Faced with coming up with a stand-out campaign for British Airways’ latest “World Offers” sale, BBH in London has hit on a ingenious solution: to do a tie-up between the airline and Google, whose account is also held by the agency.


While the ads are firmly for BA, they utilise Google’s nifty Google Earth technology, which allows users to zoom from space down onto a specific street, hotel or restaurant anywhere in the world. For the BA sale, there’s a special BA “layer” of Google Earth that you can visit, offering the opportunity for users to fly into 111 World Offer destinations and check out crucial info such as how far your hotel is from the beach, and of course how much the flight will cost.


“The idea itself is very simple, which is why it works,” says BBH planning director Ben Malbon, the brains behind the brand tie-in. “I know Google wanted to use Google Earth on TV but hadn’t found a partner for it. And the World Offers are really crucial for BA, but the problem they have is how to get people excited about them in a crowded market.”


The resulting campaign is fully integrated, with both brands mutually benefiting from the link: Google gets its mapping technology subtly advertised on TV, while BA gets a cool gadget that will drive punters to their website, ba.com, and encourage them to “stick” there and play with Google Earth. This tie-up is so right it seems obvious, but could it also spell the beginning of multi-brand ads?

To view the TV spot, click here.