Qantas launches next phase of campaign with ‘You’re the reason we fly’ commercial via Publicis Mojo Sydney featuring music by Daniel Johns
Qantas today launched the next phase of its advertising campaign, via Publicis Mojo Sydney, including a television commercial following a successful teaser campaign and featuring music by Australian artist Daniel Johns.
The television commercial, directed by The Glue Society’s Gary Freedman via Revolver, takes the viewer on an aerial tour canvassing scenes of Australians going about their everyday activities and ends with a portrait of the faces, supporting the narrative ‘Australians fly for many different reasons, we fly for one, you’re the reason we fly’.
The soundtrack Atlas was recorded by Johns in conjunction with the Australian Chamber Orchestra and is the first piece of commercial work undertaken by the artist. Johns said creating Atlas has been a unique experience for him.
Qantas executive manager marketing Mr Lewis Pullen said the response to the teaser campaign had exceeded expectations with over 60,000 entries, 200,000 unique visitors to qantas.com/you and 16,000 downloads of the mobile app in just over two weeks.
Says Pullen: “We opened the Qantas Hub on 2 July and we had over 20,000 Australians sign up to participate on the first day. It was a pleasing response; particularly given we raised our target of $100,000 for Mission Australia on the first day of the campaign.
“We have also selected hundreds names to go on the side of an A380 and B737 the new decals will be unveiled in coming months.
“Over the past few weeks we have been progressively building the end frame to our television commercial and we now have over 25,000 photos of Australians that form the Qantas logo in a mosaic tile. This will air on Sunday night and will feature an original piece of music created by Australian artist Daniel Johns titled Atlas.”
Says Johns: “When Qantas first approached me, I agreed to the project as I was really into the idea of creating a piece of music that represented Australia. I wanted it to sound big, something special. It was a conscious effort to create a good piece of music and not just a jingle. I’ve also wanted to work with the Australian Chamber Orchestra for a long time now so it was great to finally be able to do that. I’m really happy with how the song turned out.”
Pullen said Qantas will also introduce an Olympic treatment which will launch in conjunction with the start of the Olympics.
Says Pullen: “As part of our support for the Australian Olympic team and Paralympic teams, we have also developed an Olympic version of our new TVC. Its features Bernard Tomic, Steve Hooker, Liesel Jones, Courtney Atkinson and Kelly Cartwright, all training for their respective goals and representing the spirit of Australians in London.”
Client: Qantas
Agency: Publicis Mojo, Sydney
Chief Creative Officer: Craig Davis
Creative: Craig Davis
Creatives: Ian Williamson, Pim Van Nunen, Roddy Kerr
Managing Partner: Carl Colman
Group Account Director: Hayley Peacock-Gower
Executive Producer: Roy De Giorgio
Production Company: Revolver
Director: The Glue Society (Gary Freedman)
Executive Producer: Michael Ritchie
Producer: Caroline Barry
DOP: Mandy Walker
Production Designer: Lucinda Thompson
Editor: Bernard Garry at The Editors
Colourist: Ben Eagleton for Fuel VFX
Post Production: Fin Design & Effects
Original Music: ‘Atlas’, Daniel Johns
66 Comments
Thanks for making my day mojo. That is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. Music gives it that extra comedic edge.
I like it. It’s a simple but effective move from Spirit of Australia to Spirit of Australians.
I like it. It’s a simple but effective move from Spirit of Australia to Spirit of Australians.
Pretty much very scene looks set up and badly art directed. Id say pretty bloody average for what I can only assume was a decent budget.
Ansett, with insightful comments like that, it’s no wonder you went broke. Nothing boring is effective. And that was not only boring but missing any sense of pride that the old campaign delivered; as tired as it was.
For first and business class, maybe.
Economy? This couldn’t be further from the mark. Crusty seats, crusty food, crusty crew.
After I asked for a wine on my last (ever) QANTAS international flight, the FA replied “That’s the last one, you’ve drunk us dry!”. It was my first wine.
After waiting hours for a feed, I asked for something to snack on. Another FA threw (no joke) a pizza pocket at me which tasted like a leather boot and gave me the runs.
“Your’e the reason we fly?”
Please.
