Psst…wanna used copy of High Life for £32?

British Airways’ High Life magazine has achieved something incredible with a feature on Benedict Cumberbatch, says Dominic Mills – and although at heart this is about good old content marketing, this time there’s a thoroughly contemporary twist…

Why, you might be asking yourself, are copies of British Airways’ High Life magazine up for auction on eBay for £32.00? It seems an unlikely sum of money to hand over for something that is available, after all, for free.

But not if you’re one of the thousands of obsessive fans of Benedict Cumberbatch – or as they call themselves – ‘Cumber-bitches’, for whom possession of this particular issue is a must-have.

So, what’s going on? In a nutshell, April’s issue of High Life contained a feature involving Benedict Cumberbatch driving a cool new F-type Jag on a frozen lake in Finland – oh, and messing around with a few huskies as well.

So far, so straightforward. And then it all went bonkers, with the story picked up by Buzzfeed, the Huffington Post, the Mail Online and, for all I know, the Timbuktu Post and Bugle.

At its peak, the feature was generating a mention every eight minutes on social media. BA has even had to restock flights with fresh copies of the issue. You can read the feature here.

In less than a week, the Cumberbatch story had driven over 1 million impressions on the High Life website, a destination in its own right but also a staging point on the customer journey to purchasing BA flights or holidays. According to BA, there was a sharp month-on-month increase in interest in Finland on ba.com.

At its heart, this is a story about good old content marketing, about which marketers and ad-folk are now fixated.

But this time there’s a thoroughly contemporary twist – involving viral distribution, social media, product placement, cross-promotion and two brands, BA and Jaguar, feeding off each other’s brand values.

It also shows the absolute imperative, for anyone involved in content marketing, of maximising your distribution – whether that’s paid or free via seeded social media. As top Unilever marketer Hamish Priest says, “great content without distribution is like building a cathedral in the desert. Beautiful, but no-one sees it.”

And this was the genesis of this particular Cumber-frenzy. As part of its standard practice to drive awareness, High Life content agency Cedar set the ball rolling pre-publication with tweets about the upcoming feature. Take-off (‘scuse the pun) is almost instantaneous, with ‘Cumbermuffin‘ almost immediately tweeting pictures of cupcakes featuring our hero with some huskies.

And off it goes, spinning around the world, with reach climbing towards the million mark – and all before the mainstream media get involved. You can read a more detailed deconstruction of the story here by Cedar.

All this originates some two years ago when Jaguar signs Cumberbatch as its brand ambassador as part of a long-term strategy to reclaim ‘cool’ and re-establish its British roots. Which is pretty much what BA has been trying to do too (with less success, in my view…but that’s a different story).

Cumberbatch’s duties, apart from voiceovers (so onerous!) include promoting Jaguar’s winter driving experience in Finland, so what could be better, from its point of view, than placing a PR-driven feature in a title like High Life with a monthly reach of 3 million fliers.

If you’re BA, when a brand like Jaguar offers you a Benedict Cumberbatch exclusive on a plate (and for free), why not take it?

And so, when you put together a hot global star with two brands wanting the qualities he stands for – modern, cool, slightly edgy, British-ness – you get a sweet spot.

Ordinarily, I’m pretty sceptical about the value of celebrity-led brand endorsements. Sometimes they’re completely wrong for the brand; often, in this celeb-obsessed world, every brand is at it and there’s just no cut-through; and sometimes the lustre of the celebrity overpowers the brand. If you ask yourself is ‘why is Benedict Cumberbatch doing this?’ and the answer is ‘just for the money’, then it’s a waste.

But in this case I’ll waive my doubts. It’s clear from the feature that Cumberbatch is having a seriously good time (what’s not to enjoy, anyway?), he’s bang-on for Jaguar, and the cross-brand synergy is palpable.

In addition, both brands have in their hands, not only phenomenal PR, but also great content that they can maximise in the form of video footage.

However, if I have a criticism, it’s that while BA and Cedar have made the most of this, Jaguar has been off the pace. It should be trumpeting the piece, but so far it has been strangely silent. There’s no mention of the feature on the Jag website, and no mention on the ‘Alive on Ice‘ pages.

Where, for crying out loud, is the footage? It’s a wasted opportunity, all the more unforgivable given the way that BA’s distribution has given Jaguar a platform that it can leverage for its own purposes.

Of course the real test is not so much in the reach and impressions generated by this story, but in the longer-term brand and business benefits to BA and Jaguar.

We know there has been a spike in traffic to the High Life website that has created extra interest in Finland as a destination. Once visitors are there, other opportunities present themselves. And in terms of brand metrics, I would bet that this will help position BA closer to where it wants to be.

I’m sure it will do the same for Jaguar too, even if it could be helping itself more. But this suggests to me that, in the world of content marketing, tie-ups between brands (and product placement) can add synergy and cut-through.