This is what business-class feels like, according to Cathay Pacific

Cathay Pacific has launched an integrated global campaign to announce its revamped business class, which offers "enrichments" that are designed to offer passengers "a more holistic, sensory experience".

The 'Let your senses guide you' campaign is from VCCP Singapore, which won part of the carrier's remit following its epic pitch in 2018.

In the launch video above, the agency has gone for what it calls an "expansive and expressive" approach.

Perhaps to a fault, in Ad Nut's opinion. It's very pretty, with lots of evocative images—a man sweating from spicy food, a young woman playing drums on the street, a lone figure communing with silence on a misty mountaintop.

But for a full 60 seconds, you have no idea what you're watching. The voiceover seems to suggest it's an ad for a specific destination. Only in the last 20 seconds do we actually see the business-class product—arguably the thing that's most crucial to an airline that's facing significant headwinds and just downgraded its profit expectations again. 

The agency promises that more specific communications in digital, print and social-media channels will be forthcoming, detailing amenities such as 400-thread-count bedlinens and an "engaging restaurant-style dining service".

The hypothesis is that the launch video sets the tone for everything that follows. But Ad Nut wonders whether Cathay Pacific or any other brand can really afford to waste 60 seconds getting to the point. Will anyone you need to reach actually give you that 60 seconds of their attention without even knowing what you're on about? And if not, then what are you spending that money for?

Everyone's always talking about how time-starved and distracted people are these days. Given that, it's a marvel that a 60-second, tone-setting campaign-launch video can still be allowed to exist. All of which makes Ad Nut wonder if it's really just a vanity thing.

CREDITS

Agency: VCCP Singapore
Craig Mapleston - Regional Director
Executive Creative Director: Andrew Hook
Associate Creative Director: Shervin Seah
Copywriter: Dinah Amira Nordin
Art director: Drishti Khemani
Agency Producer: Danli Lok
Account Team: Aanchal Sethi - Business Director, Hannah James - Account Director
Planning: Valerie Wang - Planning Director
Photographer: Troy Goodall
Photographer's agency: Frame by Frame
Media agency: Digitas
Production company: Collider
Director: Rob Stanton-Cook
Producer: Annie Schutt
Post Production/ Editor: Matt Osborne
Sound Design: Gerard Fitzgerald (Song Zu)
Colourist: Ben Eagleton

Ad Nut is a surprisingly literate woodland creature that for unknown reasons has an unhealthy obsession with advertising. Ad Nut gathers ads from all over Asia and the world for your viewing pleasure, because Ad Nut loves you. You can also check out Ad Nut's Advertising Hall of Fame, or read about Ad Nut's strange obsession with 'murderous beasts'.