QANTAS is a budget airline posing as a premium one. Mojo, seriously, props to you guys for giving it a try, and I hope you can dupe unsuspecting people into falling in love with this brand again, but this spot is an umbrella in a hailstorm.
This is great. It really encapsulates how low these bastards fly over my house each morning.
Just a tad. Did remind me of this tho: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EDqYP7g1U0&
Peter Allen 1 – Daniel Johns 0
it’s ok. But i’ll only watch it once. Dates quickly.
Strategic genius. An airline that flies for its passengers. Amazing. An object lesson in how fear can make a brand lose sight of itself. The problem isn’t the advertising guys. 12 months before Peter Allen is back. Tops.
Did Daniel forget the words?
I have not got a clue what this is about or what it is saying? The Qantas CEO says shareholders are driving the decisions at Qantas not the customers. Customers don’t want less staff or pissed off workers. This just doesn’t make any sense at all and it’s ugly – Australia the place where the sun don’t shine.
Bring back some emotion Qantas none is going to enjoy this.
Somewhere Qantas flies over the Rainbow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HRa4X07jdE
Can I say it?
Its a train wreck. It’s a completely self indulgent piece of wank like all the other qantas ads, but for some reason it has very little to like about it.
I know this game is hard at the best of times but if you want Australia to believe that they’re the reason you fly, well you better start showing it and stop singing it.
This is so old fashioned, so insincere, such crap. Devoid of strategy, devoid of creativity, devoid of personality. It is hard to believe it could haveave come from the ghost of Mojo
Very sad a no idea badly executed.
this looks like they filmed over the actual qantas flight path…nothing inspirational or aspiration about this except the hot model at the end. who looks french btw
Ooh ! It’s pathetic but even worse for us as crew – Bloody Embarrassing !
I cannot believe our management signed off on this. Now the travelling public might realise the problem with QANTAS is not the staff but the pathetic management.
I like it.
I don’t believe flight crew read the CB blog, sorry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qOHTbd_yhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz8MRMw1Xnk&feature=related
Sorry but QF Flight crew can read and we do have friends that keep us in touch with other worlds. I have been a pilot in QANTAS for 40 years and I am currently a Captain on 747’s.
I have therefore been connected with Qantas for half its existence. I know what QANTAS is about, what it has been, where it has been and where it should be going.
This campaign is crap. it is insulting, self indulgent, juvenile, moronic, cheap, unimaginitive, condescending, and dare I say it – un Australian !
This is about as mind dumbingly pathetic as our PM’s “we are us” comment.
My tip is that it will go down as one of the all time great bombs of airline advertising. And yes I have seen the Air New Zealand ad and other pathetic attempts at the same embarrasing tripe.
this makes me wanna hurl it doesn’t inspire anything except further my resolve to avoid flying Qantas – the second lamest airline currently operating (Ryan Air takes first place)
Between this and the ‘vagina’ spot earlier in the week, I can safely say our industry has gone to the dogs.
What a MESS!? Awful.
What the hell is that ‘digger-digger’ beat that kicks in half way through?
I feel like I’m back in my raving days and just dropped a tab of X..
The vision clashes with the audio. Where is the class of qantas? Where is the idea?
Where is the Vodka!!?…I give up.
Awful. Boring. Unemotional. So bad.
What’s the idea? We fly planes!
Fuck that was dull. I had to force myself to watch to the end, hoping something would happen. It didn’t. How many people will be awake by the time the logo is briefly up?
Sell me the dream. Sell me the belief. Preach to the converted. Don’t sell me anything rational because rational is not what makes me buy. This is amateur hour. And it’s people flogging this kind of crap and abusing the little trust we gain as an industry that will hurt us all. Hang your heads in shame, you’ve buggered up an Austrslian icon and pushed it towards irrelevance.
You say you are an expert, I am yet to see any proof.
Commenting as an Australian and technically a shareholder in the carrier and not as a professional – I feel that watching the “making of film” makes one fully realise what a beautiful track Daniel Johns has created and I believe it will become iconic over a period of time. This piece also seems to help make sense of it. Perhaps it’s seeing the composer? And the images of the people then compliment the emotion of the music.
Where as in the commercial the emotional connection is void even though you know it was meant.
