Embattled Qantas looks to ‘reconnect’ with passengers with TV-led brand push
Qantas has unveiled its first TV-led brand campaign since 2012 as it seeks to “reconnect and re-engage” with Australians after a torrid few years for the airline.
The carrier is drawing on the oft-cited emotional pull Australians feel towards Qantas by featuring five “real stories” of Aussies returning home from overseas in a campaign called “feels like home”.
A two-minute commercial, which airs from Sunday, depicts the emotional reunion of five passengers with their loved ones in Australia, all shot in real time. A series of five shorter ads featuring individual stories will roll out over the coming weeks.
In a surprise move, Qantas selected Lawrence Creative Strategy to produce the work rather than Droga5 although the airline insisted it did not mean the agency has been dropped.
“We use different agencies for different executions,” a spokesman said.
Qantas group executive brand, marketing and corporate affairs Olivia Wirth told a media briefing this morning it was the “right time to rengage” with customers after a challenging period.
She said research constantly reveals that when Australians see the “red tail of Qantas it reminds them of home”.
The campaign will not only aim to build on the emotional connection and bond between the public and the airline but also reinvigorate staff who, Wirth admitted, have been low on morale after a “challenging” period which has seen a raft of job losses.
Key to the emotional essence of the campaign are the “real and authentic” stories depicted in the TV executions, she added, although she confirmed they were all paid to appear in the ad.
“It’s about the pull of home, the love of family and friends and how Qantas makes that happen both across Australia and around the globe,” she explained.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said: “We often hear that seeing the red tail at an airport or stepping on board a Qantas aircraft makes Australians feel like they’re halfway home already. That’s the spirit we wanted to capture.”
The ads are set against the musical backdrop of Randy Newman’s song Feels Like Home, sung by 20-year-old Australian singer Martha Marlow. It is the second high profile Qantas brand campaign not to feature its I Still Call Australia Home “anthem”, although Wirth insisted the song will remain part of the airline’s marketing armory.
Executive creative director Neil Lawrence said I Still Call Australia Home was considered but ultimately not used.
“Creatively it was hard to reinvent it,” he said, adding that retaining the “home” messaging was important.
“When we started looking as this project we had to make sure were going to evolve it, we didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, the baby being the emotional and sense of home. It’s an evolution of that campaign,” he said.
Lawrence added that Visibility, the firm commissioned to conduct research during the early stages of the project, said it had never experienced such emotion and fondness towards a brand.
“It’s well documented in advertising that a lot of decisions you make have a rational explanation but a true emotional driver. The research firm has never seen a reaction to any other brand like it so it would have been foolish not to exploit that,” he said.
Wirth declined to reveal the investment, describing it as “not insubstantial”, and refused to be drawn on the measurements of success although she said “clearly we have targets”.
“From a business perspective when you have a strong brand that impacts on the yield and ticket sales so there is a business driver,” she said. “But more importantly it’s about investing in the brand and evolving the brand and making sure it continues to be seen as the Australian icon that it is.”
She added the Feels Like Home campaign would be in market “for the long term” with a first phase likely to last around six months, with cinema, digital, press, social media and out-of-home all playing major supporting roles.
Lawrence said there was a “massive amount” of footage from the ad production that will provide strong additional content over the coming months.
The campaign has been seven months in the planning with Lawrence telling media that while the emotional essence of the campaign may seem obvious “its sometimes the obvious that is missed” by agencies and clients.
The launch will take the brand battle back to Virgin Australia which released its own marketing push in September.
Since then, the airline has focused predominantly on tactical and product-led campaigns while digital, predictably, is playing an increasingly pivotal role.
Its sponsorship of The Voice earlier this year also helped push a brand message.
That time and place was certainly not during the past 18 months, according to industry observers, who suggested any high profile brand messaging would have been wasted as Qantas battled the unions over job losses before becoming embroiled in a debate over its ownership structure.
Credits:
Creative Agency: Lawrence Creative Strategy
Executive Creative Director & Copywriter: Neil Lawrence
Creative Directors: Chris Mitchell, Geoff Corbett
Client Service Directors: Tanya Jones, Fleur Marks
Agency Producer: George Saada
Production: Exit Films
Director: Mark Malloy
Producer: Martin Box
DOP: Chayse Irwin
Editors: The Editors: Stewart Reeves, Peter Barton, Dave Lawrence
Post Production: Alt VFX
Colourist: Ben Eagleton
Music: Mark Rivett, Ramesh Sathiah @ Song Zu
Composer: Randy Newman
Vocal Artist: Martha Marlow
Steve Jones
The emotion is spot on. The comment ‘it feels like home’ is often said by passengers when they step onto a Qantas plane. These words have been seen in many client letters published in travel press. The connect is real. But I ask has Qantas wasted that passenger connection, I think they have. They have thrown away that once loyal reaction. And how many Qantas international planes are left anyway? Almost no product shown, and so like the the previous campaign this is a softy softy approach. Great footage & expression.
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Yawwwwnnnnn.
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Seriously? With all the problems facing the airline, why spend (a lot of) money of this “Love Actually” rip-off?
