The personal quotes and fresh colours in Qatar Airways Cargo’s new advertising campaign bring life to the philosophy of its Next Generation strategy. Defining the future air cargo industry includes presenting its authenticity and its core elements of sustainable success: products, and above all, people.
Qatar Airways Cargo and Lemon Queen jointly developed the design and content of the Next Generation ad campaign to reflect the strategy’s core message: that a complete mindset shift is required if we are to shape the air cargo industry’s future. Built around its strong, new Next Generation logo, the campaign deliberately moves away from the standard aircraft and container visuals associated with air cargo, to instead portray the people and the true essence behind each product. It brings the story and the emotions of cargo to the fore, highlighting that air cargo is an integral part of our global community.
“Visuals play a vital role in changing a narrative. Visuals capture attention, draw people in, evoke emotion, and emotion is the driver for a mindset shift,” Audrey Serdjebi, Chairwoman of Lemon Queen, explains. “To those outside of this industry, the perception of air cargo is a vague and dusty image of card-board boxes and tedious physical effort. Yet, there is so much more to it – the planning behind the scenes and the invisible, yet crucial role that air cargo plays in the everyday lives of people around the world. The Next Generation campaign aims to rewrite the air cargo industry’s story, giving a true and clear picture of who the people at Qatar Airways Cargo are, what they do and why they do it. Alongside processes, flexibility, and innovation, there is emotion and dedication. The air cargo industry would not function without their professional, committed human touch every minute of the day.”
The ensuing advertisements follow a clean and repeated format. They contain the Qatar Airways Cargo logo alongside the Next Generation logo, both in the company’s corporate colours. The emphasised X in the word NeXt of the Next Generation logo, visually illustrates that Qatar Airways Cargo is crossing thresholds into a new way of doing business. This cross also symbolises an arrow pointing to the future and an even higher level of quality and service. The X serves as a backdrop of each main image, as reminder of change, strength, direction, continuity, and unchartered territory.
The ad campaign focuses on People and on Product. Qatar Airways Cargo employees around the world are shown alongside their explanation of what Next Generation means to them, and what drives their ambition to work in air cargo. With regard to Product, as part of the Next Generation strategy, each product has been allocated a unique product colour which is reflected on Qatar Airways Cargo’s new website and in all product-related communication. Hence, the product ads are characterised by their individual product colour. Along with an accompanying text, they portray the related commodity in its original surroundings, as opposed to reducing it to an anonymous item for transportation. The overall campaign effect is a fresh, clean, and authentic portrayal of the many faces and manifold aspects of the air cargo industry.
“Lemon Queen is proud of the impactful result of months of productive and creative collaboration with Qatar Airways Cargo and our extended team, and of the opportunity to mould Qatar Airways Cargo’s Next Generation brand image,” says Audrey Serdjebi. “2023 will see further ideas from our joint efforts in illustrating positive disruption and shaping the industry’s Next Generation future.”
