Qantas has commissioned an original song for the next phase of its advertising campaign as the airline attempts to become a “modern” and “aggressive” brand.
The lyric-free Atlas song, by artist Daniel Johns and featuring the Australian Chamber Orchestra, will be the soundtrack for the new 90-second spot due to air this Sunday.
The ads, by Publicis Mojo, also use the new tagline “You’re the reason we fly”.
Qantas’ head of marketing Lewis Pullen said the brand has taken a risk with Atlas.
“It was a big decision to go with a unique soundtrack, without lyrics, probably the first time in my career I’ve made that decision,” Pullen said.
“It is lower risk to take a popular soundtrack that people are familiar with, with emotive lyrics, but we wanted the voice over to really be the key message.”
A 60-second spot featuring a voice over from the “Australians fly for many different reasons, we fly for one, you’re the reason we fly” narrative will be aired later next week.
Atlas will also form the backbone of the Olympic ads featuring Aussie athletes Liesel Jones, Bernard Tomic and Steve Hooker among others.
The established I still call Australia Home song does not feature in the campaign.
But Allen, who described the tune as a “quasi national anthem”, said it has not been dropped and will be used at events and special occasions.
The Glue Society’s Gary Freedman directed the ad through production company Revolver.
Allen said the creative team achieved the correct tone for Qantas: “Its not chest beating but it feels very right for Qantas at this time.”
A mosaic of over 25,000 Australian faces makes up the flying kangaroo logo in the third stage of the brand’s five-phase campaign.
Allen said the TVCs are designed to tug on the “heart strings” and to “re-engage emotionally with consumers”.
The final stage of the campaign, which Qantas has labelled the ‘prove’ segment, will make up the lions-share of the rebrand efforts.
Allen said the campaign has been “very cost effective” as Qantas did not invest heavily in paid-media at the first stage which had a strong social focus.
“It’s the most complex, it’s the most multi dimensional and multi-channel but it’s far from the most expensive,” Allen told B&T.
“There are a number of tricks we did around the production that kept the shoot days down which I think is clearly one of the big expenditure pieces.
“So we have been very very budget conscious for obvious reasons.”
The teaser and social element of the rebrand saw 60,000 Australian enter their photo and name for the chance to be seen in the TVC and get their name on a plane.
Allen said 25% of the entries were via mobile phones.
The names chosen to adorn the A380 and B737 will be unveiled in August.
The original Atlas song will be available to download for free from iTunes in the coming weeks.
