British Airways Lifts Off B-to-B Effort

British Airways launched a $1 million online and direct response print effort in September to attract business class passengers to the airline’s flights.

Ads began running on such sites as CNN.com, WSJ.com, NYTimes.com, CBS Marketwatch, Economist.com and other financial sites where the airline is likely to find frequent business travelers, said Matt Cronin, account director at i-traffic Inc., the company’s New York-based online agency.

At the same time, British Airways began running a direct response effort in the print editions of those same publications.

The campaign is promoting the airline’s Club World service, which offers a flat bed and an ostensibly better sleep in business class. This effort is aiming to build brand awareness of these specific services among potential and existing passengers.

“In addition to traditional outlets, online advertising has become vital to reaching our target audience,” said Amy O’Kane, manager of marketing services for British Airways North America.

The campaign is currently slated to run through the end of the year. It may be further rolled out in 2004. Details were not available at press time.

In addition, i-traffic developed a new methodology combining consumer memory-recall research with strategic online media purchasing.

British Airways reportedly spent $24 million on direct response advertising last year.

This latest effort is an outgrowth of a more aggressive business-to-business direct marketing strategy British Airways adopted in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Early last year, the airline got a 74% response rate to its first business-to-business mail campaign, which sought to encourage a select group of 1,600 travel agencies to promote the airline to small companies (Direct, January 2002).

That effort was aimed at agencies serving smaller firms, which were less likely than their large counterparts to have in-house travel departments. The company felt it worthwhile to develop relationships with these agents to get a bigger piece of the $500-million-a-year business air travel market.