One wonders though if the use of a helicopter instead of a crane for the majority of shots would have helped the idea. It almost feels that the imaginary aircraft or the flying metaphor is precariously close to those gazing skyward or even out from buildings.
It’s a bit of a shame really. A lot of clever minds have been involved but it just feels like it trips over itself. A bit of a case of the “emperors new clothes”.
I try not to say bad things on the blog. So I won’t start now.
There are some big guns in the credits as well. There is maybe a crazy client back story we are all unaware of.
You’ve spent the last few years preaching about Brand Karma.
And this is what it looks like eh?
What a pile of shite.
I worked for a CD once who always used to say that he had ‘no ego’ – you know what, he had a massive ego. I used to work on a brand that used to say their product gave you more energy, you know what, it didn’t give you more energy.
Lesson = Brands, like people are most often the opposite of what they tell you they are. Hence, the truth about this ad is the opposite of what they’re saying and management know it and think the public will have suddenly just forgotten a decade of horrible service, from horrible staff on a horrible airline.
The continual decline of the this iconic brand needs more than an new ad, it needs new leadership. I’m sorry Qantas management don’t ask agencies to tell them what their brand really needs rather than just go make us a woeful ad.
That’s what you get when you buy into that Society hype.
The market exec that presided over the death of Ansett has just done the same for Qantas.
Why does this guy keep getting hired?
Don’t be fooled by the Craig Davis/Mojo credits. This is an idea that’s been kicking around for a long time – since the media planners at Optimedia first presented it to Qantas. The clients got into it because they needed to show that they were doing something more than trite webisodes about idiots going to the Rugby World Cup and it got the corporate comms guys and the chaps in boardroom interested. They lack of any real creative spark or idea then needed a bit of window dressing and in popped the Mojo chaps. It was all worked out before the pitch, so was a done deal before Droga got appointed.
This is a sad marker in time for the brand itself and for the Australian advertising industry. Please clients: stop listening to media agencies when they start getting all creative. It’s like going to your chiropractor for legal advice!
As cheesy as I Still Call Australia Home sometimes felt, at least it was optimistic and ownable. This is dull, melancholy and already dated. Like the composer of the track.
If your name is amongst those credits, hang your head in shame.
Looks as if it was shoot as we circled and circled while waiting to land due to delays from cancelled flights! Or is that where the idea came from?
And personally I thought the reason why qantas flies is for their shareholder profit. Not for us.
@Behind the scenes: would this be one of those occasions where ‘borrowing’ an idea isn’t denied then?
One day you turn on the TV and there it is. ‘How did that ever get through?’ you ask. Then you remind yourself how an idea, no matter how inane, how lacking in inspiration,how devoid of leadership,can gain a momentum that’s impossible to stop simply because too many people have invested too much time, too much money and too much of their own reputation into it. This is one of those ideas. I’m sure it all seemed so right – all the boxes had been ticked – all the research done, then changes, then more research done to confirm the changes and then more research just for those final tweaks. And just a few more groups for a final double check to confirm all the research respondents do believe ‘Yes. I am the only reason why the airline flies’. Nothing was left to chance. What could possibly go wrong? And then you see it, and despite the millions spent making it and the never-ending barrage of reassuring PR that accompanies it, another story about nothing, the emperor’s new clothes, can’t help but come to mind. Can anyone imagine any of the country’s great marketers [not agency creatives, client marketers like Mark Buckman] letting this idea get past the first presentation? And even more maddening is you just know when 99% of the QF heavies and marketing people saw it on their own TV’s for the first time – without any of the accompanying hype – they all found themselves thinking the very same thing. ‘How did that ever get through?’
The interesting thing about this ad is it accurately sells and represents what Qantas now offer’s it’s dwindling customer base: it’s old hat, it’s bland and uninspiring, it’s so very corporate and totally lacking empathy, and finally it gives travellers no tangible reason to choose to fly Qantas. Think about: “You’re the reason we fly”. Really? And I thought you flew the airline just for fun. Hollow and meaningless line. It’s really sad watching this once proud iconic brand being systematically dumbed down to save operating costs, whilst improving nothing on board or on the ground. The CEO is a clear bean counter driven dead loss and others below him clearly have absolutely no idea. Emirates and other’s will be shaking their heads in disbelief, thinking, their marketing is way easier with this as competition.
