Publicis Mojo CCO Craig Davis has had a busy day. Since this morning's Qantas You're The Reason We Fly campaign reveal he's kept his head down and focused on the elements going live on Sunday.

“This is a soft launch,” he said. There are many other very important elements that are part of it. It's designed to connect with Australians - that has always been the ambition.”

Despite the industrial and operational issues plaguing the airline Davis believes Qantas is a much loved Australian icon.
“The public generally has a deep affection for the Qantas brand,” he said. “This is an exercise in rekindling that affectionate.”

The agency believes the campaign to be 'highly innovative', 'highly integrated' and 'very inclusive'.

Qantas customers will be able to feature in their own personalised banner ads whenever they visit any site displaying the Qantas campaign such as Google, Fairfax or News Ltd online sites.

“The personalised digital advertising will be very powerful. It's never been done before in the  world and is extremely exciting,” Davis said.

An interactive outdoor mobile app that recognises users at distance and displays their image and name will soon be unveiled. Co-developed with Amnesia Razorfish and AdShell, it is one of many groundbreaking executions Davis and his team are extremely proud of.

“We believe the whole package to be clever and strategically smart,” he said.

As part of the campaign, Qantas will also donate $5 to Mission Australia for each photo uploaded to the value of $100,000.

Qantas executive manager marketing Lewis Pullen said the campaign celebrated the new spirit of the country and more importantly the people, the Spirit of Australians.

“We’ve been flying with the Spirit of Australia on our planes for over 20 years and in that time we’ve changed a lot and we know that Australians have been changing too,” he said. “As Australia’s airline, we’re working hard to meet those expectations. The new campaign focuses on our customers, so much so, that we’re asking all Australians to be a part of it.”

“To support this, we’ve added an ‘n and s’ to our tag line the Spirit of Australia on two of our aircraft, an Airbus A380 and a Boeing B737 so they will now fly with the Spirit of Australians emblazoned on the side of the aircraft. This activity is captured as part of a documentary that acts as a teaser for the first part of our campaign.”

The new multi-platform marketing campaign will also include a number of print, digital, outdoor and TVC executions which will be announced and rolled out in coming months. This first stage encourages people to get involved and be part of the campaign.

Further details will be unveiled as the campaign progresses.