In 2012 BA turned the notion of Olympic sponsorship on its head. Rather than ask how the Olympics could benefit BA, we asked what could BA do for the London Olympics.

Our competitors were local and global Olympic sponsors who commanded far superior media budgets. In response we developed a 360° integrated campaign that would generate its own earned media and give the brand a unique and legitimate role during the games.

Our insight was based on the power of home crowd support. If we could rally people to stay at home during the games to be the home advantage then the chances of our athletes Olympic success would improve.

To bring this to life we did something no airline had ever done before. We asked the nation to not fly during the games but stay at home and support the teams by being the home advantage.

British Airways’ Don’t Fly Support TeamGB/ParalympicGB campaign spanned over five months from May to September. It began with digital and press partnerships that unveiled BA’s insight on the power of a home advantage setting up the rationale for the campaign.

The ATL launch used a Super Bowl-Super Social media approach. High impact poster sites blanketed London with BA’s messages of support whilst an epic TV ad brought to life the don’t fly message.

All activity was driven to a branded digital app that let people customise the TV ad and watch a plane drive down their street. Whilst our #HomeAdvantage hashtag helped propagate branded engagement online. Across the games, daily messages of press and digital support for athletes and teams showed BA’s real-time commitment to both TeamGB and ParalympicGB. At games end BA thanked the nation for their commitment and support with an emphatic fly-over Buckingham Palace.

The Don’t Fly Olympic campaign was the most successful campaign for British Airways in the past decade and most successful sponsorship campaign ever for the brand.

The campaigns customisation app delivered over 5.5 million plays, whilst the TV ad itself generated an additional 1 million YouTube views.

The campaign generated over 400 thousand campaign and #HomeAdvantage tweets, leading to 3 billion impressions in total. According to Millward Brown, British Airways was the third most salient sponsor of the games.

BA had the highest awareness for any airline and amongst Olympic sponsors it was seen as the most proud to support the athletes and British talent.

British Airways was also seen as the most patriotic sponsor amongst all Olympic sponsors.

Airline revenue increased 4.2% post the games.

And whilst we can’t claim responsibility for the athletes success, we liked to think #HomeAdvantage made a difference.