British Airways has just launched a new positioning "A British Original" and a new campaign "Every Reason You Fly". The campaign breaks conventions by focusing on small moments that happen because of travel in their 15-second ads as well as the real reasons people travel.
Part of the campaign involves 500 ads which feature three radio checkboxes and the words "Business" and "Leisure" then a third set of words showing the real reason someone is traveling, such as "Because the weather sucks" and "Remission".
The campaign was made by the profuse Uncommon Creative Studio with MG OMD handling media.
It's one of those campaign that has excited agency folk with industry writer Tim Nudd declaring "British Airways' New Ads Will Make You Love Copywriting Again". However, the campaign has also come in for criticism from the marketing effectiveness community and some experienced marketers.
I wanted to use the campaign as a way to bring both sides of the house together to discuss why some people love this work and why others think it won't work. Since 2020 especially, online discussions about advertising have often and quickly become toxic with people speaking over, around, and beyond each other.
So I brought together Colin Lewis and John Long to hear their perspectives.
Colin Lewis has spent over a decade marketing travel brands such as Thomas Cook, Stobart Air, City Jet, and flybmi. The travel tech company he last worked at has sold over $1B of British Airways tickets. And he has strong opinions about what works with travel marketing.
John Long is ECD at LG’s in-house agency as well as the former global head of creative for The Economist and an ECD at Ogilvy NY. He recently shared a Twitter thread comparing old advertising to recent digital advertising that stoked strong reactions and he's worked on the Southwest Airlines brand.
You can find Colin here: https://twitter.com/colinalewis
John is here: https://twitter.com/janthonylong
The new British Airways campaign is here: https://www.lbbonline.com/news/there-are-over-500-unique-reasons-to-fly-in-british-airways-unique-campaign
You can listen to a Sweathead interview with Lucie Jamieson, Co-Founder of Uncommon here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-if-you-could-make-an-agency-from-scratch-lucy/id1370723809?i=1000472372492
**
🔥 Strategy classes: http://www.sweathead.com
✉️ Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dscjW5
📸 Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/sweathead
🔊 Other links: https://znap.link/sweathead
Sweathead is a support group for strategists and account planners around the world.
We host conferences, online courses, live events, and podcasts. We also train companies.
Ogilvy Pakistan's Director Of Strategy Zahra Ali Explains What Makes The Agency So Effective (Effie Index Series)
How Strategists Work In One Of The World's Most Effective Advertising Agencies - Victor Stroe, Leo Burnett (Effie Index Series)
Interesting And Useful Is The Way To CSO Ryan O’Connell’s Heart - Ogvily (Effie Index Series)
Is Niche Marketing Making It Harder To Reach People? - Amber Chenevert, PhD, VMLY&R
A Gentle Comparison Of Strategy At BBDO And VMLY&R - David Moreno, BBDO (Effie Index Series)
The First Decade+ Of A Career (And Putting Yourself Online) - Aisha Hakim, ACD, 72andSunny
What Strategists Want From Work, Best Places For Strategists To Work, And Getting Old In Advertising - Monologue, Hell's Kitchen, NYC
Unleash Your Weird Self - The Secret To Better Strategy - Bonnie Wan, AdAge 2022 CSO Of The Year
The Visibility Mindset (Get Yourself Seen) - Bernice Chao, Asians In Advertising
A New Brand Strategy For Sofia, Bulgaria - Live Workshop With Adriyana Mihaylova
A Strategy For Sriracha, Get/To/By, Tensions Facing Strategists And Advertising News - Hell's Kitchen, NYC
An Anonymous Interview With The Instagram Account @Agencyprobs
Digital Trends But Useful - Simon Kemp, Kepios
Empathy In Strategy - Elisabeth Bromberg, Mildred Mae
When Work Doesn't Want You To Work - Monologue, Queens, NYC
What's Gen Z Up To These Days? Gen Z Research with Gen Z Researcher Andrew Roth from dcdx
Last Week My Bank Client SVB Collapsed – Jason Harris, CEO Mekanism, Discusses Dealing With Tough Times As An Agency Owner
How To Fast-Track Your Strategy Career - Christine Villanueva, CSO
What Ten Rounds Of Revisions And "Love The Strategy But Not The Creative" Mean - Monologue, Hell's Kitchen, NYC
How To Pitch With Joy (Plus Advice For Young Lions) - Nish Shah, Lifelong Strategist
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Right About Now with Ryan Alford
The Marketing Secrets Show
The Agile Brand™ with Greg Kihlström
B2B Agility™ with Greg Kihlström
The Goal Digger Podcast