Ad of the day: British Airways welcomes back customers after turbulent year
2020 was fight or (no) flight for the travel industry, with the pandemic disrupting airlines like never before. With trepidation, the UK is slowly opening back up, but with cases in India spreading like wildfire it feels like a long time until we can travel with ease – with or without the vaccine passport.
And so British Airways (BA) has the impossible task of encouraging people to fly again, when the UK Government would rather they stayed put. And so, for its first campaign in two years, BA wants to reassure its customers that they’re in safe hands when they choose to fly again, relying on a big brand campaign to pull it from a turbulent year that saw flights reduced by two-thirds, causing a total annual operating loss of £6.4bn.
“There is a lot of pent-up demand. We know that from what we’ve been seeing and hearing,” insists director of brand and customer experience Tom Stevens, when asked whether people needed to be encouraged to fly at the moment.
“We want to make a really confident statement about British Airways, about our brands. We are in a very competitive marketplace, so it’s important for us to give customers and potential customers that reassurance that when they fly with us, they’re going to get that unique British Airways service.”
Created by BA agency Team Horizon (which comprises teams from Ogilvy, Wavemaker and Hogarth), ‘You Make Us Fly’ features real BA employees, all of whom volunteered to feature in the advert. “Our colleagues across the business have been missing what they do best – caring for our customers,” says Stevens.
“We want our customers to know we’re there for them. That they can feel reassured that they’re in safe hands when they choose to fly with British Airways. So the purpose of the campaign is to remind customers that they’re at the heart of our airline. That they drive a lot of the decisions we make. And, ultimately, it’s what gets us out of bed in the morning.”
‘You Make Us Fly’ is BA’s first campaign since 2019, when it celebrated its 100th birthday with a star-studded campaign. ‘A Love Letter to Britain’ explored ‘modern Britishness’ and national pride, and starred Olivia Colman, Anthony Joshua, Gary Oldman, Nicola Adams and Grayson Perry, who are shown boarding a plane dubbed BA100.
The celebrations marked the airline’s first major brand campaign since 2012’s ‘Don’t Fly’, which encouraged Brits to stay at home and support Team GB and ParalympicsGB at the London Olympics.
You can watch ‘You Make Us Fly’ in full above. To get in touch about Ad of the Day, please email imogen.watson@thedrum.com
