Magic of Flying
British Airways
Issue 30 | March 2014
Agency
OgilvyOne London
Creative Team
Executive Creative Directors Emma De La Fosse Charlie Wilson Creative Technology Director, Concept Creator Jon Andrews Creative Director, Art Director Andy Davis Creative Technologist Lorenzo Spadoni
Other Credits
Project Manager Julie-Laure Coassin Account Director Alicia Iveson
Date
November, December 2013
Background
British Airways wanted to raise awareness of destinations, new routes and frequency of flights.
Idea
The idea was to create something truly engaging to remind potential passengers how magical flying really is.
So the world's first-ever billboards that reacted to planes flying overhead were created.
The BA ads not only displayed the flight number of the passing plane, but also from which part of the world it was flying into London. Dynamic retail messaging was matched to each route too.
The outdoor ran over 6 weeks at Piccadilly Circus and at a site on the main route to Heathrow.
Results
Over 1.25 million YouTube hits within the first few weeks of the billboards running.
15,000+ Tweets.
Creative Review made it one of their top 10 adverts of 2013 across all channels including TV.
The idea was featured in: Mashable, Engadget, PSFK, The Drum, Fast Company, Business Insider, Gizmodo, DailyMotion, Ad Week, The Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun, Conde Nast Traveller.
Our Thoughts
It’s late, I’ve seen a lot of great work, Patrick has me doing this whilst in the Caribbean and I’m being attacked by mosquitoes, but this is an easy one to like...which is also what happened a lot on Facebook.
What’s wonderful about advertising today is not just the ability of technology to inspire a creative idea but to be able to deliver it in a world-first like this.
It wasn’t around very long and it was posted up at only two sites but because it was so innovative, it really flew virally. (Another dreadful pun, Duncan – Ed.)
Undoubtedly, the magic of the idea did reflect the magic of flying.