British Airways Redefines Travel Marketing: A Must-See Campaign

Sometimes you need to be bold to reinvent yourself. 

British Airways clearly accepted this challenge in its new ad campaign that attempts to re-establish its premium brand positioning, amid internal struggles and encroaching competition.

The airline went so bold that its ‘Windows’ ads don’t appear to be ads at all. There’s no tagline, no website URL, no call to action, no QR code. Even the logo is hardly visible.

Out of home executions feature uniquely cropped imagery that at first may seem off-kilter, like they were printed in error, undoubtedly prompting some bystanders to look twice. 

According to the airline, the campaign is designed to "capture the wonder on customers’ faces when they look out of an aircraft window and onto the world from 35,000 feet."

‘Windows’ is clearly a departure from your typical travel advertising, which often shows gleaming planes soaring across an open, majestic sky. Or, exotic locales where travelers frolic happily in their intended destinations. 

British Airways is no stranger to bold advertising

Instead of using the traditional travel advertising playbook, Uncommon Creative Studio – the London-based agency behind the creative – put the focus squarely on travelers’ emotions as they look towards their destination while building on British Airways’ 'A British Original' positioning. 

British Airways isn’t new to emotional campaigns. In 2022, the airline used OOH, digital, and print placements to highlight relatable reasons to fly. Once again, the ads were void of traditional product benefits, promotional prices, or specific calls to action, showing the airline understood travelers and their motivations.

Brand marketing that sells more than value 

Brands that are looking to move up-market should tap into something more than a customer’s basic needs or their hunt for value. Ultimately, British Airways knows that price isn’t an area where they will be able to compete against low-cost European counterparts. 

This campaign aims to solidify BA’s brand and positioning before travelers begin their search for flights, and even before price comes into account. But when that happens, the travelers are confronted with a tradeoff. Should I spend $100 more for a British Airways experience, or save $100 and settle for a discount airline that simply gets me there? 

What’s more is that the airline isn’t touting features or where they can deliver value. For example, BA is not advertising slightly more comfortable seats, or more convenient routes, or recently remodeled terminals. Diving into those features may very well bring it back to price for the traveler. Is it really worth paying $100 more to have just a slightly better seat?

That line of consumer decision making is what this campaign is cleverly trying to avoid altogether. 

Of course, the bravado of this campaign works because British Airways already has an iconic brand with strong awareness. Still, it underscores that powerful brand marketing has the potential to shift perceptions and expectations, ultimately making the purchase decision about excitement, emotion, and much more than dollars and cents. 

In the case of British Airways, they’re not trying to convince you to choose the cheapest airline, or even the one with the most bang for the buck. They want you to believe that having a truly great trip is only about choosing the right airline.

Prepare for the Future: How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2024

From the explosion of AI to the exploits of X, it’s been an exciting year for social media, e-commerce, and digital marketing in general. 

There are countless trends to watch and predictions to make for next year. Here are just a few of the things I’m thinking about as I look to the year ahead. 

Cookies are Being Deprecated

Third-party cookies for ad targeting and measurement are going away. This is huge. 

According to eMarketer, more than $123 billion in programmatic advertising is transacted via real-time bidding on the open internet—much of that being guided by the use of cookies today. 

As a result, brands, agencies, publishers, and ad tech companies, all have to rethink their media strategies in 2024. The entire advertising industry will shift to new targeting and measurement technologies in the year ahead, if they haven’t already.

Immersive In-person Shopping Experiences

During the pandemic, we loved browsing our favorite products from the comfort of our own homes. However, shopping behavior during this past year indicates something truly shocking, at least to me: brick-and-mortar isn’t going away. 

In-store sales have rebounded post-pandemic, and most businesses are confident that physical stores will continue to play a large role in the purchase journey. 

As such, brands need to invest in enhancing the customer’s in-store shopping experience to stand out from the competition. This is especially important when put into the context of an omnichannel landscape, where shopping can happen anytime, anywhere. 

The journey to the store is no longer just transactional, either. Enjoying the in-store experience is the main reason 35% of consumers shop in-store, and another 24% want to interact with products before buying.

Perhaps the biggest opportunities will be in bridging the online and offline gap, which might include options for: buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS); buy in-store, ship to home; buy online, return in-store. These will all be important to savvy shoppers in 2024. 

More Selling with Video

Video had a huge impact on the shopping journey this past year, with 54% percent of consumers demanding more video content from brands.

Video will continue to have a massive influence, helping shoppers decide which product or brand to buy, as well as enhance the in-store experience. That’s also why online retailers are introducing more video advertising units and live streams within their platforms. 

Brands will likely embrace more video across social media, where selling via live videos on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and others, is likely to grow. That’s apparent in the continued shopping capabilities that are being added to social media platforms. 

Of course, B2C brands are doubling down on short-form video and UGC content for good reason. The ROI on short-form videos is there, and that’s expected to continue next year. 

All Eyes are on YouTube

YouTube always amazes me. I’ve seen success on the platform from my own campaigns and content initiatives. In 2024, it’ll continue to be ripe with opportunities for brands and marketers. 

According to eMarketer, YouTube accounts for more than 20% of ad revenues and time spent with CTV in the U.S. That’s staggering, and it shows that the platform is building a following, even on the big screen. 

YouTube also caters to a wide audience, with Gen Zers and millennials accounting for the majority of viewers. YouTube’s influence is also expanding, fueled by a younger demographic deeply engaged with the platform. While TikTok and Instagram get all the buzz, Pew Research reports that 19% of teens use YouTube “almost constantly.” 

