- Steve Miller, Brandweek

DETROIT A new campaign from Flexjet, a business jet ownership program of Bombardier Aerospace, insists that a personal plane is a sign that you've achieved a certain status.

"Certainly, private jets make a statement. Ours say 'I've got work to do,'" reads the copy in one of four Flexjet print ads breaking this week. The ads, via Team One, El Segundo, Calif., will run this month in a number of magazines including Forbes, Worth, Wired, Fast Company and Barron's. Online ads will appear on similar finance-oriented sites.

In an ad called "Depreciation," copy reads: "Consider slowing the depreciation of your most valuable asset . . . You." It then goes on to explain how business travel causes stress and takes up valuable time due to long waits at airports. On the other hand, owning a private jet eliminates those headaches.

"One has to say there is a certain pride in having reached a place in your life where you are able to make this acquisition," said Nathalie Bloomfield, director of marketing at Flexjet. "It is something that you would stand back and congratulate yourself on how far you've come."

Indeed, at $8 million for the company's Learjet 40 and $27 million for a Challenger 605, congratulations are in order. But the elite wing of status has gotten crowded, with waiting lists for private jets stretching over four to five years for some companies. Flexjet's sales grew 30 percent last year, per the company.

Bloomfield said the key to marketing private jets is to focus on the busy target audience, which generally has household assets of $30 million and an average of $1.5 million in discretionary income annually. The demographic is male between the ages of 45 and 55.

With strategically placed print ads in upscale publications, Flexjet's focus is "narrow and deep." "One of the first obstacles is to break down the approach to make sure you are [targeting] people with the right net worth, " Bloomfield added.

Bombardier Flexjet spent $2.5 million on advertising last year, down from $4 million in 2006, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.