'There may be no better way to reach our customers' - Bloomberg launches London City Airport tech hub in biggest ever marketing initiative

“The lounge area before was a little older, not very contemporary, and could have done with an upgrade,” McGuire told The Drum at the launch.

Instead, she proposed a complete revamp that would transform the space into something resembling Bloomberg’s offices.

“We’re not traditional marketers, but we knew this was the audience we wanted, so we thought of something to do differently," McGuire said. "We had the ticker [the length of digital display which streams information] going round the inside of our building so we already have the information and know how to digitise and display it.”

Not stopping at a ticker, the Bloomberg marketing team proposed a series of new additions to the LCY departure area. The lounge is now a Bloomberg Hub, “a combination of branding and customer service”, and is comprised of five main elements – a media panel, media ticker, lounge, media wall, and Wi-Fi sponsorship – all which carry up to date information coming from the media conglomerate. As passengers arrive at security and passport control, they are met by the media panel, which consists of six 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) 55-inch digital screens carrying tailored messages according to the time of day. Running 130 metres around this entryway and into the departure lounge is the media ticker, which offers a stream of digital media, electronic data and visual information. As passengers into the lounge they can choose from six different zones. In the “work” areas of these zones, passengers have free access to tablets and PCs as well as international charging stations. Also in the lounge is the heart of the tech venture, the media wall. The wall delivers essential travel information and gives passengers the latest news and analysis, relevant data, TV clips and promotional content coming from Bloomberg, all curated in real-time. From personal devices, they can connect to free Wi-Fi sponsored by Bloomberg. “From a creative perspective it’s been an amazing project,” said Damian Totman, executive creative director at Bloomberg. “It’s very much a collaboration between us and LCY.” McGuire told The Drum it chose London for its first venture - rather than, for example, an international airport in the US were the brand is more widely known - into this area because outside of the US, the complexity of Bloomberg’s business is often misunderstood. Also, McGuire said, City Airport is by and large seen as a business airport, meaning fewer tourists fly in or out of it than Heathrow or Gatwick. McGuire added that she hoped the hub would not only offer European passengers a service as they travel, but also educate and inform them of what Bloomberg is without going down the out-of-home route. “We think of it as practical information, not advertising,” explained Totman. Commenting on the opportunities for other brands to work with Bloomberg to advertise on the platforms, which is now premium ad space, McGuire said: “We’ve decided for the moment it’s going to be a promotion for Bloomberg. About 85 per cent is content that can add value and about 15 per cent is advertising. And that’s the balance we like to keep. “In the future we might consider opening it up to some of our clients, we have a lot who would be attracted to this proposal, but not right now,” she said. Unable to reveal how much has been invested in the hub, McGuire simply said that it is ongoing and that it will be continually evolved over the course of the three-year deal with LCY. “We’ll change things up. Every four months you might see something slightly different at the airport, new content, something different about the furniture, something seasonal. People come through this airport average six, seven, eight times a year so they want to see something different. We want to keep it fresh for them.” When asked about the roll out of Bloomberg Hubs to other airports, McGuire was similarly coy, saying there would "probably" be one opened in the US and potentially another in Asia after that.