the story
NATS is the leading provider of UK air traffic control services and handles over 2.6 million flights in and out of the UK each year. Their busiest time of the year is the summer holidays when millions of Brits jet off to the sun. This peaks in the final week of July when the majority of UK schools break up.
the challenge
With summer 2019 expected to break all records for the number of flights, NATs was keen not only to remind the British public of the work they do to get holiday makers away on time as well as keeping the skies above us safe but it also wanted to highlight the challenges the constant increase in flight numbers could pose in future.
NATS wanted their campaign to highlight a warning that despite successful handling of flights during record breaking months, the ageing design of UK airspace means the continuing growth cannot continue without delays rising significantly.
the answer
We identified that stories around the ‘the Great Summer Getaway’ are always of interest to media particularly with ongoing concerns about Brexit, warnings of strikes and possible delays in the summer of 2019.
Using NATS recent flight data and their forecasts for anticipated flight numbers we identified the weekend when the greatest number of flights was likely to occur and targeted media 3 days after the schools had broken up and on the eve of ‘the busiest weekend of the year.’
Armed with B-Roll footage of their state-of-the-art UK control centre, a highly visual graphic video of flight movements over the UK on its busiest ever day and several experienced Air Traffic control managers available for interview we had all of the assets need to target news producers on TV, Radio and websites.
the successes
Despite broadcast media being bombarded with stories and data from multiple travel brands all looking to exploit media interest on ‘Frantic Friday’ the client was delighted to feature on BBC Breakfast, Sky News, regional TV, 16 national and regional radio stations and a major feature on the Mail Online, which included the video content supplied by us.