British Airways new TVC goes live on Facebook

At 1100 GMT (3.30 pm IST) today, British Airways’ new commercial will launch.

Only, it will not launch on a TV channel; it will launch on Facebook .

Will the Facebook launch work? As this is being written, almost 100,000 FB users like the site and 672 users have shared the trailer – which you can watch now. Twenty five thousand netizens have seen the trailer on Youtube.

The British Airways punt – the Facebook launch – will have brand managers, TV managers and media agencies watching closely. If the communication reaches as many consumers as BA needs with no attendant media cost, it’s a harbinger of the future of advertising.

The recently launched Vodafone Facebook commercial , for example has notched up over 100,000 views (not on one link, but on multiple links to posts by multiple users).

Earlier British Airways commercials have received more than 1 million views – all at no media cost.

The implication of the zero media cost is that longer stories can be told. Typically, longer versions of TVCs are used at launch, tapering down to a cost-effective 30 or 20 second spot.

This British Airways spot, one predicts, will be long – perhaps as long as five minutes. That would have been an affordable buy on conventional media; on the Internet, it’s free.

Watch it on Facebook , in less than an hour from now. Use the comments option below and tell us if you think this will work.