Why Paper Planes Are The New Creative In Advertising

No matter what the ad medium, creativity is a must, however the constant pressure to be delivering good creative leaves some sweating.

Since the epic snag of winning a second lot of the Sydney Airport account, outdoor media company APN Outdoor wanted to showcase just how creative it can be, teaming up with B&T Magazine to create a paper plane out of the mag’s front over for a mammoth paper plane flying competition.

APN Flight club image2

“Having significantly expanded our Airport portfolio, with the addition of Sydney Airport’s T1 (International) and T2 (Domestic), we were looking for an exciting, high impact and fun way to involve the market in the launch,” explained Janine Wood, general manager of marketing at APN Outdoor.

“The six page spread in B&T gave us the opportunity to replicate an airport runway, not to scale of course, with some key information and context around our portfolio, as well as integrate the pull out paper plane itself.”

It’s tricky to tell what will be good creative, but having posed the question to Darren Spiller, chief creative officer at ad agency DDB Melbourne, recently he says he just knows. It gets people excited. It gets people interested. And it’s what makes good advertising.

In the print space, a few years ago a Brazilian magazine ran an ad for car brand Peugeot and its airbags where the airbag literally inflated when the reader smacked the page prior.

Similarly Bauer Media fashion mag Elle recently made its cover a mirror to have the reader front and centre of the glossy.

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And the outdoor market also breeds creativity. The Cannes Creativity Festival recently celebrated some of the best outdoor ads in the business, and when our cricket team did rather well in the Cricket World Cup (not the Ashes), beer brand Victoria Bitter took advantage of outdoor media company APN Outdoor’s giant billboards with congratulatory messages.

The paper plane idea in the latest issue of B&T aims to push the message that when you think of airports, you need to think of APN Outdoor, and the creative physical element of print is what really has APN Outdoor jazzed up.

“For us, the B&T spread was an opportunity to harness the power of interactive story telling combining great design and imagination to engage and involve our key audience, using print to add that element of tactility,” said Wood.

“What really excited us is being able to communicate our leadership in the airport media space, in an innovative fashion. Bringing an idea to life in a tangible space for B&T readers and delivering an initiative that is both playful, effective and consequently able to tie in with our promotional Airport event, Flight Club has also been great.”

A bit of healthy competitive paper plane flying never hurt the office either.

“Having the opportunity to throw a few paper planes around and bring out that competitive edge in the workplace was definitely a plus, and we can’t wait for B&T readers to do the same,” joked Wood.

Have a bit of a practice with your copy of B&T, and make sure you RSVP to APN’s Flight Club event to really show off your skills.

It’s nostalgia, competition and the possibility of some prize wins all rolled into one.

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