British Airways World Offers: 'Where is everybody?'

How advertising helped British Airways to find a new solution to the problem of passenger shortfall. New approach exploded a number of accepted beliefs: that using consolidators is the best way to off-load surplus seats; that travel agents would be alienated by direct response advertising; that selling on price erodes brand value; that consumers for shortfall tickets are limited to those currently in the market; that TV is an inefficient medium for short-term price promotion.
Agency: M&C SaatchiAuthor: Sarah Ryder

British Airways World Offers: 'Where is everybody?'

INTRODUCTION

The 1994 British Airways IPA paper explained how advertising contributed towards the building of the British Airways brand over a ten-year period. This paper presents a different role for British Airways' advertising: here we look at how advertising was used to answer a specific problem over a two-year period.

Specifically, this case study aims to show how advertising played a critical role in providing a new and profitable solution to British Airways' persistent problem of passenger shortfall. Airline seats are perishable goods,...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands