The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


May The Forth Be With you …

I know this is late but then everything on this blog is late, but I absolutely love what Heathrow Airport did on 4th May.

I love it for many reasons.

But the main one is they did it right.

Sure, you could argue what they did was to hijack the day and gain some extra publicity … and I’m sure that was part of their motivation … but what I really like about it is how they went for the highest common denominator, not the lowest.

While the board features names most people will understand – R2D2, Wookie, Death Star, Han Solo, Leia – they have also used elements that only the true Star Wars nerd will get … like the name of the planets, the measurement of time and the weather conditions.

What this means is that not only will they get ‘mass appeal and coverage’, they will also make the hardcore nerds feel good about it … feel they’re dealing with an organisation that really gets them rather than just pretends to.

In a World where marketing is too often expressed as a constant stream of generalised noise … those who show their authenticity through actions and behaviour will win big every time, because as we saw in our America In The Raw study, the future of brand differentiation is going to be less about unique product attributes and more about demonstrating how you truly understand your audience.

Or said another way, resonance not [pretend] relevance.

So well done Heathrow, you deserve to be in a galaxy far far ahead of your competitors.


18 Comments so far
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I wondered if you would write about this. When it happened I thought it was rather good and right up your street.

Comment by Lee Hill

your niceness makes me sick. especially as youll reward him with free fucking upgrades.

Comment by andy@cynic

Ignore him Lee, he’s just jealous of our special bond, Hahaha.

Comment by Rob

Politeness goes a long way Andrew.

Comment by Lee Hill

More topical than most of your posts. Well done.

Comment by DH

Do you like this because you’re the Darth Vader of advertising?

Comment by DH

hell take that as a fucking compliment.

Comment by andy@cynic

You know it.

Comment by Rob

How many people will choose to use Heathrow because of this?

Comment by John

no. but it might make the twats who use and work there feel better about them.

Comment by andy@cynic

Even more so when no competitor appears to have done anything approaching this. Admittedly a small gesture but they add up.

Comment by George

not bad. would be better if any cancelled plane was credited to jaja binks or however you spell that twats name.

Comment by andy@cynic

Jar Jar. I hate myself for knowing this.

Comment by George

You might be dead to me now George.

Comment by Rob

finally you talk some fucking sense campbell.

Comment by andy@cynic

Quality over quantity. (Though I prefer your resonance over relevance descriptor)

Comment by George

I think we need to borrow this for next weeks meeting.

Comment by Pete

[…] A gesture of beautiful nerd resonance. […]

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