Friends of ours, Gemma, Ken and little Estella Gray were on holiday recently in Venice. On arriving at Marco Polo airport they were actually pleased to wait for their bags to arrive.
Why? Because a smart Italian ad agency has converted the baggage belt into a giant roulette wheel.
I have to admit that I have seen this creative work already, I think It’s won several awards around the world, but Gemma and Ken hadn’t. So they got to experience it as the consumer is meant to, without warning and at first hand.
And what's really nice is that both of them work in the creative industry so they’re even harder to impress than your average punter when it comes to most advertising, but they both absolutely loved this.
According to the client, the Venetian Casino, visits have increased by 60% since the belt was created. (To be honest despite having been to Venice quite a few times I didn’t even know there was a casino so perhaps it’s just a great awareness campaign).
On the idea, there’s something ironic that clearly passed the airport authorities by, it does suggest that getting your luggage back at all is a game of chance.
But congratulations all round. In the UK this probably wouldn’t have made it past most airport authorities. (I’ve tried many times to do something creative at Edinburgh airport but always had the ideas rejected for “health and safety” reasons).
And in case you were wondering, it was little Estella who won big by correctly predicting that her luggage would land on Black 15.