Two things in life don’t go together, flying and me.

It just isn’t natural for us to be hurtling at ridiculous speeds through the stratosphere in a metal tube that magically fights off gravity. It’s this defiance of physics that I think about every single time I fly now. You see, I am a nervous flyer and it must be something to do with getting older as I never used to be. Maybe the reason being was that when I was younger I mainly flew in Business Class around Asia. And in that seat, you are surrounded by fine food endless champagne and the comfort of the A380, so if you are going to die that would be the way to go. This meant I never really gave flying much thought or even worried about it.

However, since moving to New Zealand all that has changed. Gone are the days where I felt the safety of an A380 combined with the comfort of champagne to keep me calm. Now when I travel, I do it in the smallest twin-prop planes I have ever seen which isn’t the best way to fill me with the confidence I need. Then on top of this, you add flight paths between mountains and tiny runways next to lakes. Beautiful as this scenery is, they also create the worst turbulence I have ever experienced.

So, there I was in this tiny plane being thrown around like a rag doll at a children’s party and all I could do from falling into utter panic was to constantly blabber about anything and everything to the poor stranger next to me. It just so happens that the topic that popped into my mind was an idea that centred itself around the very idea of flight.

The idea was a digital outdoor billboard for British Airways that featured a child interacting with a real plane as it flew across the sky above the city of London. Yup, you heard that right a billboard that interacted with real planes in the sky, in real-time.

To make this idea come to life the team built a complex technological infrastructure that not only worked out plane speeds, destinations, flight numbers but also a geo-fenced off area that triggered the ad to be played automatically as the plane flew overhead. They also worked out the latency required by calculating the plane speed before the child came walking into frame and started pointing up to the sky at the exact time the plane was over the billboard. 

The amazing thing about this idea was because it was in London, and we all know how bad the London weather can be, they built something into the system that could tell if the clouds would be in the way of the planes being visible from the ground, and if they weren’t visible then the ad did not play and it just showed the other ads that were scheduled to be there. 

Now not only did they make something that was so simple, so innovative, they also made it so hard working. They even built in a pricing system that showcased the actual prices for that route. Which is why I suppose this picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes for the Direct and Outdoor categories. Simple and direct.

Although it was a highly complex solution to make this idea happen the simplicity and restraint on the execution plus the direct nature of this idea makes me wish I had done this.

So back to me sitting in the smallest plane in the world praying for my feet to be on solid ground again. All I could think about was what an amazing time to be alive. A time where technology helps us push the boundaries of storytelling to make something as common as flight magical again. Even for me, a very nervous flyer.

I Wish I Had Done That.

Gary