i-traffic, an interactive marketing and advertising company and subsidiary of AGENCY.COM Ltd., has announced the launch of an interactive campaign for British Airways that is literally turning the heads of thousands of international business travelers.

The “Fly flat. Fly free.” campaign, which launched yesterday with a first of its kind ad, creatively highlights the sideways perspective as seen by travelers using British Airways` fully flat bed seat. The purpose of the campaign is to drive awareness of British Airways` new promotion, which rewards business travelers with two free tickets anywhere in the world when they join the British Airways Executive Club and fly in business class before April 15, 2002.

“We wanted to create an advertising campaign that would get people talking and support British Airways` heritage of innovation, but more importantly one that would directly impact their bottom line,” said Blair Shapiro, VP-Group Creative Director for i-traffic. “We feel that the resulting campaign accomplishes this and is unique in its use of content and creative integration.”

For the first time ever, visitors to the business and international sections of a leading online news outlet will see a full Web page - actually a DHTML ad unit - appear sideways on their screen along with a Flash animated creative message. After a few seconds, the ad will upright itself and fade into the story the user had selected to read, complemented by British Airways banner and skyscraper ads at the top and right of the page.

The entire campaign is expected to run on an array of leading online media properties through April 2002, and includes an HTML email, a forward-to-a-friend viral component and even an audio/visual Internet “commercial” - all incorporating the sideways point of view concept.

“Breakthrough is a challenge in any environment and in online it`s important that we capture attention beyond the banner. This unique advertising not only achieves awareness goals for the Flat Bed, but it also serves to reinforce BA`s history for innovation,” said Kelly Reed, Director of Marketing Communications for British Airways. “Our goal was to support a revolutionary flat bed product with an equally innovative marketing campaign.”

www.britishairways.com

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