British Airways invites people to #lookup

Joss Davidge, managing partner of brand experience agency BEcause, continues his weekly quest for great marketing ideas. This week he looks at how British Airways has thrown down the gauntlet with an interactive digital experience.

It would have been hard to avoid the developing chatter about the new British Airways screens that appeared in Chiswick and Piccadilly Circus last week. The seemingly normal ads featured a child and some text, but the ‘magic’ (and it has been referred to it as that often in press coverage) lay in the fact that the videos actually interacted with the planes that were flying overhead.

The digital displays also harvested data from that particular flight, displaying interesting and useful information, like where it was flying from or what the temperature was at the plane's destination.
 
This campaign is a stroke of creative genius from the BA team. It is interactive, intriguing and brilliantly simple. Focusing on a childlike interest in planes that, however many Air Miles you have clocked up, still lies somewhere within us all. I challenge you to deny that you have not looked up into the sky and wistfully wondered where the streaking plane in the sky is off to; well here British Airways is giving you the answer.
 
We are very aware at BEcause of the importance of engaging consumers with brand messages, we are moving further and further away from the days of old static advertising. Brands are, rightfully, aiming to create more meaningful connections with consumers though experiences. British Airways has done this well through innovation; captivating crowds nearby, generating a burst of consumer conversations off the back of it and interesting the wider press in its clear and simple ‘look up’ message.
 
Read more from Joss Davidge.