Some ad campaigns are developed based on sound insight and detailed research. Others rely on “the big idea.” Nonetheless both approaches can work out really very well. One to reside in the “big idea” category is this witty yet brilliant new campaign from Ogilvy for Expedia which combined airport IATA codes (the three letter tags they put on your checked bags) into words and phrases.
Creative team members Jon Morgan and Mike Watson: ”It all started when we saw a woman walking through Heathrow with the word FUK hanging from her suitcase. Turned out she’d just flown in from Fukuoka in Japan. That got us thinking, ‘maybe there are more’.”
Using IATA codes from over 9,000 airports around the world, the team selected codes that created half-words and almost-words/phrases such as “SUN SEA SND SEX from airports Sun Valley, Seattle, Seno and Sernbach and WSH EWE WRE ERE from airports Brookhaven, Ewer Indonesia, Whangarei and Erave.
Nine iterations have run so far and more are planned leading up to summer. This campaign is definitely one to keep an eye out for in this year’s advertising award shows!
