See the World Differently: Lucky Generals on Crafting Virgin Atlantic's Colourful Ad

Lucky Generals recently launched its latest work for Virgin Atlantic. The campaign - which introduces the new end line 'See The World Differently' - acknowledges the travel industry is entering a new era

Alice McGinn, planner at Lucky Generals sat down to discuss the work and how the team captured the message of individuality. 

Q> What is the strategy behind the campaign? 

Alice> When we first started working with Virgin Atlantic the conversation was much bigger than comms, focusing on creating a platform that can inform everything Virgin Atlantic does from product, to people and customer experience, building the brand for the next five to 10 years. Drawing on the airline’s heritage of challenging the status quo - as well as recognising that the travel industry is entering an exciting new era after the disruption brought on by the pandemic, we set about establishing a brand platform that would feed the business’s genuine desire to do things differently. 

Q> And what is the idea?

Alice> To bring the platform to life in communications, we needed tangible evidence of the brand's difference. Luckily, there are so many things which make Virgin Atlantic different, from small touches like the pepper pots that people famously steal, how they pioneered onboard social spaces, or the fact they’ve got one of the youngest and cleanest fleets in the sky. We reviewed everything, from the big to the small, but time and again, what we kept coming back to as the best example of their difference is people - both their people and their customers too. 

On the one hand we’ve got customers with a different outlook on the world. Travelers who want to be made to feel special, but without the formality and who find most airlines’ crew to be impersonal in their service. By contrast, what they love about Virgin Atlantic is a feeling that everyone is treated as an individual and made to feel special no matter where they’re sitting on a plane. 

Then we’ve got the amazing Virgin Atlantic people and crew. We discovered that unlike other airlines, they aren't required to follow a script or robotically do things the ‘Virgin Atlantic’ way, but are actively encouraged to be themselves. Recruited from all backgrounds - not just the airline industry, they make the grade because they’ve got emotional intelligence and the ability to offer a more personal touch. 

It is this lovely, shared philosophy that we set out to capture in the campaign, which we introduced through the end line - ‘See the world differently’. 

Q> How did the team at Lucky Generals capture this message of individuality from script to production?

Alice> Having identified what makes Virgin Atlantic different we needed to bring it to life in a way that avoided the clichés of the category. We began by exploring prose, lyrics, poetry and music that captured the brand's spirit of individuality and landed on Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I am what I am’. A simple and universally known evocation of individuality, it perfectly captures Virgin Atlantic’s philosophy. We then collided these lyrics with a story of individuality. Avoiding the destination imagery that is commonplace in travel communications, we instead told the story of a group of Virgin Atlantic people and customers traveling through the airport and on to the plane.  Set to the lyrics of ‘I am what I am', our story collided with the clinical airport environment and metal of our aircraft, with the small details that make each character an individual, creating a spot filled with humanity and warmth.  

Q> How important was it to have Virgin Atlantic employees as part of the creative output?

Alice> We always felt it was very important that Virgin Atlantic people were included in the campaign as they are the brands ‘secret sauce’, so they were central to bringing the campaign to life. But that didn’t just mean starring in the TVC. Everyone from the crew, pilots, frontline staff and head office colleagues were involved in the action both in front and behind the camera - whether dressed in uniform, working as extras, or helping to ensure the shoot ran smoothly. 

Q> Tell us about the production? Were there any behind the scenes challenges or interesting moments?

Alice> Obviously grounding an A350 and filming at an airport is no easy task, so it was truly a team effort between the business, airport team, agency and production company. Communication was vital and a huge amount of planning went into the pre-production stage. Any pre-production process is busy but this had many more complicated elements than a standard shoot (not even taking into account covid and the rise of a new variant!) so it meant a lot of time together planning. We are selling our service, so what better way to demonstrate that in a brand new shiny A350. The challenge is that there are only a certain number of aircraft, but the business helped make the impossible happen by giving us one for two days. It was a huge deal, but we feel it really has paid off in the final result. 

Q> What is the ideal result of the work?

Alice> Obviously, we want to get thousands more people choosing Virgin Atlantic, experiencing what we stand for and inspiring them to ‘See the world differently’ with us. An additional objective that has taken on renewed importance as part of making the campaign is signalling to the world that Virgin Atlantic is a brand where everyone is welcome. We spent a lot of time working with the communities represented in the campaign, understanding their lived experience of travel. It was humbling to hear how difficult it can be for so many, whether that’s physical accessibility, destinations where you’re not free to be yourself, or airport processes which question who you are. A bigger long-term objective is also that people see Virgin Atlantic as a space where everyone is welcome and can truly be themselves.