Bristol’s world-class capabilities in virtual reality are being seen by millions of international business travellers in a new advertising campaign at Heathrow Airport.
The campaign has been launched by West of England inward investment agency Invest Bristol & Bath (IBB). The advert, part of a £500,000 campaign paid for by Heathrow, will be displayed at all terminals at the airport – one of the world’s busiest – for the next six weeks. 
It features symbols of the region’s economic strengths, including robotics and aerospace, projected onto a virtual reality headset to highlight Bristol and Bath’s place at the forefront of innovation and creativity.
It also promotes VR World Congress – Europe’s biggest virtual reality conference – which takes place in Bristol on April 12.
IBB head of inward investment Matthew Cross said: “The airport has around 22m business travellers pass through its doors each year.
“Heathrow is an ideal platform for us to showcase the region’s flourishing economic strengths, where a multitude of different industries are interconnected through our thriving digital technology sector.
“With virtual reality increasingly being one of the hottest trends to follow in the digital industry, Bristol and Bath has a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on this.
“As home of VR World Congress, Bristol and Bath is fast becoming Europe’s HQ for virtual reality and this event will attract some of the world’s leading companies and industry leaders from the virtual reality world.”
Last month Bristol and Bath’s digital tech cluster was recognised as the most productive in the UK, beating London to the top spot, in the Tech Nation 2016 report – the UK’s most comprehensive analysis of the UK’s digital economy.
The Heathrow advertising campaign is part of the airport’s latest bid to drive growth in the UK’s great cities and regions, with each being given advertising worth £500,000 on digital platforms in all its five terminals, on prime poster locations around the airport and exhibition space in arrivals halls.
Since the formation of Invest Bristol & Bath in 2013, the organisation has secured 2,500 jobs in the region and has been instrumental in attracting technology companies to the region, such as JUST EAT, Somo, Huawei and Cray.
