Virgin’s Brand Campaign Analysis In 2015

Abstract

This paper introduces and analyzes the latest TV commercial of Virgin Atlantic. The creative and strategic components of this branding campaign are identified and evaluated, the management decisions behind them are explained as well. In addition, the strengths and weaknesses of this campaign are discussed through visual analysis and management tools and theories. In this paper, a general background of Virgin Atlantic and its latest TV commercial are given first. Then, the critical discussion and analyzing of the creativity, design and effectiveness of this campaign based on competitor campaigns, the brand strategy, the target audience, the semiotic strategy are discussed, respectively. Finally, a brief conclusion the references and bibliography are presented.

Contents

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………Զ

2. Evaluation of Brand Campaign………………………………………………………Է

2.1 Evaluation of brand strategy ……………………………………………………Է

2.1.1 Entrepreneurial spirit ………………………………………………………Է

2.1.2 Customer centric airline ……………………………………………………Է

2.1.3 Unique experiences…………………………………………………………Ը

2.2 Evaluation of visual content………………………………………………………Ը

2.2.1 Target audience ……………………………………………………………… 6

2.2.2 Linguistic and visual signs …………………………………………………Թ

2.2.3 Signifier and signified ………………………………………………………Ժ

2.2.4 Myths, metaphors and metonymies ………………………………………Ի

2.2.5 Tone of voice ………………………………………………………………㏿

2.2.6 Campaign type ……………………………………………………………㐀

2.2.7 Effectiveness and feedback of this campaign …………………………㐀

3. Conclusion & Recommendations……………………………………………………㐀

4. References……………………………………………………………………………㐁

5. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………㐃

1. Introduction

In 1984, with the concept of “allow travelers at all levels to spend the least money while enjoy the noblest service”, Richard Branson, who had achieved significant success in entertainment industry and chain retail industry, set up Virgin Atlantic airways. Virgin is a unique phenomenon in the business world in the UK, its brand is a quite important intangible asset. In 1997, the annual sales of Virgin Atlantic airways exceeded 3.5 billion, which helped it became the second largest airways in the UK. Virgin Atlantic makes great efforts on branding campaign investment, its advertisement and promotional activities are always unconventional. In 1991, when Virgin Atlantic opened the route from London to Boston, it designed an advertisement which only draws one foot stretching out in front of the audience with bright red sock, because Virgin Atlantic canceled the first class, it was the first time for passengers in economic class to stretch out. In 2010, Virgin Atlantic invested 6 million pounds in its branding campaign—a 90-second TV commercial, whose inspiration comes from the classic sexy visual effects of James Bond movies, and this advertisement definitely left a deep impression on the audience.

This January, Virgin Atlantic airways launched its latest branding campaign— “let it fly”. In this TV commercial, it opens on a man coming up with a business idea and then shows him travelling with Virgin Atlantic on a trip to pitch his brainwave. Throughout the spot, a voiceover talks about how “the world does not go to you, so go to it”. In addition to the TV commercial, the “let it fly” campaign includes print, digital, outdoor and social media executions as well.

2. Evaluation of Brand Campaign

2.1 Evaluation of brand strategy

2.1.1 Entrepreneurial spirit

First of all, this TV commercial captures the entrepreneurial spirit of Virgin Atlantic and encourage people to realize their dreams. As described in the TV commercial, a young people comes up with a business idea at the beginning, then he gets on a flight—Virgin Atlantic to America to pitch his idea, and finally he successfully realizes his original dream. Virgin Atlantic delivers its entrepreneurial spirit to audiences by telling this story in TV commercial.

