UK Archives - MARKETECH APAC

India – British Airways has launched a new TV advertisement and brand campaign tailored for the Indian market, featuring India-based colleagues as the stars, in celebration of its 100th anniversary of flying between India and the UK this month.

Titled ‘Family in the Skies,’ the campaign highlights British Airways’ passion and commitment to delivering exceptional service through its most valuable asset—its people. Developed in collaboration with British Airways’ UK-based agency Uncommon Creative Studio and its network of Uncommon Minds in India, the campaign features 25 colleagues prominently.

Additionally, an out-of-home campaign will showcase 78 more colleagues, reflecting the airline’s extensive team. The campaign was collaboratively designed by Indian and British creative directors Tushar Menon and Kate Lloyd, emphasising the strong partnership between the two creative communities.

The campaign film follows a young woman on a solo journey to the UK as she heads to the airport, supported by her community and family. When her van breaks down, panic sets in until a British Airways bus arrives. A crew member invites her and her family on board, where they share stories, food, and laughter, turning a stressful situation into a memorable experience. After an emotional farewell at the airport, the woman is taken under the crew’s wing as she continues her journey.

Through this poignant narrative, British Airways seeks to demonstrate its steadfast commitment to passenger care, highlighting the crew’s dedication to going above and beyond to foster familiarity and ensure that every journey is both comfortable and enjoyable.

The campaign film is further enhanced by an out-of-home initiative featuring 78 Indian-based colleagues, including cabin crew, airport staff, engineers, and Call BA customer care representatives. Gathered on the tarmac in front of a British Airways plane, they share smiles and laughter with customers, creating the warmth of a large family portrait.

Calum Laming, chief customer officer at British Airways, said, “We are so proud to have more than 2,500 Indian-based colleagues—making India our largest colleague base outside of the UK—and we are proud that more than 100 of them feature in this campaign. It showcases the huge amount of talent we are so lucky to have within our British Airways family, and we could not be more thrilled to show this on a national scale in India.”

“Not only does the campaign tell a story, but it shows who we really are. It’s important to us to shine a light on each of our colleagues’ originality, as this is British Airways at its most authentic: your family in the skies,” Laming added.

This campaign, the first in India since 2016, showcases an impressive lineup of acclaimed Indian creative talent, including renowned filmmaker Prakash Varma, award-winning casting director Romil Modi, celebrated Bollywood acting coach Chandan Kumar from the National School of Drama, and emerging photographer Avani Rai.

With local media planning by OMD India and support from British Airways’ London-based team at MG OMD, the “Family in the Skies” TV ad will launch across India on November 1. Following positive test screenings, versions will also be released in the UK, US, and Canada, with placements across cinema, YouTube, connected TV, and social media. The OOH campaign will launch on November 9 and will run in all five Indian cities served by British Airways.

London, UK – Bidstack, an in-game advertising and video game monetisation platform, and Venatus, a publisher monetisation and advertising platform for gaming and entertainment, have signed an exclusive commercial partnership to leverage both companies global presence and expertise in video game advertising and monetisation.

The new partnership will give Venatus exclusive access to Bidstack’s extensive video game advertising inventory across six key global markets. Venatus will take sole ownership of direct sales of Bidstack’s in-game inventory across the US, UK, Germany, Canada, Australia, and South Korea, leveraging its extensive global sales presence of more than 40 gaming specialists.

The access to Bidstack’s intrinsic in-game network adds another dimension to the Venatus offer, centered on campaigns in-game, next to the game, and around the game, including leading websites such as EA, Futbin, and Rovio, and custom activations on platforms like Roblox.

Bidstack has pioneered the intrinsic in-game advertising format since 2017 and has amassed a network of more than 400 high-quality video games across mobile and PC, with a total monthly reach of 100 million people. The company works with publishers such as Sports Interactive, Ubisoft, and Miniclip and has delivered award-winning in-game campaigns for brands such as OneFootball, Apple, Samsung, Marriott Bonvoy, Paco Rabanne, and Doritos.

