Heathrow Airport - Best Gift Of All

Heathrow Airport - Best Gift Of All

Along with the Summer holidays, Christmas is the peak season for most major airports with a lot of leisure travellers and families taking possibly their only flight of the year. The key is, how do you position yourself as a welcoming brand for those families and ideally encourage them to stay longer at the airport and spend money while they are there?

London Heathrow Airport’s solution has been to roll out its first ever Christmas TV ad campaign. Described as a “Christmas tearjerker” it is the sort of Festive campaign that you’d expect to see from a major High Street retailer. The 70-second promo stars a couple of teddy bears who are flying into Heathrow airport, with the strapline: ‘Coming home — the best gift of all.’ After collecting their bags and knocking over a stack of shortbread, the two fluffy characters make their way to the arrivals gate. As they wander out to scout for their loved ones, two children come running over. The whole ad is set to “I’m Going Back”, a 1970s song from singers ‘Chas and Dave’. According to Heathrow’s commercial director Jonathan Coen, the campaign looks to capture the excitement of arriving at Europe’s busiest international airport: “Christmas is my favourite time of year at Heathrow – the airport is abuzz with families and friends reuniting for this special time of year.” .

In addition to wall to wall coverage in the UK press, the campaign has reached hearts and minds worldwide. Writing in aviation blog Fight Chic, Marisa Garcia commented, “It brought tears to the eyes of my in-laws in Colombia and to us here in Denmark. That’s a pretty broad reach.” Best Gift of All is the second major campaign from Heathrow’s new agency Havas. In July, the airport’s first ever TV campaign ‘First Flight’ celebrated 70 years of flight at the airport by looking at Heathrow through the eyes of a five year old girl .