YouTube Shorts specifically shouldn’t be ignored in 2024. While daily views are still eclipsed by Meta’s Reels, YouTube Short generates more than 50 billion daily views and it’s growing rapidly. 

eMarketer predicts that YouTube’s growth will reach double digits in 2024 and 2025 and will exceed Hulu by 2025. That is just incredible and reveals the impact that YouTube still has on audiences. 

A Shift to Nano-influencers

Influencer marketing seems to have taken hold this past year, as brands become more savvy and embrace the fact that people follow people on social media. 

But what exactly is an influencer? That’s the question brands will grapple with in the year ahead. 

While macro influencers will continue to drive broader reach and brand recognition, there will likely be more opportunities for nano-influencers, or those with anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 followers. 

For brands, these influencers offer two advantages: lower cost and higher engagement. 

Consumers are on a Quest for Quality

The cost-of-living crisis hit hard consumers hard this year. Inflation, among other economic trends, are making consumers reevaluate their spending habits and prioritize long-lasting, premium items.

This was a BFCM 2023 trend where shoppers did hold out during big shopping moments earlier in the year to spend during Holiday. 

Beyond promotional cadence, brands should enhance their premium product offerings to cater to this rising demand. If you have a unique product story that emphasizes quality and longevity, tell it loudly and proudly.  

Shoppers are also looking for other qualities in their decision-making. Specifically, sustainability isn’t just a buzzword anymore. There should be messaging that speaks to what brands are doing to address it, either in their product, the packaging, or through other corporate programs, to appeal to the modern, socially conscious consumer. 

That too feeds into the shoppers’ quest for quality, where consumers say they’re willing to pay a premium for sustainably sourced items. Sustainability is also factoring into brand loyalty, especially among Gen Z. 

Rise of Retail Media Networks (RMNs)

Retailers are still investing heavily to create omni-channel digital experiences both in-store and online. The innovation here is really being led by Amazon, Walmart, and Instacart.

Stores will become more like their online counterparts, leveraging technology like self-service scanners and cashierless checkout, to produce more seamless shopping experiences. 

Online, retail media networks will get even better with new targeting capabilities, cross-selling and upselling opportunities, and provide easy access to retailer first-party data—critical in this new cookie-less world we live in. 

These retail media networks will grow by an estimated $10 billion this year, fueled by their ability to capture omnichannel sales attribution, tie online experiences to offline sales, and extend access to shopper data to exciting new digital ad formats such as social media, streaming video, and other offsite media. 

Closing Thought

By no means is this an exhaustive list. However, these are just a few trends and tactics I’ll be taking into consideration as prep for 2024 gets underway. What are you excited to lean into? Send me an email with some of your marketing predictions for this year.

5 Ways to Maximize Content Marketing ROI

Content marketing is one of the best ways to drive awareness, purchase intent and favorability. According to Nielsen, content such as video or native advertising can increase brand lift by as much as 42%!

The creation of content that’s both informative and helpful is also key to improving trust with customers. It’s especially powerful in the mid-funnel, helping to drive consideration through education. So, it should be no surprise that nearly 70% of consumers also prefer to learn about products and services through content rather than traditional advertising. 

Of course, not all content is created equal. As you build plans around high-quality content, here are a few tips to ensure it’s both profitable and flexible. 

1. Keep it Evergreen

The best way to maximize return is by creating content that’s going to last. 

Leverage original research and data, fact-based information, and visual charts, to tell a compelling story. 

A solid SEO strategy should complement these efforts, driving both link-building and search traffic around targeted keywords within a larger topic cluster.

2. Improve User Experience

Quality content isn’t enough to improve the return on content marketing without a strong design and information architecture that removes friction. 

Users should be able to read and interact with content without hurdles. But if the site takes too much time to load, has confusing navigation, and way too many pop-ups impeding their forward momentum, the content you create isn’t going to be consumed. 

Remove obstructions such as ads and pop-ups, and always be looking at ways to make navigation simpler and more intuitive. Remember that the user’s experience with your content is important for search.

3. Improve Calls to Action

As a marketer, a call to action or CTA, always seems obvious. But it’s amazing how easily they can be minimized or completely forgotten. You won’t be able to maximize content marketing ROI if you aren’t clear about what you want users to do next. 

Of course, leading up to CTA, you need to consider the user’s journey and keep their intent in mind.

What do users need? What are the pain points they’re trying to solve? What will they want to achieve after viewing or reading your content? Perhaps it’s to learn something, acquire a specific benefit, or make a purchase decision. Help your users narrow down those choices and take action – that’s a big key to increasing your content’s return. 

4. Great Headlines Sell

Whether it’s a banner ad or long-form article, your headline should catch attention by speaking to your users’ needs.

Headlines can have a direct impact on the return of content marketing, which is why A/B testing headline variations is also an important tactic to employ. The strongest headlines ultimately should convey a value proposition to users. 

Test several headline variations to help increase click-through rates on your content by as much as 5-10%.

5. Repurpose and Extend

Content curation is just as important as content creation. 

In many cases, improving return of content isn’t about creating something all-new, but rather editing or refining what you have already created. 

Summarize blog content into infographics. Use snippets from email newsletters for social posts. Expand a series of blog posts for an ebook. Embed a YouTube video on a landing page to drive organic search performance. Syndicate blogs within a sponsored article campaign.

The more you can reuse and repurpose content for other channels, the more you’ll get out of the content you’ve created. Plus, this strategy will help you maintain consistency in new formats as you reach different audiences.

In Closing

Content is critical for businesses large and small, but planning and creating high-quality content that customers will respond to isn’t easy. To ensure you’re maximizing your content marketing investments, following the above are just some of ways you could improve the ROI on your content development.