2018 Silver Best design or art direction
12 Dec 2018
Agency: Ogilvy and Wavemaker
Client: British Airways
Campaign name: It's coming home
Campaign overview
When football felt like it was coming home.
What was the brief?
With the England football team surpassing expectations and World Cup fever gripping the nation, it was the perfect opportunity for British Airways (BA) to reignite its love affair with the British public
Strategy
As the nation’s flag carrier, BA’s role is to represent everything that’s good about Britain.
They wanted to celebrate the success of the England team and fuel excitement surrounding the tournament.
By behaving like a true fan, BA set out to enhance existing conversations and start new ones.
The approach centred on engaging with the British public. So, when people started to believe that the World Cup trophy really could be lifted by England, BA and Ogilvy and Wavemaker spotted a unique opportunity.
When the Internet began to create hilarious “It’s coming home” memes, inspired by England’s famous “Three
Lions” anthem, the campaign took off.
Given British Airways is right to be patriotic, and the core reason for an airline to exist is to transport people to
and from their “home”, it felt like a good fit for the brand.
Creativity
Appearing in print, outdoor and social, the team created a BA boarding pass that capitalised upon the “It’s coming home” euphoria gripping the nation.
Timing was everything when it came to bringing the strategy to life, with positive brand engagement depending on BA credibly riding the wave of England’s success.
The work and media bookings were turned around in one day to maximise impact. Despite this fast turnaround, the craft that underlines BA advertising is still evident.
Details on the boarding pass included the name of the passenger ‘Football’ and a flight scheduled to leave Moscow for London on Sunday 15th July at 18.00 – the date of the final.
The final execution was something only BA, as the nation’s flag carrier, could have credibly produced to capture the mood of the nation during the World Cup.
Results
Brand engagement was the primary objective for this work.
This metric mattered to BA because of their wider goal to re-ignite the British public’s latent love for the brand.
The boarding pass became the most positively talked about piece of advertising at the World Cup, appearing in high profile global publications such as The Sun, Mail Online, CNN and the BBC.
The campaign generated £115,000 worth of paid media value on a shoestring budget. And the organic engagement rate was 14 times higher than any other post distributed by BA across any social channels.
Across Twitter, the work achieved a 22.2% engagement rate prior to both England knockout matches – a rate 41 times higher than previous Twitter activity from BA in 2018.
The cost per engagement was £0.01, significantly lower than any previous activity from BA, and well below industry benchmarks.
Team
Team Horizon - Martha Riley, Creative Director - Dave Towers, Design Director - Tom Madden, Copywriter and Art Director - Morgan Hinds-Shorland, Copywriter and Art Director - Josh Harris, Managing Partner - Tom McManus, Account Director - Ed Hayne, Strategy Director - Rory Davis, Account Director - Liora Fox, Display Account Executive - Robert Simmons, Performance Senior Account Executive - Sophie Rhys Evans, Senior Project Manager - Lee Pepper, Team Horizon Head of Biddable.
British Airways - Hamish Mcvey, Head of Brand & Marketing – Paul Rogers, Marketing Manager, Global Campaigns & Communications - Louise Evans, Director of External Communications