2.1.2 Customer centric airline

Secondly, Virgin Atlantic positions itself as a customer centric airline. According to Morgan (1997), many corporates have the phenomenon that they do not recognize that themselves are part of their environment. They are featured by a fixed notion of what they can be or who they are, and suppose to maintain that identity all the time, which would cause an exaggeration of their own importance. However, Virgin Atlantic makes great efforts on customer-centered services. Throughout the commercial, when customer arrives, the crew opens the door and welcomes the young passenger, provides recreational facilities and soft drinks, offers shaving and haircutting service, the passenger can even practice pitch with the bartender, and finally, passenger can sleep in bed. All these customer-centered services satisfy customers’ demands in maximum extent, which is beneficial to increase customer loyalty. In this aspect, Virgin Atlantic won several awards. In 1997, it was Virgin Atlantic’s seventh time to be named the Best Transatlantic Shipping Company and its ninth time rewarded the Best Operator. Virgin Atlantic also won several other awards, such as the Best Entertainment Service Award, the Best Ground and Registration Service Award. In conclusion, Virgin Atlantic’s customer-centered service is not inferior to that of British Airways and Singapore Airlines, who are famous for services.

2.1.3 Unique experiences

Thirdly, Virgin Atlantic focuses on providing unique experiences to customers. Compared to British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, a backward brand, makes great efforts on service innovation and price advantage. Completely different from the leader in business strategy, Virgin Atlantic plans to occupy a specific space in target audiences’ subconscious, forms a unique value differing from its competitors. Virgin Atlantic emphasizes its uniqueness especially in service innovation. In addition to the services offered in this commercial, in 1990, Virgin Atlantic began to provide upper class passengers cosmetology, head and neck massages. It set 18 shower rooms and a beauty salon for arriving passengers and a special business area for business travelers at London Heathrow Airport. These innovative services, which other airlines do not have, appeal to audiences a lot.

2.2 Evaluation of visual content

2.2.1 Target audience

According to Jill (2009), the campaign provided by marketing communications can make all stakeholders understand others’ intensions and appreciate the value of the goods and services as well (Jill, C. 2009). This TV commercial tends to deliver its entrepreneurial spirit to audiences through an inspiring story, in order to call out people to turn their ideas and dreams into reality. So its target audiences are those people who are passionate about seeking new experiences and willing to realize their dreams.

2.2.2 Linguistic and visual signs

Generally, advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing are considered to be five important marketing communication tools, while media can be used to transfer information to target audiences in any time and space as well. In this brand campaign, an 80-second TV commercial is used as Virgin Atlantic’s marketing communication tool.

As can be seen in this commercial, the linguistic sign is “let it fly” and the visual sign is the plane flying in the air. The core message behind it is that “realize your dream”, so the proposition of this campaign is to advocate the young people to realize their dreams.

2.2.3 Signifier and signified

As Saussure (1966) stated that, in the linguistic context, sign is considered to be a double-sided entity composed of a signifier and a signified. “Typical signifiers could be a hand gesture, an advert, a building or a type of dress say, whilst their signified would be the sense of power or sensuality that those things represent” (Saussure, 1966). This commercial also makes a good use of signifiers and signified.

As the images revealed above, the signifiers in this commercial are the unique services provided by Virgin Atlantic Airways, such as snooker game, shaving, haircutting, bar service, soft drinks and comfortable sleeping environment. All these unparalleled services represent the feeling of enjoyment, which are also the signified in this commercial. According to Roland Barths, the images of the advertisement are interpreted as representing something else, he explained the difference between the signifier and the signified by the terms denotation and connotation. “The denotative comes first but is almost instantly followed by the connotative or the symbolic” (Barths, R. 1972). In this case, the images of the unique services belong to denotation while the feeling of enjoyment belongs to connotation.

2.2.4 Myths, metaphors and metonymies

There are several myths used in this commercial, and two specific examples are shown as follow.

The white stone carving in first image reminds audiences of the USA Mount Rushmore, which is not only a tourist attraction, but also a symbol of the US President in American culture. The second image is a scene of the “United Nations”, it is acknowledged that the name of “United Nations” was conceived by US President Franklin Roosevelt. Both images show a strong feeling of American style, which represents opportunities and freedom. Obviously, the myths are reinforced in this commercial.

As Barths (1982) stated that “signs are not only complex in themselves but tend to work in conjunction with other signs” (Barths, R., 1982). Metaphors and metonymies are used in this commercial as well.