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Vindicated, Outraged or Bemused?
I’m not sure what to feel.
This advertising and the strategy it’s based upon is spot on, but 7 years late.
Back in 2007, I was the head of marketing for QANTAS and worked with M&C Saatchi on a brand campaign based on the same insights and strategy as this new campaign.
The tag line was “It’s nice to feel at home.”
We had a series of beautifully crafted TV commercials created by Oliver Devaris and Graham Johnson of M&C Saatchi- two of the best in the business.
We had also built the approach into every level of communication – ready to go
Despite a multi million dollar investment, loads of supporting research and management being kept informed at every step, they were killed stone dead by said management following a presentation of completed TVCs by Tom Dery. No real reason other than they were not ‘ liked.”
I fought hard but lost. Recalling a line from an old Hall & Oats song, “The strong give up and move on, the weak give up and stay,” I moved on. The final straw sort of thing.
Now, I feel somewhat vindicated but cannot help but think of all the time and money wasted in the meantime on the countless changes in strategy & execution over the past 7 years. I really hope they work for QANTAS, and bravo to those who recognised the strength in the ‘home’ connection between the airline and its passengers.
QANTAS needs to be loved.
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Ad is spot on. Only Qantas could run this. It is exactly the way that you feel when you see a Qantas aircraft in New York / London or where ever. I had tears in my eyes. R Smith, what nonsense about passenger connection. The best ad in the last 20 years was I Still call Australia home and there was no customer connection in that. This is better, real people with real emotions and a direct connection to Qantas.
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Bravo. Got me. Beautiful rendition by Martha Marlow.
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Emotionally most Australians want to fly with Qantas. What’s lacking for the business at the moment, I’d argue, are the rationale decision making criteria, which this content does absolutely nothing to address. Probably not fair to judge a strategy on one piece of creative but I believe that the days of trying to pull the wool over the consumer’s eyes with aspirations that don’t stack up are over.
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Love the track
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It took seven months to cobble that emotional cliché together? Someone’s having a tug.
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Do we get Frequent Flyer points for watching this commercial?
That’s the reason i look for the red tail.
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Well Jon,
I find the track disappointing and saccharine.
I kept waiting for it to ‘take off’ and ‘uplift’ me like a great Qantas jet take-off.
Sadly it left me looping like the friday night Melb/Syd waiting for a gate opening.
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Apparently they used real life shareholders for the crying scenes.
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The sentiment is nice but I buy airline tickets based on price and service and in my experience this rarely puts Qantas on my preferred list. I’ve not flown Qantas by choice for about a decade now – ever since a land hostess yelled at me when I could not self check in at Tullamarine. “Feels like home”… not so much, feels more like a pack of stressed staff taking their frustrations out on their customers, and given the news and financial results at Qantas I cannot imagine anything has changed.
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Feels like another billion dollar loss to me. Awful advertising. Second shithouse, unbranded ad I’ve seen this week.
David Jones, now Qantas. Unbranded, useless advertising.
There’s a big difference between “doing advertising” and “getting people to buy your brands and products”.
This is the former. It’s a total waste of marketing dollars. It won’t sell a single flight.
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@Dan Ilic – your comment won the internet.
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Sickly sweet and laced with cliches. I’m surprised it wasn’t released the same day that Alan Joyce announced he had fixed everything and the airline was back in the black. No mention of sacking over 5,000 people to achieve it not to mention the knock-on effect to the severed relationships with a multitude of Australian companies resulting in further job losses.
Surly staff with a “I can’t help you…next” attitude quickly make you realise that this is the Qantas welcome home. That annoying cough that Qantas has with customer service is likely to be a chest infection and no amount of incredibly expensive sweet TV syrup is going to fix it
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I always thought the task of a Brand campaign was to establish your position within the category?
Swap the staff uniforms and insert a different plane, and this ad could have been done by any airline in the world. Its the emotion of of travelling the world and coming home that is activated, not the emotion of anything particularly Qantas or Australian.
If the client needed to spend money on research finding out people are sad to end their adventures and happy to see loved ones when coming home, they are truly adrift. If there was something uniquely Qantas in those insights, the creative agency has wasted their money.
Brand message from QANTAS: We fly planes too.
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Would have been great circa 1985. in 2014 it is a sad bunch of 1985 clichés from a couple of sad old retirees.
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The strategy and filmed execution are spot on, but for me the soundtrack is poor, the particular style of female vocalist will date quickly and seems like an attempt to be youthful and contemporary. Perhaps they should have used the original Randy Newman version, which actually has much more of the feel of Peter Allen’s classic ISCAH, and has far more raw emotion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXP4UqgNg70
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The main problem with this ad is the brand can’t back it up. If the actual product was even slightly satisfying this would be a classic.
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If this is meant to be positiong Qantas at an organisational level then it feels very narrow…….so narrow it might fit more like a Xmas fly home with Qantas ad?
Assuming this is meant to work more broadely than that, I cannot work out how this helps the ailing Roo.
