Visitors to the installation were invited to ‘check in’ by cheery flight attendants, before queuing for their turn to enter the immersive game. Caroline Shortt, account director at BBH who collaborated with British Airways and MediaMonks for the project, explained: "Once you step up onto the game stand you are surrounded by an immersive Caribbean environment…[with] animations of each island, and you press our giant Escape key to activate the game."
"Everybody wins something, you can get some really cool little prizes like sunglasses and beach balls, but... the main prize is 25 pairs of tickets everyday to the Caribbean island we’re featuring that day."
According to Shortt, the idea came from the feeling of sitting in your office on a rainy British day, and wishing you could press the Escape button on your keyboard to get away to the Caribbean. From this first idea, the teams spent 7 weeks fully designing, building and organising the event.
Sophie McKinstrie, manager of PR and marketing, BA Gatwick, explains that inspiration for the project comes from the fact that British Airways flies to more Caribbean islands from the Europe than any other airline. "We decided with our tourist board partners to run a through-the-line campaign, and alongside our more traditional advertising channels we thought there’d be a great opportunity to incorporate experiential activity."
The stand took a team 9 hours to fully build and install the tech. Wouter Smit (executive producer, MediaMonks) explains that their aim was to bring the Caribbean into Victoria station. "Our animation team crafted these beautiful animations for each island."
Shortt says that public reaction had been positive, and that participant’s morale had remained high even if they only got to walk away with a British Airways beach ball. "In general, everyone at the event is really…happy for the winners."
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