Monday 5 March 2012

Failing the 'so what' test

I saw one of the new British Airways posters today. It reads:

"In 2012 we'll fit enough cable on board to lap an Olympic track 80 times"

So they're jumping on the Olympic bandwagon. Fair enough. But what's in it for me, the potential passenger?

  • What is all that cable for? Is it to make the plane work? I'd hope so – that's the minimum standard that customers expect. 
  • Is it to make the entertainment system work? Then tell me, so I know I'll have a better in-flight experience. 
  • Is it just to say 'BA is big'? I think I knew that. But I'd want to know how much cable is in everyone else's planes too, to make an informed judgement (although I don't care that much about cables, to be honest).

Anyway, does bigger necessarily mean better?

6 comments:

James Coakes said...

You often see these less obviously beneficial adverts placed by large companies. Small companies couldn't afford to take the risk. I think a lot of them come out of brainstorming meetings where they are considered clever rather than purposeful.

Jackie Barrie, Writing Without Waffle said...

You're right. Big companies can do brand awareness advertising whereas small companies have to do more direct response advertising.

Stuarte said...

In my experience of car companies (which are pretty big) they would mostly prefer to do as much direct response advertising as possible - or at least be sure to have lots of shots of the car with prominent copy listing features and prices. And a call to action.

Jackie Barrie, Writing Without Waffle said...

The trouble with brand awareness advertising is that results are hard to measure. These days, I guess even big companies want to get ROI.

Richard A D Jones said...

They're trying to give an impression of size while associating themselves with something that has a positive impression. Would work for me if they got some new planes.

poets land said...

you are right!