London Heathrow and Munich Airport-Christmas Campigns

LONDON HEATHROW AND MUNICH AIRPORTS - AIRPORT CHRISTMAS CAMPAIGNS

The average major airport gets revenue from three main sources. Fees from the airline is of course one source. But that’s now typically dwarfed by parking and, in particular, money from retail concessions.

Hence many airports ramp up their marketing campaigns at the peak Summer and Christmas periods, hoping to get passengers in and spending money.

For the second year running, London’s Heathrow Airport has released a TV ad featuring two teddy bears. Coinciding with the airport’s 70th anniversary, last year’s spot featured the bears landing, going through immigration, getting their baggage and more, with the soundtrack being the Chas & Dave Song “I’m going back.”

This year Mr & Mrs Bear have come out again for Christmas, in “It’s a wonderful flight.”

The ad, which Britain’s largest newspaper, The Sun calls possibly “the cutest Christmas ad of the year”, follows Mr & Mrs Bear through time from meeting on a BOAC plane in 1967, to Mrs Bear welcoming her husband back with what’s now become a whole family of bears in the present day.

“ It’s a wonderful flight” has so far generated coverage in almost every UK national newspaper, as well as every marketing trade magazine. As a result, the initial investment in producing the ad has paid off many times over.

At the same time, Heathrow has created a micro-site which brings the campaign to life for fans. As part of it, you can take a

‘what kind of bear are you’ quiz and listen to the song that accompanies the ad - the 1966 single, ‘I couldn’t live without your love’ by Petula Clark.

Munich Airport, which regularly wins awards for being the best airport in Europe, has taken a different approach. A hallmark of MUC is to create regular live experiences in the space between Terminals One and Two.

In the Summer that has included building a surf arena and hosting the European Stationary Wave Riding Championship. Meanwhile, in addition to the “Surf and Style” event, the airport has also staged mountain biking and freestyle cycling demos in a “Bike and Style” arena.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Christmas experience that MUC regularly goes for is to stage its own Christmas market. This has now been going for the past nineteen years and features an ice rink, kids’ shows, live music and of course Christmas stalls selling traditional crafts as well as food and drink.

The Christmas market also sees MUC partnering with many of the airlines that use the airport. For example, Lufthansaowned Air Dolomiti staged a series of acrobatics shows, which included spectators being given the chance to win tickets to Italy.

KEY TAKE-AWAY

Both LHR and MUC’s Christmas campaigns are noteworthy for different reasons. Heathrow has taken a successful formula, the ‘bears’ that were first introduced to the public in 2016, and built on it. Just like last year, the reaction to the bears was almost universally positive, and this year’s ad has a lot of emotional ‘pull.’

By following the bears from 1967 to the present day, this new 2017 ad also reinforces the message that Heathrow has for the past 50+ years been the main international gateway into the UK.

Meanwhile Munich has pulled off another major live event with a real ‘wow’ factor. Just like the surf and cycle events, the Christmas market is big enough to bring people in from around Munich, and also encourage arriving and departing passengers to linger at the airport for a bit - and ideally spend money