Gatwick Airport isn’t the first place you’d think of for a fun day out. But PR agency Brando has been helping to change that over the last few years, showing that just about anything is possible with good PR.
It all began back in 2009 when Gatwick appointed Brando to run a PR and experiential campaign to help increase retail spend at the airport during the peak summer months. Other agencies involved as part of the external marketing team included Naked, MindShare and BTL agency DNX.
Fashion shows and makeovers
Key to the programme was a new concept called Gatwick Fashion Week with TV fashion presenter Gok Wan lined-up as a celebrity host. According to Brando, the idea behind the experiential event was to “showcase retailers’ products through a series of fashion shows (and treat) holiday makers to hair, make-up and fashion makeovers from stylist Kirsty Drury.”
In order to get the message out, Brando publicised the Week with a news story highlighting the benefits of getting into a holiday mindset, a press trip for top fashion editors and an intensive promotions and features programme. This was supported by social media, run by Brando Social.
Holiday mood
The result was an immediate spike in both sales and consumer attitude. According to Brando: “Retailers experienced a 30% increase in sales during the show, 77% of passengers agreed it helped get them in the holiday mood, 13% more people perceived the stores as excellent after watching the show and 95% of passengers thought the show was entertaining. Overall, the campaign reached over 300 million people, secured an AVE of nearly £600,000, PR value of nearly £2 million and an ROI 1:10.”
Social media goes wild
Having delivered above expectations during summer, Brando was then briefed to develop an engaging, newsworthy, Christmas experience for Gatwick passengers in 2009. Sticking with the entertainment theme it launched the Gatwick Factor; a karaoke competition hosted in a snow globe complete with fake snow and Christmas trees. Passenger karaoke performances were filmed, uploaded onto a website and voted for by the public. Social media went wild with comments and 22,000 people voted across 112 countries.
TV, radio, print and digital coverage
Launched three days after the X Factor TV final, Brando negotiated runners up Stacey Solomon and Olly Murs to make Gatwick their first ever public gig and open the event. That was enough of a coup to secure coverage from London Tonight, the BBC, Channel Five News and most major print, radio and digital media. With a PR value of nearly 3m and an ROI of 20:1 it wasn’t a massive surprise when Brando later won a 2010 CIPR Excellence Awards in the event category. Another nice stat is that 86% of passengers said it made their experience of visiting the airport more enjoyable.
Catwalk in an airport
More awards were forthcoming when Brando brought back the Gatwick Fashion Week for a second year in 2010. Beating off brands such as EA Games and Ford Ka, Gatwick Fashion Week saw Brando create “the first ever catwalk show in an airport terminal in a bid to increase retail sales and brand awareness”. The campaign, which had Lily Cole on board, performed very well, driving sales by 33% and generating £1m worth of editorial coverage. It also made money for Great Ormond Children’s Hospital.
The big innovation in year 2 was a “Runway Models” competition which allowed travellers to upload their image from photo booths within Gatwick, or online at gatwickevents.com. Eventually, a male and female winner were chosen and secured a year’s New Faces modelling contract with Storm. These then featured in the Gatwick catwalk event referenced above.
Gatwick Glow
Alongside these big set-piece activities, Brando also helps Gatwick with some tactical activity. For example, Gatwick Glow was a campaign which saw passengers given a free spray tan. Brando built bespoke tanning booths in the North and South terminals and achieved great results. According to Brando, Gatwick Glow not only secured a PR Value of nearly 2m, a whopping ROI of 1:26, but the booths were fully booked every day.
Social media and customer service
The Fashion Show didn’t return in 2011. But that didn't prevent Gatwick picking up yet another CIPR Award for work by digital agency Rabbit. The campaign in question was 'talk to Gatwick' which won the CIPR 2011 Excellence Award for Best Practice in Social Media. In this case, Gatwick invited passengers to feedback on Twitter by placing physical prompts around the airport. By integrating the airport's social media and customer service operations, Twitter has become a 24/7 feedback tool. Following on, location-based service Qype was integrated into www.gatwickairport.com to allow users to rate and review the shops and restaurants at the airport via smart phones. Commenting on winning the award, Gatwick's head of airport communications, Sam Holgate said: “With all of our social media initiatives, we start by asking ourselves what will genuinely make a difference to our customers. Introducing new ways to talk to our passengers in real time has allowed us to act on their comments quicker.”