2.2.5 Tone of voice

Using suitable music and characters to reflect the tone of voice is definitely beneficial to set up a particular emotional disposition and help audiences to understand what the brand stands for. Ajzen and Fishbein stated that “When attitudes to a brand or product category are discovered to be either neutral or negative it is common for brands to use an emotional rather than rational or information-based approach” (Ajzen, I., Fishbein, M., 1980). The tone of voice chosen by this campaign is far more than funny, it is even a positive emotion, which shows a proactive attitude towards life and future. Compared to its previous James Bond series commercial, which uses various sexy visual shots, this latest commercial is much richer and positive in the sense of tone of voice, which may help it attract more audiences.

2.2.6 Campaign type

This campaign uses ESP (Emotional Selling Proposition) obviously. After Rosser Reeves introduced the concept of USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in 1950s, USP was used as the main strategy in following 10 years until 1960. Advertising began to emphasize on aesthetics and special effects, which promoted the appearance of ESP. Throughout the whole commercial, all elements, such as voiceover and music, the actions of the character, the color of images, the inside spirit of the story itself, are quite emotional. In addition, all these emotional points in this commercial deliver its audiences the power to chase their dreams.

2.2.7 Effectiveness and feedback of this campaign

“Let it Fly” campaign is an interactive one to some degree. Under the video of the commercial, almost all kinds of the popular contact ways can be found easily by the audiences, such as Tweet, Facebook and official website. As the data indicates in Youtu.be, since Virgin Atlantic Airways put in this commercial in the January 3th, 2015, there are 1,019,005 people have watched this commercial, however, as this video does not allow audiences to use the function of making comments, what can only be found is the number of people who consider this video is good or not after watching it. Till now, there are 1289 people appreciate this commercial while 87 people hold the opposite view on it. Obviously, as this campaign is quite new, more detailed data about the effectiveness of this campaign are yet to be accumulated and waiting the verdict from the audiences.

3. Conclusion & Recommendations

In conclusion, “let it fly” commercial is a successful campaign in brand strategy and brand identity. First of all, as can be seen in this commercial, Virgin Atlantic Airways provides customer centric services to its audiences, besides, compared to other Airways, the services offered by Virgin Atlantic is unparalleled, which shows its creativity and uniqueness.

Secondly, in the emotion aspect, Virgin Atlantic delivers its entrepreneurial spirit to the audiences and encourages them to chase their dreams in a funny and proactive way. Thirdly, in visual content, it has tangible target audiences and makes good use of transfer information with complex signs. This commercial uses luxury services as the signifiers to transfer the signified—the feeling of enjoyment. In addition, the myths used in this commercial are quite obvious and the metaphors and metonymies adequately attract audiences’ attention. However, since the problem that the feedback from audiences cannot be collect in time, it is suggested that more feedback research should be conducted to adjust brand’s position according to the audiences’ attitude, and consequently the following campaigns can be planned much better in the future.

4. References

Morgan, G. (1997) Images of Organization, 2^th edition, New York: Sage.


Jill, C. (2009) A World of Marketing Communications, Marketing Communications, 5^th edition, England: Peason Education Limited.

Saussure, F. (1966) Course in General Linguistics, London: McGraw Hill Book Company. P.67.

Barthes, R. (1972) Mythologies, London: Vintage Press. P.114.

Barthes, R. (1982) Empire of the signs, New York: Hill and Wang. PP.44-48.

Ajzen, I., Fishbein, M. (1980) Understanding Attitudes and Predicting Social Behavior, electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

The New Virgin Atlantic Ad, 2015. Available from: . [12 January 2015].

TV ad: Virgin Atlantic Airways, 2015. Available from: . [6 January 2015].

Virgin Atlantic Ad, 2015. Available from: [14 January 2015].

The Idea— tigers, 2015. Available from: [14 January 2015].

The idea, 2015. Available from: [12 January 2015].

Virgin Atlantic Ad, 2015. Available from: [3 January 2015].

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