AIRPORT ROUND-UP

AIRPORT ROUND-UP

In the previous article we covered the “One too many” campaign being rolled out at ten UK airports. Here is a round up of other airport marketing activity that caught our eye.

Seoul Incheon Airport and K-Pop

Our cover story this month is the Korean Air “Go Korean” campaign, where among other things the content hub includes a look at a K-Pop dance academy training the stars of tomorrow.

Seoul’s Incheon Airport has likewise been including K-Pop in its marketing activity.

In July the airport announced that it was teaming up with boyband BTS. In particular, the airport will be using eight animated characters created by BTS called “BT21.” These are now being used in social media activity as well as on airport signage.

The eight characters are themed around what the airport calls “the eight delights of transfer.” These include dining, the relax zone and the airport transit tour.

According to the Korea Herald, eight promotional films featuring BT21, have been produced and will be released via the airport’s social media channels..

For example in one film, three of the animated characters are sitting on airport benches. One of them is bored and another pulls out a leaflet featuring the free “Korea transit tour”, after which they all jump off the seats to go and take part.

The airport luggage carts will also feature the BT21 characters. The aim of the campaign is to target younger travellers from throughout Asia, as 85% of travellers into Korea come from other Asian countries, of which 60% are millennials.

BT21 was launched at the end of last year in cooperation with instant messaging network Line, through its “Line Friends” division. Line Friends has physical stores selling merchandise and fashion items in both Seoul and New York.

Billboard magazine reported that thousands queued up in front of the Times Square, NYC, store on the day (16 December) BTS-themed merchandise originally went on sale.

Macau Airport - Alien Invasion

Another airport, which has been using cartoon-style characters is Macau. Studio City Macau took over the baggage reclaim belts to promote its new “Alien Invasion” attraction.

Baggage carousels included Alien Invasion style characters (which to be fair don’t seem to be intended to look scary) on top.

Passengers are being encouraged to take a photo with the hashtag #AlienMIAadvertising and share on social media.

Finava - #LIFEINHEL

In November, our cover story was Finavia’s #LIFEINHEL campaign, where Chinese TV personality Ryan Zhu spent 30 days at the airport living in a purpose built cabin.

Ryan Zhu was given a challenge of completing 30 daily tasks (ranging from trying out with the Helsinki Airport fire service to having to buy a set number of items over a certain time frame). At the end, Ryan Zhu and his family (who were flown in from China) went on a trip to Lapland as a reward.

All the challenges were hosted on a special micro-site, with a short video created for each. Ryan largely spoke in his native Mandarin (with subtitles on the video),

reinforcing the fact that both Finnair, and Finavia proactively target travelers from the Far East who use Helsinki as an East / West stopover.

The campaign has now been recognised with a Bronze Lion at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, for which there were 40,000+ entries.

According to Finavia’s SVP, Director of Marketing and Communications Katja Siberg:

“We compete in international airport business, so it is important for us to set ourselves apart from others. #LIFEINHEL offered an excellent tool for this by being a globally unique campaign that interested people all over the world.”

London Stansted Airport - Plastic Waste Sculpture

Thousands of plastic bottles discarded at London’s Stansted Airport have been included in an art installation, highlighting the perils of plastic pollution in London.

The 16ft building, built at London Zoo, is called Space of Waste. It was created by London-based artist and architect Nick Wood, and will house information about how people can contribute to tackling the plastic pollution problem. Plastic waste is being talked about more and more in the aviation and travel industries, with companies trying to reduce their dependance on plastic items.

Stansted’s parent company, Manchester Airports Group (MAG), has given all 2000 staff a reusable hot drinks cup to reduce the number of coffee cups thrown away on site.

Dubai International Airport - Music DXB

Starting in November 2015, Dubai International Airport created a series of annual live music events at the airport called #musicDXB.

The latest #musicDXB event took place on June 28th. Lasting ten hours, it was headlined by Newton Faulkner. As part of the pre-event build up, Faulkner created an improv song about airports and played it live on Virgin Radio.

The event was livestreamed by listings website and magazine Time Out Dubai.

LAX - Art Installations

Two new art installations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) feature works by Los Angeles-based artists that reference physical and fantastical landscapes.

Bia Gayotto’s three-screen video installation, Xing LA: From Altadena to Long Beach, documents the artist’s three parallel routes of travel— by train, by car, and by foot—from the mountains to the sea. Paige Smith’s site-specific installation, titled Lost Los Angeles, features thousands of handmade gold paper “geodes,” creating what looks like an enchanted excavation site glowing with geode growth for passengers to unearth.

Both installations are on display through January 2019.

HSBC Airport Advertising

HSBC has become synonymous with airport advertising. According to Campaign, the bank pioneered the concept of advertising on air bridges in 2001, and now has a presence at airports worldwide.

Speaking to marketing publication The Drum, HSBC’s head of marketing Leanne Cutts said that airports are underestimated as an advertising medium: “It is an amazing media channel. Airports are one of those unique environments, one of the spaces that are actually growing as far as customer numbers are concerned.”

Leanne Cutts’ comments coincide with HSBC announcing its biggest ever airport campaign, with the aim of bringing to life its role in “connecting the world”, as well as raising awareness of its “Together we thrive” brand promise.

79 different executions are being rolled out across 17 airports worldwide, each has a ‘global scene’ as seen through the bank’s Hexagon logo. The campaign will feature on airport walkways that together span 58 miles.

The campaign will have the potential to reach 900 million passengers.

Lead agency Saatchi & Saatchi has produced a short film showcasing the campaign.