Creative Airspace With British Airways’ Interactive Billboards

Ever looked up at an airplane and wondered where it’s going? British Airways’ latest campaign uses interactive technology to tell you just that.

Large billboards have been popping up in busy areas of London as part of British Airways’ new advertising campaign. Not only do the images on the billboards move, but they interact with their surroundings in real time. Specifically, they track planes overhead above the city.

The billboard features a small child who looks up to the sky, and whenever a British Airways airplane goes overhead, points and says “Look, it’s flight BA475 from Barcelona.” The billboards are updated in real time to tell you the exact provenance of each plane as it passes over head.

Highlighting the range of destinations British Airways flies to is not all, however, as the billboards also flash information such as the temperature of the given destination, or the cheapest fares British Airways offers there.

The project involves mounting antennae on the roofs of nearby buildings which receive live data from British Airways aircrafts up to 200km away, with each flight passing overhead being individually identified. The technology also took into account cloud cover, using cloud altitude data to determine whether the place could actually be seen or not. If the skies are clear enough people on the ground simply follow the child’s finger up to the skies and see the plane passing overhead.

By using key London locations such as Piccadilly Circus, the interactive campaign was broadcast to as many people as possible, who, in the busy streets of the city, may not have time to stop and look up.