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Qatar
Airways has used an innovative moving billboard in South Africa to
advertise its arrival in the country.
The skies above South Africa’s major cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town were lit up in a Five Star aerial light display across the evening sky.
Five helicopters were used in each location to fly the ‘starry lights’ over the three cities in perfect formation, to highlight Qatar Airways’ award-winning Five Star service.
The
sky spectacle, heralded the launch of Qatar Airways’ scheduled flights between Doha, capital of
Qatar, and both Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The airline operates four flights a week between Doha and both South African cities, using an Airbus A330-200 in a two-class configuration of 24 seats in Business and
248 in Economy.
Qatar Airways appointed Cape Town-based events company Teamworks to develop a concept to promote the arrival of the airline in South Africa.
Teamworks managing director Steve Pearce said: “Qatar Airways wanted us to develop a really ‘Big’ idea, so we decided to use as our main positioning point, the fact
that Qatar Airways is a Five Star airline.
“We literally decided to put five stars in the sky above Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town to herald the arrival of this new Five Star airline.”
Teamworks contracted a local aviation company to construct powerful light systems rigged to the under belly of each of the five helicopters in each city.
The helicopter pilots were briefed to fly in perfect formation above each city for 2.5 hours on the night of 28 January 2005, stopping to hover over various targeted
populated areas for 3-4 minutes.
The display occurred simultaneously in each city and was designed to be clearly visible for many miles, and to arouse curiosity among millions of people who witnessed
the event.
“We wanted people to look up and see these stars and start talking about them, to build up to the official launch and advertising of the airline,” added Pearce.
The promotional campaign includes full page ads taken by Qatar Airways in national papers across South Africa over the weekend to explain the Five Star show.
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