Silver Best use of 2012 summer of sport

Client British Airways

How did the campaign make a difference? Don't Fly. Support Team GB. British Airways asked people to stay at home and be the #HomeAdvantage. The ‘Social Symphony’ gave a voice to social noise connected to London 2012; more than 50,000 people visited and over 65,000 soundwaves were generated. Over 700,000 tweets and posts were collated and tagged.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? British Airways was the official airline partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and wanted to ensure standout and engagement. The problem was always going to be that every major advertiser, official or otherwise, would be focussed on the Olympics. The public was going to be invited to tweet, vote, text or visit by more companies, for more competitions, more than ever before. Instead of asking people to do something, British Airways asked them NOT to fly. Instead, British Airways wanted people to stay at home and do what they were doing already. Paint their faces. Wave their flags. Shout at their TVs till they lost their voices. British Airways asked the British public to be the #HomeAdvantage.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? We talk about volume of online chatter and social buzz. But one thing unites this social noise. It's silent. Even tweeting doesn't make a sound. If you weren't sitting in the stadium, there was no sound for the #HomeAdvantage. So a ‘Social Symphony’ was created; it aggregated all the related tweets, updates, comments and posts, and used them to generate a live, constantly updating soundwave. Each pixel represented a message, and the more social noise there was, the bigger the graphical wave became. A multi-layered score with different instruments and melodies was commissioned to bring it to life, rising and falling as the volume of social comment increased and decreased. When Jess Ennis got gold the choir joined in, singing her name. Traffic to the website was through Facebook page updates, via ba.com and through banner advertising, with no TV or press advertising. When Team GB won, banners contained celebratory tweets inviting you to hear the sound of the #HomeAdvantage yourself.

Results Following launch to Facebook fans only, over the first weekend of the Games more than 3,600 people visited the site, spending an average of more than a minute. More than 50,000 people visited during the Games, more than 65,000 sound waves were generated and interacted with – and more than 700,000 tweets and posts were collated and tagged.

Team Emma de la Fosse, Charlie Wilson, Pavlos Themistocleous, Andy Davis, Paul Pearson, Laila Milborrow, Alan Lead, Jon Andrews, Claire Middleton, Richard Parkes

Other contributors Richard Canavan – Composer, Katy Welsh – Involvement (e.g. Telemarketing, production, etc), Deon Sensky – Involvement (e.g. Telemarketing, production, etc), Lorenzo Spadoni – Involvement (e.g. Telemarketing, production, etc), Sysomos – (Heartbeat)