The challenge: Make British Airways the airline of choice for the innovation and technology communites on the West Coast, USA. While BA had a great legacy of innovative breakthroughs, it allowed this feature of its culture and heritage to be lost, seeing competitors claim this ground.

The objectives: To elevate BA as a player in innovation thought-leadership, and a part of the Silicon Valley community. To create an uptick in sales throughout West Coast gateways, and ignite a love for BA in a forward-thinking, yet honest, way.

The strategy: Do what BA does best: connect people, communities, and ideas. To help solve problems facing businesses worldwide, together with the brightest minds in the tech industry and beyond.

The execution: “UnGrounded: an Innovation Lab in the Sky.” We invited 130 innovators to board a plane from San Francisco to London to tackle four global problems facing the industries of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths.

The program was was announced and sustained through a multifaceted PR campaign:

Launch event and influencer evening

A delegate selection process, in which the UnGrounded board voted upon innovators to board the “flying innovation lab,” with such luminaries as the founders of GoogleX and Craigslist.

A Mashable contest, in which readers won seats on the flight

Google hangouts with influencers and BA senior representation

A press conference, in which the governor of California kicked off with, “Virgin Airlines, eat your heart out.”

Media participation from outlets such as Wired and TechCrunch

Presentations at the UN’s G8 Summit

British Airways identified an opportunity: the innovation-interested ecosystem of Silicon Valley. At the time, they perceived BA as a quality, yet “older” brand. BA needed to find a way to regain footing as an innovative company, and get the audience talk about, and with, them.

So Text100 launched a research initiative. More than 50 information gathering sessions world-wide resulted in the UnGrounded advisory board—thought-leaders from the worlds of VC, startups, corporate leaders, academia, and NGOs.

In short, the goal was to make British Airways the airline of choice for technology communites on the West Coast, USA.

Based on the commercial results BA has seen since launched, UnGrounded has exceeded its targets. ?Premium business from SFO up 20%+ versus last year through the end of the year (Q4 2013). Revenue from SME’s in the SFO area up 10% versus last year through the end of the year (Q4 2013).

1. More than 90 unique articles in top-tier outlets reaching 225 million+ readers.

2. To date, UnGrounded is British Airways’ most successful social campaign. It reached over 100M users on twitter, generated 11,000 online mentions.

3. Positive audience feedback: ?“I used to think of BA as an old establishment. Now I see it as the future with a dedication to paying attention to people, technology and what's relevant to society and culture today. Bravo. I've been telling everyone about this.”

“UnGrounded: Innovation Lab in the Sky” ran from March to June of 2013. It featured both planned activations, and the fluidity of “real-time” content.

Visual identity and copy tone (2/13)

A press conference, in which the governor of California kicked off with, “Virgin Airlines, eat your heart out.” (3/13)

Real-time announcements on chosen participants (4/13)

Live announcements and blogging of events, contest winners, and team assignments (3-6/13)

Related “innovation” content posted to Tumblr (3-6/13)

A launch video, and those of influencers, participants, process, and events (2/13 – 6/13)

A Mashable contest, in which readers won seats on the flight (4/13)

A special curriculum created by IDEO for those on the flight (5/13)

Google hangouts with influencers and BA senior representation (4 – 6/13)

Media participation from outlets such as Wired and TechCrunch (3 – 6/13)

Presentations at the UN’s G8 Summit

AdvisHer presentation to UN Working Group for Women (8-13)

Until UnGrouneded, BA was considered as a somewhat “older” company. While it had a great legacy of innovative breakthroughs, it had allowed this feature of its culture to be lost, seeing competitors claim ground.

It needed a big push into forward-thinking, innovative, and envelope-pushing ground. It needed to give Virgin a run for its money.

And the research showed the opportunity to change that perception was in Silicon Valley, with the technology community

In March 2013, BA/Text100 unveiled UnGrounded to the West coast community with its strategy:

Being disruptive is critical to getting noticed in Silicon Valley. Failure is celebrated.

Don’t say, do. Silicon Valley business leaders are a culture of doers; they like to come together around a common goal, with a deadline, to produce tangible results.

There are several challenges facing the future of innovation and entrepreneurship which ?ultimately can be summed up as an issue of supply and demand: a deficit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills in some places with lots of opportunity and a surplus of STEM talent in other places with limited opportunities.

Commit to the community. If your approach is self-serving the engagement will be limited. The way to make an impact is to resonate with something the community can rally behind. That is how you build long term brand equity