The Caribbean LIVE

Background

British Airways wanted to use outdoor in a high-traffic shopping area – Westfield, London. However, there was every likelihood that busy consumers would probably not take notice of just another billboard.

The task was to get just one site to create buzz around the campaign message: ‘British Airways fly to more Caribbean islands than anyone else.’

What if the execution could catch the attention of passers-by and make outdoor an interactive, social and realtime experience all at the same time?

And, in the process, bring some Caribbean sunshine to a cloudy British shopping centre.

Idea

Over a weekend two holiday-makers began broadcasting live from a secret Caribbean island, their broadcasts beamed live across the world to a digital poster in West London. Passers-by were challenged to guess where they were – identify the secret location - for a chance to win a holiday to the same island.

Facebookers could also follow the live action and respond online, while also having all the video clues available to help them guess.

The digital billboard boosted response and kept interest high. Realtime answers were delivered both on-screen by text and as relevant video clues, or live action - cartwheels for a young viewer, Mexican Waves etc.

After one of the coldest-ever UK winters this was a great time to show the British public the warmth and accessibility of the Caribbean. Quite literally British Airways holidaymakers could bring a ray of sunshine in realtime to shoppers back at home. The location, Westfield, was chosen because it was busy and was in a wealthy area of London.

Results

Over the two days the billboard was live more than a guess-per-minute was received via SMS.

Texters entering the competition spent up to 15 minutes watching the holidaying couple in the Caribbean.

Compared to British Airways’ recent digital activity (online click-through rates), this activity was 11 times more effective at engaging the audience.

Our Thoughts

If I still worked in an agency, I would be badgering anyone who would listen for a brief for Outdoor right now. It is the medium with the most possibilities. Take this site, for instance. A one-off build became, in effect, a huge TV screen but one which engaged not for 30 seconds but for an average of 15 minutes. More than that, it was a huge computer screen too, connecting people and connecting media. It got shoppers (a) texting and (b) sharing the experience online in Facebook.

All very clever. When the Olympic Games come to London, I expect Outdoor to be where the real battles for attention and share-of-voice will take place. I’ll be almost as interested in that as the medals table.

Nice to see the name of Jim Thomas attached to this. Directory was a big fan when he was in New Zealand and we look forward to seeing him winning an equal number of awards here in the UK now he’s returned like the prodigal son.