benchmark report
airline marketing
inflight safety videos go creative
go further to get closer BRITISH AIRWAYS
For the second time in a year, British Airways has created a heart-warming video as part of marketing strategy for India that focuses on introducing India-specific initiatives and create an emotional and meaningful connection with an younger audience. Last year, BA showcased how important it was to stay close to your mother (1.1 million views on YouTube) and this year highlighted the importance of spending quality time with your loved ones. Launched on Valentine’s Day, the film narrates the story of Sumeet Gupta and how British Airways helped him surprise his wife Chetna by giving them an opportunity to escape from daily intrusions and get closer to each other. The film has been produced by Ogilvy &
MARCH 2014 ISSUE
ANZ, DELTA, VIRGIN ATLANTIC
Mather India and is based on the insight that young couples today have made work their top priority in life, which is taking a toll on their personal relationships as they are unable to spend enough quality time with their partners. This is especially true for young couples, who are surrounded with extended family for most of their young lives. For these couples, international travel provides great opportunities to spend quality time with their respective partners as not only are they away from work, but also from the daily intrusions of family and friends. The successful YouTube video has amassed over 2 million views in three weeks and is supported by a Facebook quiz ‘How close are you?’ helping young couples discover each other better. Three winning couples will bag a special return trip to London and a grand opportunity to rekindle their love and passion.
One of the biggest airline marketing trends has been the revival of the traditionally boring airline safety video. As airlines are thinking outside the box to create flight safety videos that passengers – and those on the ground – actually enjoy viewing, some of the videos have become commercials in their own right. Airline safety videos are now a hive of creativity and the past month has seen three more very creative takes by Air New Zealand, Delta and Virgin Atlantic. Pioneer Air New Zealand, famous for their Lord of the Rings-themed safety videos, has changed tactics by causing controversy with the launch of its latest ‘themed’ safety video that stars Spor ts Illustrated cover girls in the Cook Islands wearing nothing more than bikinis. Whilst the video landed the airline in hot water for sexualising the safety
message, it also has generated over 3.5 million hits on YouTube so far. Delta’s 80’s inspired safety video was created by Wieden+Kennedy to inject some humour into its safety message and features 80’s icons, from now humorous hairstyles to children’s 80’s star Alf, the Rubik’s Cube, Atari and even NBA legend and Airplane! Cameo star Kareem AbdulJabbar. Since its launch at the end of January, it has generated 1.4 million YouTube hits. Timed to coincide with the 86th Academy Awards, Virgin Atlantic new safety video , made by Ar ts and Graft, nods to the breadth of enter tainment options available onboard and pays homage to a variety of British film genres. Surprisingly, the beautifully animated video has only achieved 70,000 hits in its first two weeks.
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VALENTINES SOCIAL DIGITAL TRADITIONAL
