The graphic design course's first real advertising assignment came in a form of a group work. We needed to design an advertising campaign/concept for either Finnair (the iconic Finnish airline) or a relaunch campaign for the over 20 years ago bankrupted American airline Pan Am. The second choice was whether or not we wanted to make the concept with a retro or a modern style. Me and two others chose a modern day relaunch campaign for Pan Am.
Our campaign contained three points, as seems to be the best number of points one should have:
- We wanted to return Pan Am to its former glory
- We wanted to take advantage of the brand's nostalgia and reputation
- We wanted to give an alternative option to cheap flight companies
- Value proposition: quality and service
The first commercials would be outside- and print commercials, which would rouse the consumers' attention. The point would be to pick the consumers' interest and arouse their curiosity. The commercials should be a bit mysterious but still understandable of what is about to happen.
Here are two variations of the first set of commercials to be aired:
In these commercials the very recognizable Pan Am bag is seen on a beach and in Paris, like someone came to these locations with Pan Am, and took a picture. There could be more pictures like this, e.g. the bag at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin or at the top of the Empire State Building in New York, where ever in the world there is a recognizable landmark.
And even though these are only print examples of course these would be used in social media as well. [Note: as we did this in 2014 social media was not yet such a huge thing in Finland at least, so that's is why social media was more of an "...an of course these could be used in social media" after-thought. But of course today the campaign would be heavily focused on social media. The point of this exercise was anyway the main concept, not the marketing execution.]
The third advertisement, published after the more mysterious commercials had been running for some time, would just present the iconic bag with some additional information and a call to action. So to present the most crucial information with saying as little as possible for the biggest impact was our goal.
In order to make people realize that this is a relaunch we added the tag line "We have missed you, too", indicating that the company is coming back. We also wanted to arouse the nostalgic feelings of people who had been flying with Pan Am previously, and hopefully were still missing it today.
The new slogan "Your No. 1 travel companion since 1927" was used as a reminder that Pan Am truly was the first commercial American Airline. So even though it is not always advisable to use the term "no 1" as it is hard to prove and can be very abstract, in this case it works. It will indicate that Pan Am is, once again, the best choice for flying.
At the bottom of the ad is the new website address, where more information could be found. (All social media ads would also lead here.) The name "relaunch" at the end of the address bar would also further indicate, that yes, the company is coming back. We also wanted to use the CTA "check in" as in the context of airlines it is appropriate.
After the initial teasers the fourth commercial (above) would be launched targeting to wealthy individuals who a) have been flying with Pan Am before and missed it b) people who do not like to fly with cheap airlines but are looking for comfort when they fly. So affluent, most likely business-oriented people, but also wealthy influencers and other younger people who have the money to fly in comfort.
In this case the commercial contains a bit more text which is to set the tone of how Pan Am is going to serve is customers, as in what its value proposition is. This should resonate with the target group, who are then encouraged to "check in" at the website.
We also thought some second steps for this campaign as e.g.a TV commercial (as TV is still big in America) as well as a video in Youtube. The print and TV commercials would be more targeted to the older generation and then the social media advertising and campaigns would be targeted to the younger generation. Of course the younger generation would not necessarily get the nostalgic idea of Pan Am, so they would probably need their own messaging. But that is, again, another task.
This was a very interesting assignment! We learned a lot, especially about how one needs to do the homework very carefully regarding what a brand can mean to people. The teacher was also very pleased with our work, although as she had previously been flying a lot with Pan Am she might have been a bit biased!
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