British Airway’s Beautiful Experiment: Best Travel Ads This Week

It’s a new season and that means travel companies are pushing out their autumn adverts in an effort to lure people away for a long weekend or spark early holiday bookings.

This week’s videos portray travel through rose-colored lenses. They focus on the behind-the-scenes magic that makes a plane fly, the history cemented into a destination’s present-day attractions, and the belief that travel is getting smarter and easier.

British Airways‘ impressive new ad uses stunning transitions to highlight how technology, design, and human effort intersect to take average flyers from point A to B. It compares similar geometrical shapes of city grids and computer chips, the movements of airport escalators and airlines, and what studio designs look like when put into action.

Holland continues its marketing quest to become the Brooklyn of the world. After starring in a viral campaign this May, Holland’s brand ambassador Pim de Koel is back to focus on Amsterdam. The ad highlights how much of what today’s culture distinguishes as “cool” actually originated in Holland, including bikes, town houses, and “quirky hipster stuff.”

The Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions, Amsterdam Schipol Airport, KLM, and Amsterdam Marketing continue to sponsor the campaign.

Philadelphia’s tourism board launched its second gay tourism campaign in August. The 30-second TV commercial stars drag queen “Miss Richfield 1981” who visits tourist attractions,  enjoys the nightlife, and takes lots of selfies along the way. Key West is the only other U.S. destination to specific target the gay community in tourism ads.

Besides a perfect choice of soundtrack, this 30-second Scandinavian Airlines‘ ad mixes the romance of travel with travelers’ desire for efficiency. It successfully targets male and female business travelers, includes children, and makes getting through an airport look like an activity flyers could actually look forward to.

The above video is a sneak peak at a major tourism campaign in the works for America’s capital. Destination D.C. will officially roll out the  “D.C. Cool” campaign before the holidays and this post gives us a good idea of it is headed.

The heavy focus on restaurants, bars, and nightlife is tempered by what sounds like a poem positioning the present-day city in relation to its historic past. However, the average U.S. traveler might not have patience for this love letter to the capital so hopefully there are other faster-paced ads on the way.