British Airways billboards show actual flight overhead

Digital billboards identify the BA plane overhead.
Look Up and see a British Airways aircraft
Look Up and see a British Airways aircraft

British Airways has launched digital billboards that identify the actual BA plane overhead.

The ‘Look Up’ campaign includes digital billboards in London’s Piccadilly Circus and Chiswick that picture a little boy standing up and point to an actaul BA aircraft overhead. The display updates in real time, displaying the flight’s number and origin.

The advert, developed by the airline’s global creative technology agency Ogilvy 12th Floor,seeks to remind people how magical flying can be, and approaches the topic from a child’s perspective.

The campaign will immediately engage with customers as the adverts, located on digital billboards in Chiswick and Piccadilly, will actually interact with the aircraft flying overhead, thanks to surveillance technology custom built by Ogilvy 12th Floor and managed by Storm, Clear Channel UK’s new premium digital brand.

The system tracks the aircraft and interrupts the digital display just as it passes over the site, revealing the image of a child pointing at the plane overhead accompanied by its flight number and destination it’s arriving from. For example the screen may read: ‘It’s the BA0234 from Los Angeles’. This will then be followed by a message relevant to that flight, in this case ‘Fly the new A380 to Los Angeles. ba.com/lookup’. Other destinations will be accompanied by other information such as the lowest available fare or the temperature in the destination.

The destinations can also be updated immediately depending on changing focus routes for the airline.