I’d asume the genius who has his name first and second in the credits, including a rather confusing ‘creative’ credit all to himself, had twice the involvement of everyone else named on this campaign.
This blog’s feedback is negative but the punters feedback at SMH is horrifying. Maybe Alan Joyce is a genius – maybe the strategy is too obliterate the Qantas brand so much that it folds, then replace the operational business with lowcost asian based Jetstar.
I apologise, but great marketing directors like…? Really?
Yes, great marketers like Buckman. I didn’t like the Dare to Different for CommBank, but I understood how it was as internally focussed as customer focussed. I understood how Buckman used marketing to turbo-charge change the bank’s culture. The CommBank Buckman left was a better, more dynamic and different bank to the one he started with and the marketing he controlled played a big role in that. And just for the record – I’ve never met him, never spoken to him and don’t work for Telstra.
The end is nigh. Spend your points before they shut the doors. Oh and the ad, meh.
Low flying planes?
With everyone looking at the low flying planes?
Flying through a city?
Ummm….
Saw it on tele. Footage is really shaky and hard to watch, like the footage has been interpreted at the wrong speed. Looks awful (the jitter, not the ad).
I get what they are trying to do here, but really poorly executed. Where is the emotion?
Didn’t even realise this was an ad for an airline until the end frame appeared. I was waiting for a bird to shit all over someone, but it seems the shit is all over Qantas now.
Virgin will be laughing all the way to the bank. Daniel Johns must be having a huge giggle. That was ten minutes work. The creative team will be hiding somewhere.
I don’t blame the creative. The execution could have carried this idea. It’s failure is more attributable to lazy direction & production than the idea itself.
Kinda like the music at least
Oh dear me… I notice that there is no credit for strategy in that massive list… hardly surprising because there isn’t one. No idea masquerading as arty farty subtlety…. This is the biggest pile of crap this year and as for the mega hyped oversold ‘music’ I forgot what it ten seconds after seeing the spot
Try this. Don’t watch the ad and try to remember hum the music. It’s instantly forgotten.
Just reminds me of the music Chris Lilley used for the title sequence on ‘Summer Heights High’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=m798FVAAcws&NR=1
Maybe there is also a hint of ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’ in Daniel John’s melodic humming…
In the end it made me think of those other tracks and didn’t really establish it’s own identity.
Exactly 10 mins wasted! now back to work.
Is this the hint?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I
Saw it last night – feels like an Insurance ad, not an Airline.
The agency credits say it all.
I am clearly missing something. I thought D5 had this account.
@John747 I really do hope you are not a pilot or engineer, your math is out (Qantas started in Longreach in 1927) and you can’t spell.
The only reason this campaign exists is that ‘The Spirit of Australia’ and ‘I still call Australia home’ would become a thorn in their side when they move most of their operations to Asia….Mind you “I still call Malaysia home” does kinda work.
That is beyond awful.
And the account of events at 12.43 is very accurate. In fact, look closely and you will find some ex-Opti names in the credits.
Sad day when the Qantas TVC has less creativity and inspiration than the “Being Lara Bingle” Promo that follows it. : (
Everyone knows Australia hates Qantas right now. I’m blown away that in today’s world, where every marketing article you lay your eyes on explains in plain English that you have to earn trust from people, this is what they came out with? This is why we fly?? For you?? People aren’t stupid. Such a load of BS.
I hope D5 takes over and does something real to win fans back. There is no easy answer.
This is like cheating on your wife and then sending her a note that says, “don’t worry, it’s cool. I love you.”
A little transparency, hard work, change and innovation would go a long way. Earn it Qantas.
Best advice for QANTAS would be not to advertise. Fix your image problems first. A good ad will only make a bad product fail faster.
@Best practice: well it’s a good thing they’ve got little chance of getting a good ad then, isn’t it?
Thank God that even Gary at the Glue society can come undone with a shit idea…badly executed.Whew!! Glue Society and Revolver are normal.
What an insulting load of crap:
The arrogant Irishman thinks Aussies are stupid and that he can say anything in an Advertisement and we will swallow it as truth – Not everyone is that gullible mate.