With the new strapline ‘You make us fly’, BA is now putting its own staff – pilots, cabin crew, ground staff – at the heart of its marketing and communications. The British flag carrier is keen to both get its staff back to work, and reassure customers, ahead of the reopening of international travel on 17 May.
New CEO Sean Doyle, who took over the carrier last year, is keen to re-establish BA’s reputation for customer service. The former CEO Alex Cruz was heavily criticised for damaging BA’s brand in this sense. His reign was tarnished by industrial disputes with staff and controversial decisions to reduce legroom and stop serving free meals.
The campaign centres around a TV ad, created by WPP’s Ogilvy/Team Horizon, which first screens during Gogglebox on Channel 4 this evening. The film stars hundred of BA’s own staff and crew, and aims to reflect the “palpable sense of impatience and excitement at returning to the skies.”
BA’s head of global PR & social media, Victoria Madden, told PRWeek there would be a combination of paid and organic social activity behind the film “followed by corporate and consumer PR projects across corporate and consumer, which help reinforce the message around customer service and our people being at the heart of British Airways.”
The airline is taking a crowd-sourced approach to online content, encouraging its pilots to talk about their passion for flying again, and inviting customers to write to BA about the reunions they are looking forward to, with the hashtag #backtogetherstories.
Since the pandemic struck last year BA has ceased to use external PR agencies, instead running all comms in-house. Last week the airline announced a new corporate affairs director to run all comms and sustainability activity.
The TV commercial features the rousing swells of Flower Duet from Delibes’ opera Lakme – the same music that has…