Alternative media
Swimming along the baggage carousel
By Toni Fitzgerald
Oct 14, 2009 - 1:05:13 AM

Airport travelers are inundated with ads, from the ones that line the walls of the terminal walkways to the ones on the plane's fold-away seat trays to backlit screens on the concourses. By the time passengers exit the plane, they're practically inured to advertising.

So when a Biloxi, Miss., resort wanted to use the local airport drum up some business, its agency knew it needed to come up with something really creative to cut through the clutter.

The solution: two half-naked women, always an attention-getter, with their pictures on a unique space -- the panels of a baggage carousel belt.

The belt is colored blue with white accents, made to look like the dazzling water at the Gulf Coast resort. Images of two women in bikinis and a man in a swimsuit are layered atop the water.

It looks as though the swimmers are being observed from above as they glide through the water.

"Travelers are wading through security, enduring turbulence and chatty neighbors, so we thought they'd welcome a very calming change of pace," says Michael Neiderer, creative director at Masterminds, which came up with the campaign for Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. "The idea was bringing the very tranquil tropical pool they have at the resort to the airport."

The carousel was part of a greater campaign Masterminds executed for Beau Rivage at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, which has roughly 40 arrivals and departures each day and four total baggage belts. In addition to the carousel, the campaign also included wrapped jetways and mobile marketing with text messaging.

Putting the carousel ad together was a lengthy process, taking roughly a year from when it was first conceptualized.

The creative team actually took a sample from the Beau Rivage pool to get the exact right look for the water, and lots of models auditioned for the job before the agency found the three who were photographed.

"We did some retouching that made it look like they weren't drowning," explains Jean Pierre Blanchet, senior art director at Masterminds.

Getting the creative on the baggage carousel proved time consuming as well. It took a full day to apply the more than 100 pieces of adhesive vinyl, each one of them hand-cut, to the carousel belt panels.

"We have done some amazing things using escalators, floor space, everything you can possibly think of," Neiderer says. "You have a captive audience when they're looking for bags."

The campaign worked by achieving the most basic of alternative media objectives, finding a new use for something commonplace.

By turning the baggage carousel into a revolving pool, the Beau Rivage ad not only stands out from the airport clutter, it also gives travelers an image that sticks with them as they gather their bags. It's impossible not to notice it.

The reaction has been promising. Biloxi-area media picked up stories on the carousel, as did advertising blogs worldwide.

Blanchet says during his latest trip through the airport he saw people taking pictures near the carousel and wandering over for a look even if their luggage was not arriving on that particular belt.

“In the past few months, we have received a surprising amount of feedback regarding the impact of our eye-catching airport display and interactive texting program," says Brian Bork, vice president of marketing strategy at MGM Mirage, owner of Beau Rivage.

"We can definitely attribute an increase in inquiries to the ability of these unique tactics to engage travelers.”



© 2012 Media Life