ABOUT

Having been appointed by National Express Coach as their lead creative agency at the start of the year, our relationship hit new heights when we were recently tasked with supporting the launch of their new London to Stansted Airport routes from a PR perspective.

Their story? Three new pick up points to take travellers to Stansted in around an hour. Our idea? Ruffle some feathers with an eye-catching, engaging experiential stunt right in the heart of London.

We filled a National Express coach with 50 ‘pigeon heads’ and released our kit at Waterloo, Liverpool Street, Paddington and Trafalgar Square over the course of one morning – much to the delight and bemusement of commuters and tourists alike.

What were we thinking? Well, ahead of the Spring Bank Holiday, our client told us it was set to be the biggest weekend yet for travel, with some 300k holidaymakers set to fly from Stansted alone. And when you think of London and flying, our grey feathered friends came straight to mind.

Incentivised with a competition to win flights from Stansted for the best #catchthepigeon selfie, we wanted to create a buzz on the ground, on social and in the media. With double the organic impressions of a standard day, almost 2% engagement increase on Twitter and more than 20% engagement on the content we shared on the platform, we certainly did just that.

Our lucky winner was so enthused, she followed our pigeons across the city to claim her selfie and secure her prize. In her words, “I really enjoyed the #catchthepigeon event - it was like a treasure hunt across London - and I enjoyed it all the more after I won! I feel very blessed, so thank you to yourself and National Express.” High praise indeed.

We got the public and press in a flap too – including journalists from Daily Mail, Huffington Post and local target, Herts and Essex Observer, who all shared our bird antics.