BA: “Terminal 5 is working”!
August 26th, 2008 Posted in Airlines, Airports, Travel StoriesBritish Airways has been running a campaign to prove that their new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London is working:
A reportage style will be adopted for the campaign, which signals a move away from the airline’s traditional approach. The 24-hour turn-around production times will also be a first for British Airways and unusual in the advertising world.
The campaign focuses on the customer experience. It will demonstrate how the terminal is working through indicators such as the length of time it takes customers to get through security, flight punctuality, baggage arrival times or simply how quickly a person can get from the plane to the arrivals hall. These details will be illustrated through photography of real customers during their journey through Terminal 5 captured the day before the ads appear in print.
The overarching aim of the campaign is to produce an accurate portrayal of how Terminal 5 is performing, demonstrating that it is now working effectively and helping to dispel any remaining negative perceptions.[...]
Katherine Whitton, British Airways’ general manager for marketing communications, said: “This campaign isn’t about making big promises. The terminal has now been open for 131 days, more than six million people have travelled through it and it has been performing very well for some time. We are letting it speak for itself and reflecting genuine customer experiences on the aspects of the journey that research tells us are most important to them.
“The aim of the campaign is to communicate to the travelling public in an open and factual way that Terminal 5 is now working well. The campaign will show that Terminal 5 is a fantastic building that provides a high-quality travel experience and will encourage travellers to try it for themselves.”[...]
Source: British Airways Press Release, dated 4th August 2008
I happened to walk past one of BA’s billboard adverts earlier today and was rather surprised to read that “Terminal 5 is working”, which prompted me to a Google search and submit this post. I don’t fly much these days but I had assumed, like most people, that most if not all of the initial problems had been resolved since the media had stopped reporting any.
In addition, some rather complimentary posts have recently been made on the Professional Pilots Rumour Network (www.pprune.org) among other sites.
So it is a little bizarre that BA felt that they should initiate this rather unusual marketing campaign for a service which after all should by default be “working”. I can’t quite envisage or recall any other quality airlines, such as Virgin Atlantic, advertising something which should be, really, de facto.
Further Reading
What did go wrong with at Terminal 5?, BBC News, 30th March 2008
Bags of Terminal 5 embarrassment for BA, Times Online, April 1st 2008
You must be logged in to post a comment.