So I’m sitting in the Air France lounge [above] at 6:30 in the morning, after a 12 and a half hour flight from Shanghai.
Obviously there’s not many people in here but those who are, are in ruffled suits either reading the paper, looking nervously at their documents or tapping furiously at their computer keyboards.
In terms of interior, if it wasn’t for the hard-wearing corporation carpet .. the lounge [which is called ‘The Salon’, as only the French could do] could easily be mistaken for an IKEA showroom because it’s all wood and various mood lighting.
You can just guess the design brief went something like:
“Reflect the aspirational brand values of the Air France brand … professional, contemporary, stylish.”
Well you know what, they failed.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice and clean … it has free wi-fi and offers as many croissants as you can fit down your throat [which is about the only French thing in the place] but it’s also soulless and derivative of every other company who wanted their interior to reflect the same brand attributes … which is why I know that when I leave it in about 45 minutes, I’ll never remember it or think about it again.
Now compare that to Virgin Atlantic.
Many years ago, we were brought in to work with an architecture firm to help create the Virgin Atlantic Lounge experience.
The key difference was that the brief Branson gave us didn’t include words like:
“Aspirational … contemporary … discernable taste”
… infact it didn’t include any descriptors whatsoever, he gave a clear and consise objective:
“Make me a lounge that people would want to miss their plane for”.
Now that’s a brief.
That’s something that tells you what you have to achieve rather than how to achieve it … and while we naturally had to include the Virgin DNA into everything we put forward … the fact is we could start by identifying things that people found emotionally magnetic rather than source items that reflected the brands specific tone & manner which, let’s face it, tends to be either blander than bland [so as to not offend anyone] or purely to the tastes of the CEO.
Too many briefs – regardless of the objective – are a reflection of what the brand wants to communicate about themselves rather than what the brand wants people to feel/think about them and that’s why when I travel, I always try and choose VA … not because of my relationship with them [though that obviously helps] … but because they ensure that even when you’re stuck in transit, you feel like you’re having the time of your life.
In a World where so many companies adopt a strategy of ‘safe’ rather than ‘meaning’ … it doesn’t take much to stand above the masses … and yet so many are seemingly so fearful of doing just that, which is amazing when you remember that thanks to technology, anything and everything you do will now be judged on a global basis, not just a local one.
If you want to make an impression, go for the highest common denominator, not the lowest – and that is something that is true whether you’re making ads or airport lounges.