Australians (and I’m not one them) are an adventurous bunch who I suspect can see the big wide world out in front of them both domestically and internationally and want to get out there and flourish. I just can’t see them identifying with the whining homesickness of; It feels like home.
Then there’s the business segment……………..
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People in tears from the beginning to the end of their trip on Qantas. Who would have thought?
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As someone who lives on the other side of the world from the part of his (now extended) family that he grew up with, this does hit a nerve. Beyond price, smiles from staff and the food, this nails the emotion of leaving to see family – or indeed the angst of leaving it – very melancholy. Nice work, Neil.
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As an expat, this one definitely tugs on the heart strings, particularly at this time of the year. A great piece that had me in tears thinking of going home soon and would work wonders in getting people to book their xmas flights with QANTAS…if it was a month ago – anyone who is flying home for xmas would have already booked their flights by now.
Then there is the point that the video is geo-locked and when I tried to watch it from Singapore I got the message “this video is not available in your country”. If it’s appealing to Australians abroad, maybe enable them to actually watch the film?
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There is little positivity in the execution. The emotion is sad – not happy. I’m not sure it lands what it’s trying too.
At least the old home work made you feel good, dated as it is.
Qantas needs to do stuff, not bang on about it. As the comments above make my point for me – the audience isn’t ready to be told what to think, they need to get half way there themselves.
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Neil great to hear your perspective.
I was a young exec at M&C when that campaign was made and I remember Graham and Oli showing me the offlines.
To my memory, stunning 45sec one shot commercials with no cuts. I recall a young woman on a ferry in New York lamenting about the green and gold ferry’s bobbing in Sydney harbour.
That work was beautiful, as is this from Neil Lawrence.
But both are a long way from the raw power of the choir singing ISCAH.
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Would be nice if people were somewhat objective, and didn’t jump on the Qantas bashing bandwagon.
I think the spot perfectly matches the brief. Miles better than Virgin’s recycled ad as well as Qantas’ last brand ad in 2012.
My only thinking is that they need to do another spot in parallel that focuses on their products and services. Those who have stopped flying them need to be told what they’re missing out on
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I’m an Aussie living overseas.
Tried to watch the ad. Not available in my country.
Guess I’ll fly Emirates, then.
On a serious note. Qantas are now just a sucky, overpriced airline with terrible customer service and an awful overall ‘experience’. I mean, they make you pay to preselect seats on your $2,500 ticket when Emirates—on the same route—let you do it for free on a ticket that simply costs less.
Make warm and fluffy ads all you want. Qantas is an irrelevant, almost-budget airline now.
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Dan Illic, yep that comment wins.
Production values etc are all there. But it’s just been done so many times before. I’d expect more from a brand this huge.
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Whatever you think of the ad campaign, it’s like putting a new frock on a damaged body.
Qantas’ problems lie in their mistreatment of Frequent Flyers, whose loyalty has been repaid by slaps in the face for the past decade.
When you treat customers with disrespect, they move away.
It’s really a very simple formula, and equally simple to fix.
But no – Qantas will go down in flames before they admit that mistake.
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Mr Illic, you win.
Beautifully shot, well done. Song, the cutsie, folk style… Not so much.
I think that Q management could combine the soft campaign approach and use this as a spring board announcing vast sweeping changes to how they will do things. Real change in brand at every touch point.
Build momentum.
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Nailed it. Well done. So good to see a big brand getting lost and then finding its way home.
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Seems like anyone will jump on the Qantas bashing bandwagon these days. The good old tall poppy syndrome.
You choose to fly Emirates or any other competitor based on price and then ask why the Red Roo is having a tough time? Instead of complaining about how the airline is struggling and losing money support an Australian icon and fly Qantas instead of being negative about everything they do.
The ad that pulls at the heartstrings, not ground breaking but appropriate, sure would have been great for a bit more upbeat soundtrack but it works.
If someone has any better ideas out there, go ahead, make a pitch!
Well Done QF!
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I’d prefer to spend my corporate travel dollars on Qantas. But until they manage to build a business class seat that actually goes properly flat they won’t get my money.
Simply astonishing that Qantas have never been able to get this right.
ps – “ferries”
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I flew with QANTAS on Thursday to Melbourne (I usually fly Virgin, however in a very rare case this particular QANTAS flight was much, much cheaper, so I booked). My ticket said ‘breakfast’, so I waited to eat on the plane. Breakfast was a yoghurt with more sugar in it than a can of coke. A quarter of a muesli bar and a small bag of dried cranberries? Breakfast? Is it too risky to buy perishables? Natural yoghurt, a real banana and perhaps a croissant, would have been much better.
I would describe QANTAS as bland.
Air New Zealand have the in flight experience trim and fun and their staff seem genuinely happy to have you on board.
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The Qantas singing choir campaign was as un-Australian as you can get. Lining kids up, to attention,all dressed in white is more like a North Korean propaganda newsreel. Totally out of touch with the Australian values of relaxed, fun loving, colorful and honest. They should have added a “muck-up” shot to the last few secounds. That ad was about the brilliant song sung by fresh young faces – so powerful even that crap choice of vision couldn’t ruin it.
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