American Airlines-American Airlines Sports Lounge

AMERICAN AIRLINES - AMERICAN AIRLINES SPORTS LOUNGE

This October issue features a number of airlines who created immersive events such as pop ups.

For example, we’ve included an article about easyJet’s ‘Cafe van der Sprinkles’, while our cover story features Lufthansa’s ‘Travel Kiosks’ where they used live video to connect shoppers in German cities with kiosk owners in North America and Asia.

At the same time as easyJet opened its Sprinkle Cafe in London’s Leicester Square, American Airlines was across town in the Canary Wharf financial district with a pop-up “Transatlantic Sports Lounge.”

American Airlines already advertises heavily in Canary Wharf, public transport billboards advertising its 16 daily flights to New York are prominent.

The airline also has a track record of promoting sports events to office workers and businesses in the district, for example it sponsors the annual giant screens broadcasting action from the Wimbledon tennis tournament.

The thinking is obviously that sports is a big part of corporate culture in major companies and financial institutions, and as a result American Airlines has tapped into this.

The “Transatlantic Sports Lounge” is based outside Canary Wharf tube station, one of the busiest in London. Visitors are greeted by American Airlines flight attendants before being invited to visit the lounge.

Guests then sample American Airlines’ gourmet drinking and dining, as well as luxury private booths and areas to work and relax in. The immersive experience also gives guests the chance to be coached in, and then test, their American Football throwing skills to win flights to key US destinations.

At the same time, American Airlines has launched a geo-fencing campaign involving London taxis.

Apparently the first ad campaign to use geo-fencing on a moving object (in this case a black cab), the campaign sees ads being served onto mobile phones as each black cab crosses town.

As with the pop-up sports lounge in Canary Wharf, the idea is to target affluent consumers. According to taxi ad firm ‘Ubiquitous, which helped develop the campaign, London black cabs travel in areas populated by the ABC1 demographic.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

This is a good campaign because it is targeted. The number of people seeing the campaign will probably be in the tens of thousands, with far fewer actually experiencing the sports lounge for themselves.

However, out of those tens of thousands, a very high proportion will be people who have both the income and the need (because of their jobs) to travel to the USA, making them a prime target audience for American