British Airways: DON'T FLY

Credits & Description:

Advertiser: BRITISH AIRWAYS
Agency: BBH
Category: Best Use of Social Media
Advertising campaign: DON'T FLY
Agency Producer: Andrea Kenyon (BBH London)
Agency Producer: Chris Meachin (BBH London)
Art Director: Christopher Clarke (BBH London)
Agency Producer: Helen Johnston (BBH London)
Account Planner: Lucia Komljen (BBH London)
Creative Director: Justin Moore (BBH London)
Agency Producer: Louisa Gray (BBH London)
Copywriter: Matthew Moreland (BBH London)
Art Director: Emmanuel Saint M'leux (BBH London)
Strategic Business Lead: Keir Mather (BBH London)
Team Director: Mark Whiteside (BBH London)
Account Producer: Natalie Parish (BBH London)
Account Supervisor: Tracey Mcintosh (BBH London)
Creative Director: Hamish Pinnell (BBH London)
Copywriter: Simon Pearse (BBH London)

Campaign Description
In 2012 British Airways turned the notion of Olympic sponsorship on its head. Rather than ask how the Olympics could benefit BA, we asked what could BA do for the London Olympics. Our competitors were local and global Olympic sponsors who commanded far superior media budgets. We had to harness PR and earned media to overcome this challenge.Our insight was based on the power of home crowd support. If we could rally people to stay at home during the games then the chances of our athletes Olympic success would improve.To ensure PR attention we had to live this insight. Our answer was to do something no airline had ever done before. We asked the nation to not fly during the games but stay at home and support the teams by being the home advantage. British Airways’ Don’t Fly Support TeamGB/ParalympicGB campaign spanned over five months from May to September. It was anchored in poster, press and TV as well as an interactive digital app that allowed people to watch a BA plane drive down their street. According to Millward Brown, British Airways was the third most salient sponsor of the games. British Airways had the highest awareness for any airline and amongst Olympic sponsors and it was seen as the most proud to support the athletes and British talent. British Airways was also seen as the most patriotic sponsor amongst all Olympic sponsors.PR Week voted BA as the number sponsor of the Olympic games.

Client Brief Or Objective
British Airways wanted to be the most patriotic sponsor of the games. As the national flag carrier we had the right to claim this, but as an airline that normally flies people out of the country, we needed an insight that would give the airline a legitimate role to play during the London games. We looked at other brands past games behaviours and conducted research with former athletes, media personalities and former games attendees from Australia, Greece and China. We gathered insights on how brands used sponsorship, what the national mood would be and how to support home town athletes.

Execution
British Airways’ Don’t Fly Support TeamGB/ParalympicGB campaign spanned over five months from May to September.It began with digital and press partnerships that unveiled BA’s insight on the power of a home advantage setting up the rationale for the campaign. The ATL launch used a Super Bowl-Super Social media approach. High impact poster sites blanketed London with BA’s messages of support whilst an epic TV ad brought to life the Don’t Fly message. All activity was driven to a branded digital app that let people customise the TV commercial and watch a plane drive down their street. Whilst our #HomeAdvantage hashtag helped propagate branded engagement online. Across the games, daily messages of press and digital support for athletes and teams showed BA’s real-time commitment to both TeamGB and ParalympicGB.And at games end BA thanked the nation for their commitment and support with an emphatic fly-over Buckingham Palace

Effectiveness
The Don’t Fly Olympic campaign was the most successful campaign for British Airways in the past decade and most successful sponsorship campaign ever for the brand. The campaigns customisation app delivered over 5.5 million plays, whilst the TV ad itself generated an additional 1 million views on Youtube. The campaign generated over 400 thousand campaign and #HomeAdvantage tweets, leading to 3 billion impressions in total.According to Millward Brown, British Airways was the third most salient sponsor of the games. British Airways had the highest awareness for any airline and amongst Olympic sponsors it was seen as the most proud to support the athletes and British talent. British Airways was also seen as the most patriotic sponsor amongst all Olympic sponsors.Airline revenue increased 4.2% post the games.And whilst we can’t claim responsibility for the athletes phenomenal success, we liked to think #HomeAdvantage made a difference.

Strategy
From research we developed an insight on the power of home crowd support. The larger the support base that cheered on a home athlete, the better their performance. But in the lead up to games time, the nation was thinking of leaving to avoid the Olympic upheaval. Our idea would have to rally the nation to not leave but stay at home during the games to be the home advantage and support the athletes when they needed it most. As the main way for people to avoid the games (by flying out of the country), we decided to do something no airline had ever done before. We asked the nation to not fly during the games but stay at home and support the teams. Our PR idea was to ask the nation Don’t Fly and to create the biggest support base, the #HomeAdvantage.

Relevancy
British Airways, the nations flag carrier, was official airline partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. This represented a once in a life time opportunity for the airline to emotionally reconnect with the nation over patriotism for the Olympics and national athletes.However our competitors were local and global Olympic sponsors who commanded far superior media budgets. We risked having our message drowned out by overwhelming competitor media spend. We needed PR to pick up and run with our message to ensure earned media and brand saliency in a very cluttered Olympic sponsorship category.