benchmark report
airline marketing
digital
choose your own adventure
look up
BRITISH AIRWAYS
British Airways latest promotional campaign, dubbed ‘Yourope ’, cleverly makes use of YouTube’s interactive features in a new video series that looks to generate demand for BA’s European destinations of Rome, Paris, Berlin and Barcelona. Shot as a point-of-view first person experience, the viewer is transported via a series of feel-good short clips simulating their experience of British Airways from check-in to arrival into the city of their choice. From there, the viewer can make a choice between two different sides of the city. Berlin is split into Punk & Posh , Paris is Classic & Curious , Rome offers Old & New and Barcelona can be viewed by Day or by Night . The narratives then direct the viewer through the city using slightly less obvious impressions of the city, giving a truer natural experience. Helping
DECEMBER 2013 ISSUE
BRITISH AIRWAYS
generate further traffic, the end of each clip then links the viewer back to the rest of the series of videos. So far, both Barcelona and Paris have proved the most popular interactive video tours, gaining on average 20 percent more traffic than Berlin and Rome. All the videos were created by Ogilvy & Mather. The videos are also done in bursts, bringing in short clips in a montage of travel experience. This delves into the Vine-style short video clip experience, while also reflecting the indelible, episodic memories that travel delivers. The campaign is part of an integrated whole, with a Vine promotion and Pinterest boards coming up next to encourage travelers to share their own 6-second postcards and other favorites in these destinations.
British Airways has worked with Ogilvy’s digital arm 12th Floor to custom-f it digital billboards with surveillance technology that detects and activates the billboards when the airline’s f lights pass overhead.
that will also help promote the points of difference the airline offers, such as ‘Fly the new A380 to Los Angeles. ba.com/ lookup’, or details such as the lowest fare available or the temperature at the destination.
Located in Piccadilly Circus and Chiswick in London, when the billboard ‘detects’ a BA f light f lying below the clouds that is visible to passers by, a child star ts running, pointing up to the sky – chasing the airplane. The billboard then updates to ref lect the f light details, like “BA f light 475 from Barcelona”, along with a URL ba.com/lookup . Onlookers can then go online and view destination details and ultimately make a booking.
The online video of the billboards in action has now gone viral and has already amassed 750,000 in less than 10 days, becoming an adver t in itself. It has been suppor ted by a microsite and the hashtag #lookup.
The f light messages are accompanied by other relevant messages to the f light,
8
EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
