iO and Brussels Airport
Brussels is the heart of Europe. Brussels Airport is also the heart of Europe. At least, it is for everyone visiting our country by plane or leaving it to see one of over 170 destinations. By focusing on the experience as a whole, Brussels Airport performs even better as a hub. Everything revolves around offering the best possible experience.
To showcase that, we work as an extension of the airport. We do so in terms of strategy, technology, marketing, content, data and research. It’s a hybrid collaboration between our teams and the Brussels Airport team. By combining all our skills, we are stronger.
In this section, we zoom in on how we use creativity in our branding & campaigns to successfully achieve Brussels Airport's goals.
Don’t forget to read our in-depth case on Brussels Airport and get an idea of our 360° collaboration.
Brussels Airport, a strong brand
A sound branding strategy brings your brand to life, while brand awareness puts it on the map. We support Brussels Airport in both areas.
Branding
The branding is there, but the channels are diverse. We translate the branding in a way that works best for each channel. Furthermore, we protect the branding and apply it to every channel. Because that’s essential to the recognisability of the brand.
Everything needs to be just right, up until the smallest details, if you want a brand to work. That’s why we let the branding seep through to the Compass Building, Brussels Airport’s new office. Because employees who feel the brand will emulate it.
Brand awareness & sponsoring
How do you successfully put the spotlight on sponsoring initiatives? By creating emotion between your brand and the organisation you support. That’s precisely what Brussels Airport wanted to do as a proud sponsor of the national hockey teams, the Red Lions and Red Panthers. Two teams of global calibre. iO poured the shared values into a video campaign: “Our hearts beat for Belgian hockey”. It became a successful advert that shows the pros, young fans, and Brussels Airport employees dribbling around the airport.
As a part of the campaign, we allowed kids to walk out onto the hockey pitch with their heroes and feel like professional athletes for a moment.
Thousands of people saw the advert on TV, in the cinema and online. We also added OOH, digital billboards and banners into the media mix.
Online activation & minigames
Entertainment works. Even more so when there’s a prize to win (and when you link lead generation to it). Your target audience gets to have fun, and as a business, you can collect valuable data.
We developed dozens of web-based, themed minigames, such as The Little Mermaid, The Smurfs, Frozen and The Lion King. From memory games to photo hunts, Flappy Bird-like games, and race games. Gaming draws in potential travellers of all ages. By adding appealing prizes such as plane tickets, we collected the data of potential travellers whom we could contact later with campaigns that could be interesting to them – all in compliance with GDPR, of course.
Minigames
Creative campaigns
“Here we come, Sun”
Every year, we enthuse the target audiences with a Sunseeker campaign. The creative angle for 2023: Brussels Airport will transport you straight to Summer. “Here we come, Sun” represents the urge to depart, the need for summer. The situation we translated to several formats is the story of an energetic young family with children who crave sunshine so much that they run through Brussels Airport in bathing suits and swimming trunks. Heading for the gate. Heading for the Sun.
“Here we come, Sun”
In the video we published on YouTube and social media channels, the family runs through the sky bridge towards the aeroplane. Before they even arrive, the video changes to show the family in a Mediterranean environment, sliding down a waterslide. Eventually, they slide into the pool together at their final destination with a big splash. The holiday has begun!
Some more campaigns:
Dream Destinations
Discover the world at Brussels Airport. Because if you depart in the heart of Europe, you can reach every corner of the globe.
https://dreamdestinations.brusselsairport.be/
Enjoy! Gold
Fly carefree and enjoy ultimate comfort with Enjoy ! Gold, the annual subscription to Brussels Airport's comfort services. This offer gives frequent travelers access to three exclusive services: Fast Lane, Diamond Lounges and the bTag service.
Outdoor activation
Target audiences are diverse. One person spends an entire day scrolling through TikTok, while the other listens to the radio and watches the telly in the evening.
Classic offline activation works. Especially now that we get inundated with adverts through social media, an offline campaign tends to catch the eye. For instance, to support “My Morocco Moment”, we gave away boxes of herbs filled with turmeric and ras el hanout at markets.
To reach our target audience of travel agents, we visit them regularly. One of our initiatives was a sales blitz, complemented by a BRU darts game for BRUcard, a program for travel agents and operators. The participants with the best hand-eye coordination won a BONGO experience voucher for an adventure in a vibrant European city.
Radio & Video
For our Sunseeker campaign, we do a radio campaign every year. We create a bilingual advert to put the spotlight on the most important summer destinations you can reach from Brussels Airport. We expanded the last campaign to Spotify.
In collaboration with Belgian radio station Joe, we set up a campaign to showcase some of the destinations you can reach from Brussels Airport. Besides a live radio show at the airport, there was a competition of “Handdoek leggen”, in which Sven Ornelis (a Joe radio host) broadcasted from a new unknown holiday destination every day for two weeks.
Content creation for a better passenger experience
Everyone looks forward to their holiday. But getting there is often a challenge. Brussels Airport does everything in its power to make the journey as positive, relaxing, and smooth as possible. Half of the work is to inform and prepare travellers so the entire experience can feel familiar. Even if it’s the first time.
Online check-in, how does that work? How much luggage can you bring? What was that rule about liquids again? Should you go by train?
The fewer the passengers have to figure out at the airport, the less luggage they have to reorganise, the smoother they can pass through security, and the happier and better the experience will be. And, therefore, the more positive their feelings about Brussels Airport.
By highlighting the right content at the right time, we contribute to an excellent passenger experience. We do so through clear copy, eye-catching visuals, videos, etc. Whatever it takes to get the message across and have every passenger start their journey at Brussels Airport with confidence.
Visual asset content creation
Employer branding
The people at Brussels Airport bring thousands of people to their destinations every day. And they help travel agents and tour operators find their way to the airport.
You’d almost forget that not everyone at Brussels Airport is just passing through. No less than 24,000 people keep the airport up and running every day. That solidifies Brussels Airport’s role as an essential economic motor for Belgium and the regions.
Campaign video per function
iO attempts to increase the influx of talent with various campaigns. We make posts specifically for every position to increase the chances of getting a response. That may look something like this video:
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