanair First" Sticker

Overall Ryanair has been viral in terms of advertising, first you get media outlets to report on the story, creating buzz and free advertising. Then, after it is announced it was a joke, there is another round of free advertising, saying it wasn’t true and how silly Ryanair is being.