Waiting for my flight this morning at Paris CDG airport, I noticed a large advertising monitor. A track and field athlete was crouched at the center of it, ready to surge off the starting block. What caught my attention wasn’t the athlete herself; after all, we’re days away from the start of the Olympics, and all of Europe is abuzz with heroic stories and imagery of athletes. No, what grabbed my eye was the fact that the athlete actually sprung into motion on the screen, and I was treated to a short clip of her rifling down the track.
Turns out this was a trailer for Believe in Yourself, a series of micro-documentaries featuring paralympic athletes. Passengers waiting for their flights could aim their smartphones at the monitor and pull up the full micro-documentaries on their screens thanks to QR technology. The films are from Allianz, the German insurance provider and the primary sponsor of the Paralympic Games, which take place in London after the Olympic Games conclude. Clever, I thought, to integrate these dynamic micro-documentary trailers into a venue that typically shows standard perfume print ads and items from the duty-free shop.
The Allianz micro-documentaries succeeded on 3 fronts: good placement, good timing, and good content. The placement is creative and effective, as passengers can easily watch the films while waiting at their gates. The timing makes sense, too, since most people are aware that the Olympics are just around the corner, even if they don’t plan to watch. And the content is strong. Allianz may have produced the films, but they’re not promotional pieces all about the company and how great it is. Indeed, the company doesn’t mention itself until the very end of the film as a publisher of the Believe in Yourself series. The bulk of each piece is original editorial content about athletes, which is more appealing to watch and a more powerful way to connect with the audience.