Pittsburgh International Airport announced nonstop flights to London to excite travelers within the tri-state area, Great Britain lacks the wow-factor and immediacy that other more exotic European destinations can incite. Shortly before the commencement of the flight, British Airways and VisitBritain wanted to make a big splash in the market to drive sales of the flight and better educate Pittsburghers about the unexpected sights and scenes Great Britain has to offer.
We replicated a traditional telephone booth in Great Britain and staged it in high-traffic areas across Pittsburgh. However, it wasn’t just an ordinary telephone booth. When the booth rang, participants who answered heard an authentic, British voice on the other end of the line. They could answer British trivia or take on challenges (EX: Hi-five ten strangers) for a chance to win travel-themed prizes. In addition, anyone who posted a photo with the booth on Twitter or Instagram with #BALovesPittsburgh was entered for a chance to win a pair of tickets on the nonstop flight to Heathrow. We pitched the exclusive unveiling of the contest to KDKA-TV (CBS Pittsburgh) and engaged local influencers to promote the contest on their Instagram pages.
After securing an exclusive with KDKA-TV that resulted in a more than 2-minute long package aired and repurposed several times both on TV and online, we garnered coverage from every major news outlet in Pittsburgh, as well as some coverage in West Virginia. Long-form features ran in both the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Tribune-Review. In total, our earned media impressions surmounted to 7.6 million from 14 broadcast placements, 10 print/digital placements and 6 radio placements.
We gave away a total of 125 prize bags filled with exciting British swag. Our influencer extension garnered more than 186,000 impressions on Instagram. For the social contest, we received 103 public contest entries, 635 uses of #BALovesPittsburgh, and a total reach of 19.1 million impressions.
