Title	HEATHROW 70TH CAMPAIGN
Brand	HEATHROW AIRPORT
Product/Service	HEATHROW AIRPORT
Entrant	HAVAS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Idea Creation	HAVAS LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

Name	Company	Position
Ben Mooge	Havas London	Executive Creative Director
Caroline Saunders	Havas London	Head of Client Services
Julia Mahoney	Havas London	Senior Account Director
Daniel Bolton	Havas London	Creative
Barnaby Packman	Havas London	Creative
Kiri Carch	Havas London	Senior Producer
Femi Ladi	Havas London	Producer
Dom & Nic	Outsider	Directors
John Madsen	Outsider	Producer
Alex Barber	Outsider	Director of Photography

The Campaign

Heathrow was 70 years old in the summer of 2016, 70 years of a true British icon, that has been the first step on countless journeys into the world. Heathrow has seen historical journeys, Princess Elizabeth returned to Heathrow as our Queen. The Beatles left from Heathrow as four local heroes, and touched back down in 1964 having conquered America. But to celebrate their 70th birthday, we chose to dramatise the journeys and stories of the people, to bring the magic back to the start of an adventure.

Creative Execution

Over 4 months, Heathrow celebrated their 70th birthday in a way that truly engaged and built brand love. Our emotional TV ad gained huge reach and re-established Heathrow in the minds of our audience. Prominent OOH placements celebrated the stories that occur on a daily basis through Heathrow, with digital and social enabling us to embellish further. Unique editorial content provided a snapshot of fascinating individuals in the airport, each of whom have their own experiences and stories of progression to tell; for instance Heathrow’s official photographer who over the years has captured iconic shots of celebrities and royalty. We encouraged participation through an engagement mechanic that enabled people to receive a surprise birthday gift in exchange for a personal Heathrow story. All the stories were housed on our campaign site and have since become beautiful and sometimes even tear jerking stories that have provided months worth of compelling content.

Over 8 thousand stories were submitted, even encouraging entries from 67 different countries (despite only offering a gift for those in the UK). This equated to over 8% conversion rate of visits to the site. This showed the love there is for Heathrow and the effectiveness of the story mechanic. We gained 65 million impressions through digital alone and over 23 million through social, meaning our reach was established across a wide ecosystem, beyond just TV and print.

Heathrow is the world’s busiest airport, but there’s a lack of emotional connection to the Heathrow brand itself. For Heathrow’s 70th birthday we turned a transport hub into a hub of stories and brand love. In airport Instagram spots, Plaques of famous Heathrow journeys. Online documentaries and podcasts of stories of airport heroes. Personal, true Heathrow travellers stories as outdoor. TV commercials of emotional departures and arrivals, a summer ad of a little girl and her owl bag flying for the first time, a Christmas film of two bears, who are really grandparents landing home for their grandkids.

Brands who deliver world-class marketing win through making their purpose feel personal. For Heathrow that meant establishing them as an airport that moves from processing people to progressing people. We created a new positioning for Heathrow that shines a light on our passengers and drives brand relevance by celebrating a higher purpose at an individual’s level. The 70th anniversary campaign acted as a rallying cry, to celebrate the great things Heathrow has achieved and the future that’s ahead. The campaign created an emotional connection to help humanise the brand whilst capturing data to learn more about our passengers and drive incremental spend. Previous research had unearthed copious amounts of love felt for Heathrow, giving us the confidence to create their largest integrated campaign to date that targeted all known and potential travellers (from business regulars to families and young couples) in the South East and engage with them to share