In 2022, the IAB and MRC released official measurement standards for intrinsic in-game advertising, while DoubleVerify recently announced its support for the format.

Venatus and Bidstack have previously collaborated to monetise esports properties such as Gfinity through advertising.

James Draper, founder and CEO at Bidstack, said, “Bidstack and Venatus have a shared history as innovators in the video game advertising space. Now, we’ve identified an opportunity to create massive value for both businesses, our customers, and partners through a major tie-in that combines Venatus’ gaming specialist sales heft with Bidstack’s programmatic technology and carefully nurtured network of games. With the tailwinds behind in-game advertising, the opportunity is crystallising too quickly for Bidstack to capitalise on alone and we’re delighted to have Venatus alongside us.”

Also commenting on the partnership, Rob Gay, co-founder and CEO at Venatus, said, “Venatus offers brands multiple touchpoints with consumers within, next to and around video games. With the rapid growth of intrinsic in-game advertising, we now partner with experts in the format and add another string to our bow on behalf of our customers. This partnership comes at an opportune moment after the expansion of our US leadership team in June and, with Bidstack’s world-class in-game network, we can build richer, more diverse campaigns on behalf of our clients in this incredibly exciting gaming media channel.

Singapore – Gipnetix, corporate brand development company headquartered in Singapore, has announced that it will be expanding into the UK market to broaden its influence coming from the Eastern region.

Gipnetix helps small and medium-sized businesses develop their corporate branding and improve their market offerings. The company offers image and reputation building to help businesses become a recognizable brand through image protection, master classes, conferences, or enhancement programs.

Gipnetix sees the entry to the UK market as a breakthrough being a crucial market in the European region, and says that it is part of the firm’s overall strategy.

The firm said that the conditions of the new century have only further strengthened the relevance of brand building to companies.

“Brand building has become the main goal of successful entrepreneurship, especially for companies which are looking to enter new, untapped spaces. Strong brand image is becoming the strongest instrument in the fierce fight on the world market,” said Gepnitex in a press statement.

United Kingdom – The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the UK has banned two paid-for Facebook posts by developer Playrix for two of its video game apps, Homescapes and Gardenscapes, due to several complaints of the ads’ inaccurate representation.

The free-to-play games are both tile-matching types with an accompanying storyline for a simulation feature.

Both the Homescapes and Gardenscapes ads featured a problem-solving type of game, which are the mini-games included in the overall app. The Homescapes ad included a video which showed three cartoon characters of a man, a woman, and a burglar, where pins were being pulled out in an attempt to unite the man and woman without meeting the burglar. Throughout the video, an on-screen text at the top stated “Help her escape!”

Meanwhile, the ad for Gardenscapes similarly included a video which showed two cartoon scenarios. The first, a man floating at the base of a tower filling with water, where above him, two pins held money and lava in place; while in the second, the man was shown separated by pins from a dog, lava, and money. Both ads displayed the text “Not all images represent actual gameplay” at the start of the video.

Complainants of the ads were seven in total. In response, Playrix upheld that the content seen in the ads was included in their games and that it represented part of the gameplay itself. The developer believed that the ad appealed to the logic and problem-solving skills required to win during the games.

Furthermore, Playrix said that the mini-games shown in the ads were first available to play at the beginning of April 2020, but only on more distant levels. They said that they had since changed the games so that the gameplay shown in the ads was available towards the beginning of the games. The developer also argued that the time limits within Facebook ads kept them to feature the variety of mechanics and elements in the game.

ASA sticks to its ruling, concluding the ads breached the Committees of Advertising Practice’s (CAP) code rules on misleading advertising, qualification, and exaggeration; putting forth the order that the ads must not appear again in the form complained of.

ASA said in its statement that through the ads, consumers gain a general perception that the content featured was representative of the Homescapes and Gardenscapes games overall, and that they might also consider the games to consist of a similar problem solving style shown in the ads.

It also countered Playrix’s arguments on Facebook ads’ limiting time and said that the time placed were of sufficient length to feature content the could have been reflective of the overall games.