Taking a smart product to new heights

Across the aviation industry, the concept of a ‘connected aircraft’ was slowly taking hold; however many airlines did not fully understand the numerous advantages it could provide, nor was existing Satcom technology able to keep pace.

The revolutionary AVIATOR S Series antenna from Cobham Satcom enabled airlines to create a more intelligent and better connected organisation that delivered: more streamlined and efficient operations, and more sophisticated on-board and on-ground applications with the ability to share more complex data for better fleet management, greater pilot situational awareness, improved fuel economy, and enhanced flight safety – all in a smaller, lighter package (a top priority when it comes to aircraft hardware).

As a relative newcomer to the commercial aviation sector, Cobham Satcom needed a show-stopping communications platform that could not only position AVIATOR S Series as the most dependable and effective solution, but could also educate the global market and internal stakeholders about the benefits of high-speed connectivity for aircraft.

Rather than solely drawing attention to the advantages of IP connectivity to individual aircraft, the real benefits of a broadband communications solution are far more powerful when understood on a fleet-wide, commercial level. CBC’s ‘Smart Fleet’ concept not only built on this idea as its premise, but it gave Cobham Satcom a valuable opportunity to coin and own a new category term.

Everyone understands the features and advantages of modern smartphones. Playing on this understanding, the term ‘Smart Fleet’ becomes an instantly recognisable and clear way to communicate the benefits that the new Aviator S Series offers to airlines, in the same way that upgrading to a smartphone vastly improves many elements of an older generation mobile phone.

An entire campaign was built around the Smart Fleet concept, focusing on the idea that by retrofitting or “upgrading” specific elements of the aircraft’s operation (e.g. engine diagnostics), the airline would receive a measurable benefit (such as more actionable data or fuel savings).

Visually, subtly augmented images of passenger aircraft were used to give a slightly futuristic feel, which focused on a particular section, such as the engine or cockpit. A graphical overlay replaced a key part of this section to show a graph, chart or other infographic to highlight this measurable benefit, and to communicate how the Aviator S Series is a more advanced, technologically superior solution.