Star Alliance has launched its new brand campaign featuring the Alliance’s “Biosphere Connections” initiative. The campaign will run from now through to June and includes print advertising, films, TV, online, social media and member airline communication channels.
“The core theme in this campaign is to underline our brand value of connecting organizations and individuals across the globe. Creatively we are building on the successful use of testimonial from real customers who have become advocates in our past campaigns”, said Mark Davies, Director Loyalty and Marketing, Star Alliance. “Hence, we are extremely grateful to our Biosphere Connections partners, specifically to Ms. Irina Bokova, the Director General of UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization), for supporting this campaign as the catalyst for our global brand message”.
Biosphere Connections was established in 2006 and underpins one of Star Alliance’s founding principles – connecting people from all corners of the globe by facilitating world-wide travel. The initiative has since been supporting three organizations: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UNESCO-MAB (Man and the Biosphere). Through this global cooperation, the respective organizations receive travel support from Star Alliance member carriers to foster the knowledge exchange between scientists, researchers and project workers.
The current campaign, produced in association with National Geographic, highlights five international projects which have benefited from this support: Abrolhos Archipelago in Brazil, Chilika Lagoon in India, East Usambara tropical rainforest in Tanzania, the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, Turkey and the reintroduction of the Grey Wolf to the Yellowstone National Park in the USA.
Three of these projects provide the main theme for the classical print advertisements featured in leading news and business press including The Economist, the Financial Times, Monocle, the New York Times, TIME Magazine and Wall Street Journal. In addition to carrying the advertisements, the National Geographic magazine will complement these with its own advertorials.
In support of the printed advertising, National Geographic has also produced mini-documentaries on the five projects which can be viewed at www.staralliance.com/en/about/intiatives/environment/. The National Geographic TV channel will also screen condensed films linking to the Biosphere Connections information on the Star Alliance website.
“National Geographic is the perfect partner for us to begin telling our brand story of collaboration, using Biosphere Connections as one of the first global examples of such Alliance-led initiatives,” commented Davies. “National Geographic has great credentials and credibility within the world of environmentalism, and has managed to capture amazing footage of these projects beyond our wildest dreams.”
Making the fullest use of the social media environment, Star Alliance is not only sharing content in the most commonly frequented channels, but is also asking people for their opinions on the various projects. These can be rated at www.staralliance.com, the newly launched Star Alliance Facebook (www.facebook.com/staralliance) and YouTube pages (www.youtube.com/user/staralliancenetwork) as well as through the National Geographic website itself.
The 27 Star Alliance member airlines will also be featuring the new campaign in their own communication channels, such as in-flight entertainment systems, in-flight magazines, frequent flyer communications, their respective websites and their own social media channels.
The campaign has been put together with the support of the two appointed Star Alliance agencies – DDB and MEC – who have delivered uniquely compelling content with a striking creative through a powerful cross-platform campaign comprising TV, online and print.
Guy Bradbury, Creative Director at DDB, said: “The Star Alliance network is an expert in global collaboration and helping other organisations come together. These films and the crafted creative materials we have helped produce show the amazing things that can happen when collaboration is facilitated world-wide.”
Chantal Rickards, Head of Branded Content at media agency MEC said: “This content project, born out of an exciting Star Alliance brand campaign, is a terrific match for National Geographic TV and its audience. The production values more than match the quality of the rest of the channel’s output, shining a light on these wonderful international stories.”
