WINNIE THE POOH AND BRITISH AIRWAYS’ CENTENARY CELEBRATION CAMPAIGN
LICENSING MUCH-LOVED CHARACTERS FOR COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING
BACKGROUND:
To celebrate their centenary, 100 years of flying, British Airways created a multi-faceted campaign designed to emotionally connect audiences with the long-standing brand.
THE CALL TO BORN:
British Airways worked with their creative agency, Ogilvy London, to develop a powerful script featuring a number of famous characters that represented the best of Britain. It was British Airways’ goal to encourage the public to associate their brand with the nostalgia of iconic British characters. Born Licensing were brought in to initially explore the feasibility of licensing Winnie the Pooh, the world’s favourite bear.
WHERE BORN LICENSING ADDED VALUE:
Thanks to our existing relationship with Disney, the Rights Holders of the Winnie the Pooh characters and franchise, we were able to quickly and easily walk them through the creative concept to gain initial buy-in for featuring their character in the star-studded campaign. Having secured favourable commercial licensing with Disney, we handled all technical details of the working relationship, including many discussions around how the Winnie the Pooh character would be incorporated into the campaign. In the end, the actual bear from the Christopher Robin movie was brought on-set to star in the shoot.
THE APPROVAL PROCESS:
Disney were very involved with the creative process, and were kept in the loop across all creative development stages. Born Licensing handled communications between all parties to ensure that Disney were able to see scripts, storyboards, still poses, edits and final material in a timely manner. Handling this aspect of the process ensures all key stakeholders are happy with the final product, and allowed British Airways and Ogilvy to focus on the creative direction of the campaign.
THE LAUNCH:
The final campaign, ‘Made By Britain’, featured the best of British talent, including Olivia Coleman, boxer Anthony Joshua, singer Paloma Faith, astronaut Helen Sharman and artist Grayson Perry - as well as the Winnie the Pooh character. The campaign premiered simultaneously across ITV1 and Channel 4 in a prime time slot.
THE EXPERIENCE:
By utilising our existing relationship with Disney and ensuring we handled all communications between the parties involved, we were able to quickly and easily secure buy-in and approval throughout the creative development. This approach ensures that agencies, clients and Rights Holders are all satisfied with the end result as well as ensuring campaigns are delivered on time and within budget.
© Disney. Based on the “Winnie the Pooh” works by A.A. Milne and E.H Shepard.
THE EXPERIENCE
By utilising our existing relationship with Disney and ensuring we handled all communications between the parties involved, we were able to quickly and easily secure buy-in and approval throughout the creative development. This approach ensures that agencies, clients and Rights Holders are all satisfied with the end result as well as ensuring campaigns are delivered on time and within budget.
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