Stuart Farquhar

Inmarsat are the biggest company you’ve never heard of. They’re the people who provide secure satellite communications for the military as well as reliable comms for anyone at sea. They strap satellites to rockets and send them into space. Big, serious stuff.

Inmarsat have developed the world’s fastest and most reliable broadband for airlines and launched their product at a global expo called ‘Apex’ in Singapore.

To use an unsavoury metaphor for the world of aviation, our job was to give this launch huge impact. We had to make it count and we had to make it good, because this level of technology doesn’t come cheap.

Our stand was designed as a fully immersive experience for airline delegates, combining an abstract, atmospheric representation of an aircraft interior with augmented reality, film and an interactive digital ‘walk-through’ of the product.

Visitors to the booth were invited on a “flight to Barcelona,” given an iPad and instructed to step inside a representation of an aircraft cabin and cockpit. Using augmented reality, visitors became passengers and experienced stories related to how the in-flight journey can be enriched with connectivity. The final design of the stand mimicked the look of an airline interior complete with oval windows and a neon cockpit outline. Each oval window allowed the visitor to trigger the AR on their tablet and receive a video/interactive walkthrough.

Within each window is an artifact on a pedestal that signified an aspect of service: wi-fi, in flight e-commerce, safety, productivity, website, magazine, etc. Visitor pathways took them down the aisle until they reached the cockpit.

We worked closely with the digital agency: Intergalactic, guiding them through the design of the app that drove the experience that included Augmented Reality, interactivity, CGI renders, and animated motion graphics to complete the immersive experience.

The success of the campaign was seen in the excitement of the Inmarsat client team, airline affiliates, attendees, and shareholders.

This translated into increased engagement, partnership leads, positive response from customers, and even a surge in corporate stock valuation.

Inmarsat was on the front page of the APEX daily for 2 of the 3 days, which was a direct reflection of the positivity of a story well told at APEX.