Fictional airline wins marketing business award and celebrates by going green

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It’s not everyday that a fictional business wins a business accolade, but that is what happened on Friday 6th November at the Thames Gateway Business Awards.

airTHC, the fictional airline employed by Tower Hamlets College in east London to drive this year’s summer recruitment campaign, promotes everything going on at the college, from the people that fill its walls, to the work they undertake and the activities they fill their time with.

“The idea was that education is part of a bigger journey, and one that we can help people embark on, you just have to jump on board,” explains Vicky Maskell, Marketing Coordinator at the college.  “We wanted to do something different, something that captured the imagination, and something that really took education out to the community of east London.”

airTHC is a multi-faceted campaign.  The Further Education College built a plane set, which it took on tour of east London attending community days, school events, shopping centres, Melas, and markets between April and September 2009 meeting literally thousands of people along the way.  The College also put together takeOFF, an alternative prospectus, which demonstrated the unique personality of the college.  Combine this with a dedicated website www.airthc.co.uk, social media advertising, local and ethnic press advertising, mobile advertising and email marketing and you have a very comprehensive campaign.

Thames Gateway Business Awards 2009  » 

The judges of the award, sponsored by Archant and HSBC, commented “The reason we chose the winner of the marketing category was because it was a very comprehensive and imaginative marketing campaign to attract people of all ages to the college.”

Today the fictional airline enters a new era: it is going green.  The College has six pledges to the environment, and is asking its staff and students to sign the plane in green paint as of today to pledge their individual support.  The College is extremely pleased to announce that Lord Young, from the Department of Business, Skills and Innovation will be the first person to sign the plane at the Student Council meeting today, Wednesday 11 November.

As the airTHC strapline says, “airTHC, is not just a College but the flight path to your future,” and quite rightly so.