Episode 120 - British Airways A British Original Ads Reviewed by Mars and The Digital Voice
British Airways’ latest ads focus on why we choose to fly, rather than on the in-cabin experience. The campaign, chosen by Contagious for Advertisers Watching Ads, is Uncommon’s first with BA and a repositioning of the traditional airline brand.
Does this bold and emotive approach score big for BA with our guests Virginia Barnes (former Brand Director at Nuffield Health), Cordelia Linacre-Brown (European Brand Director for Maltesers at Mars), and Julia Linehan (Founder and CEO of The Digital Voice)?
Finally, how does the “French Boys” ad fit in with the wider “A British Original” campaign and what can the industry learn from this? Hear it all and tell us your opinion in this week’s episode!
Episode 120 - British Airways A British Original Ads Reviewed by Mars and The Digital Voice
Transcript - It’s not perfect, but you get the idea!
Tom Ollerton 0:00
Hello and welcome to Advertisers Watching Ads. This is a weekly show where brands watch other brands' ads.
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 0:06
I was gonna say... I thought there's like a subtle, subtle recruitment element.
The way it's shot...
Julia Linehan 0:10
We didn't understand what they were saying, did we? We were like, "I don't know. It was lovely."
Virginia Barnes 0:21
Certainly made me want to go to Paris.
Tom Ollerton 0:31
My name is Tom Ollerton. I'm the founder of Automated Creative and thanks to our partners, Contagious, which helped choose the ad this week. But before we get to that ad, let's meet this week's guests.
Virginia Barnes 0:40
Hello, I am Virginia Barnes. And until a couple of weeks ago, I was the Brand Director at Nuffield Health.
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 0:46
Hi, guys. I'm Cordelia Linacre-Brown. I'm the European Brand Director for Maltesers at Mars.
Julia Linehan 0:53
Hi, I'm Julia Linehan. I'm the founder and CEO of The Digital Voice PR Agency.
Tom Ollerton 0:59
And all ex-guests on the show, so I have the highest of expectations.
This week's ad is from British Airways. It seeks to put the brand right in the emotional heart of British flying culture.
So, on the count of three, five is really amazing, one is not amazing, so one, two, three... A five, a five, and a four. That's a thumper! Well done, British Airways! Well done, Uncommon! Cordelia, what are we looking at here? Can you give us a sense of what the campaign is overall?
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 2:43
Yeah, it seems like a really broad campaign with a lot of different executions, that feels for me quite different to what I know of BA's traditional, more functionally-focused advertising that's really focused on that kind of in-flight experience. This seems to be really hearing the emotional experience you get from the travel versus the travel itself, which I really think, yeah, pulls on the heartstrings in a nice way. And I also think it's really interesting execution, that's more category first, potentially, post-COVID, post all the lock downs, and people not flying, to really give reasons to get away versus just fly with them.
Virginia Barnes 3:16
I think it's brilliant. And actually, I find the whole campaign really quite emotive. Quite a few of these executions really get me. The use of sounds is just really clever. They've made some really bold choices creatively, which sort of take it right down to the tiny, intimate moments that mean that you connect. It feels really like a big, bold brand campaign without being the puffy, you know, sort of British, Britain's favourite airline stuff of before. It's sort of much more about the, as an individual, the reason why you would fly, the emotional benefit there. And it does it in that really intimate way that makes you connect with it. So I think it's fantastic.
Julia Linehan 3:16
I think both of you have said so many of the right words for this. It's beautiful, it's bold, it's moving, it's emotive, it's so many other things. It's British. You can't deny the cinematography, which is just beautiful. You've hit the nail on the head, it pulls at the heartstrings. So originally, when I looked at the first one, which was just the French boys one, and I thought that in isolation, very, very niche. Context wise, wasn't right up my street, then you look at it's 32 in the series, and 500 billboards. That's perfect, because that's going off to personalization. That's going off to context. The ad industry can take that somewhere and with contextual targeting with programmatic targeting, brilliant. It's going to hit the right audience. So it is the right message. It's beautiful, it's emotive, and it's gonna... It's gonna... It's going to perform.
Tom Ollerton 4:44
I hate when everyone agrees. It's so boring! What...
