British Airways unveils a new brand campaign to strengthen its foothold in India

British Airways in an effort to strengthen its image and position in India, its second largest market outside the UK, has launched a new brand campaign with a short film titled Fuelled by love. The six-minute film, unveiled on Tuesday (2 February), is now live on the carrier's YouTube channel and is based on a real-life experience of one of its cabin crew members.

While the campaign's video, which has been directed by feature film director Neeraj Ghaywan, will not run on television, it will be promoted on the airline's social media channels such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+. It will run parallel to its print, digital, outdoor and other social media campaigns in three phases till February end.

Moran Birger, British Airways' regional commercial manager for South Asia, said: "India is British Airways' second largest market outside the UK and after the US. We are proud of our rich heritage of over 90 years in India and deep understanding of this wonderful country."

With regards to the new video, Birger explained that they want to showcase real-life events that their cabin crew members experienced while serving customers on their flights to India. "Many of them have shared stories of how care and thought that goes into every part of their journey have helped them connect with our customers and provide a more personal service," he added.

K.V. Sridhar, chief creative officer at SapientNitro India, the marketing agency that created the campaign, said: "The idea for the film was to connect with consumers and create empathy. To show that Birtish Airways understands India and the nuances of Indian culture and emotions, thanks to their relationship spanning across 90 years."

"The team spoke to scores of British Airways crew members, in London and in India before picking on this story for the film. We will follow up with more stories which will be represented through picture postcards on social media," Sridhar added.

British Airways is not the first airline company to take this route to improve its ties with India. In 2015, Lufthansa, the German airline which was tangled in an employee strike last year, launched a campaign titled "More Indian than you think".