Julia Linehan 4:48
There is one negative. Do you wanna hear the one negative? And it's the only one I could scrabble around with. When I watched the first one, the French boys, I was like, it's beautiful, beautiful artwork. But is this... Is promoting flying to France from Britain in a time of climate change really the direction we want to go? That was... Honestly, I was scrambling around for negatives, if I had to pick one, it's that. Other than that, sorry, I'm right behind this. Go on British Airways.
Virginia Barnes 5:14
There is emotional range within the campaign. And I think that's a sign of a big fat campaign vehicle that works and has a lot of flex with it. Like I could see this working for a while. I can see this being an idea that works for a number of, a number of years, to be honest with you. And the reason I say that is last night, when I thought we were just looking at the French boy one, I think that ad is... That's sexy! So from sexy to, to sort of, sort of emotional thinking about family to hilarious, the outdoor stuff. You know, I think that's great. I think the fact you can have that range within, within the campaign, within these various executions, I think is fantastic. It showed there's a lot of room to go with it.
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 5:54
Completely agree that I think this campaign has real longevity. And so I think as it becomes more established, I think then it creates a stronger link to BA. So I could see this, you know, in a few years' time potentially being really effective. I love the executions that I've seen. I'm sure there are loads more out there. You can see how this could expand to you know, working with influencers, content creators talking about their reasons for flying, you could see, you know, super culturally relevant reasons for flying, you know, around, I don't know, home for Christmas, or whatever is going on kind of culturally at the time, you could see how this would expand.
Tom Ollerton 6:25
Works on lots of different formats, doesn't need to explain itself. But is this going to drive more bums on seats?
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 6:30
Does this make me want to fly off to Paris for the weekend? Yes. Will it make me pay £50 more to do it with BA over easyJet? No, honestly. Short term, I feel like it'll be a category grower. But potentially, the brand isn't as strong as it could be. But hopefully, if they're consistent with it, in the long term, it will really work for BA as well.
Tom Ollerton 6:48
Where's the space for everyone else here when they've seemed to have owned so successfully, a very emotional, British heartland?
Virginia Barnes 6:54
Well, by not trying, not trying to emulate this. If I was a competitor and saw this, I would be thinking, "Crikey! What do we have to do to respond?" I think the point about it's gonna get stronger over time. I agree with that. So you need to be pulling your socks up, you know, you need to be thinking about, "Right, how do we respond to this?"
Julia Linehan 7:13
I think as well, if you think about what British Airways have got right is they put on customer first. What's the experience to the customer when they go abroad? And what are they going there for. It's all about the customer. Any competitor should absolutely be thinking about that first and then creating it, creating a short film or a moment around that. There are other moments that exist in the experience of going abroad. They've just plucked those ones and they've set it in that scene of bringing that to life. But I think that the other competitors simply should go stay true to customer first to be successful.
Virginia Barnes 7:46
BA are one of the ones that have suffered the most because some of the operational choices they make through, made through COVID, in terms of staffing levels, and actually easyJet performed better, because they didn't reduce services as much and therefore they were able to grow back. So perhaps, is this over promising? Is this setting up an expectation of a BA that actually they can't deliver? The other thing I wanted to talk about actually was that TV execution with the last scene, the fact that he is a pilot holding the baby, that is interesting to me, because again, I think that's about bringing the employees, bringing the people of BA... Like the scene, the, the flight attendant on, on the plane and the smiley faces and it's, it's about humanizing BA I suppose. So it's not like sort of... This sort of cold enemy, sort of faceless. It's the people at the heart of it, and the fact that they have their own family stories as well. And these emotive moments, I think that's an interesting choice, because it could have just been a man holding his baby, but no, it's a pilot coming home from work having had a you know... That, that's an extra nuance, which I think is an interesting twist.
Or it could be the pilot p*ssing off to Barbados for a week, couldn't it?
Could be.
Cordelia Linacre-Brown 8:54
I was gonna say I thought there's like a subtle, subtle recruitment element that shot where the airline staff kind of, guy looks out the window, and I was like, "Oh, he's just off on a trip. He's gonna have a lovely couple of nights wherever he gets to." Like, that sounds, yeah... So maybe the restaffing it's doing...
Julia Linehan 9:09
I could see that. Love that.
Tom Ollerton 9:13
So would you sign off this campaign in its current form? Yes or no?
Virginia Barnes 9:19
Yes, absolutely. Yes. Yes.
Tom Ollerton 9:21
Thanks so much for your time.
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