Virgin launches new tagline ‘Now That’s Virgin Mobile’ in latest campaign via TBWA Sydney
Virgin Mobile and TBWA Sydney (the Whybin name has now been dropped) have combined forces to launch the telco’s new brand platform, aimed at emphasising its commitment to deliver a fairer, more genuine and exhilarating experience for Aussie customers.
The latest campaign, introducing the new tagline ‘Now That’s Virgin Mobile’, takes the real stories of five happy Virgin Mobile customers and puts them in the spotlight in an extreme way that only Virgin Mobile can. These customers deliver first-hand testimonials about why they choose Virgin Mobile, while partaking in one-of-a-kind experiences with some added unmistakable Virgin awesomeness. With experiences ranging from rocket-fueled speed boats and roller coasters full of drag queens to ball pits full of puppies, the campaign takes the typical and turns it up to show what life’s like as a Virgin Mobile customer.
Working in partnership with creative connections agency UM, the campaign rolls out from 18 September and includes executions across social, digital, outdoor and cinema, with a particular focus on UGC-style pre-roll to tap into current online watching behaviours. In a first for the brand, interactive billboards will also allow consumers to superimpose their face directly into the content to get a sense of what it feels like to be a Virgin Mobile customer.
Says Philippa Durant, director of brand and communications at Virgin Mobile Australia: “We launched in Australia just over 15 years ago based on Richard Branson’s belief that we could change the game for good for mobile customers. We’re famous for doing things a little differently, after all, and this campaign really demonstrates 
‘why Virgin Mobile’ to consumers in a way that only we can.”
Says Wesley Hawes, executive creative director at TBWA Sydney: “To reposition Virgin Mobile we thought about why their customers are some of the happiest and most satisfied in Australia. The simplest answer is that everything they do is done with an unmistakable Virgin Mobile swagger their competitors can’t match. We decided to replicate this through their advertising, using one of the most traditional methods in the peer-to-peer recommendation, which is still such a powerful tool.”
Agency: TBWA Sydney
Executive Creative Directors: Gary McCreadie & Wesley Hawes
Senior Creatives: James Pash & Carlo Mazzarella
Executive Planning Director: Hristos Varouhas
Planning Director: Jonathan Deves
Group Account Director: Charleen Ong
Account Director: Helen Campbell-Borton
Campaign Manager: Jason Polycarpou
Film Production: Christina Wilmot
Print Production: Jonathan Pitcher
Production Company: Scoundrel
Director: Tom Noakes
Post Production: White Chocolate
Sound Design: Song Zu
Content production: Amanda Cairns Cowen
Content director: Wesley Hawes
Photographer: Jonathan May
Media: UM
Connections Strategy: Sam Geer & Jack Bellamy
Connections Design: Erin Tidswell & Rosy Zhang
Senior Client Director: Briar Rowsell
Digital Partnerships Director: Gaël Sauvenière
Senior Partnerships Manager: Morag Cahill
Client Manager: Michael Black
Partnerships Trader: Adrienne Cass
24 Comments
The first thought that everyone has when working on a virgin brand, did the interns get the brief??
PS. That must the most ‘advertising’ paragraph ever from the ECD!
When you compare this with Jason Donovan, Doug Pitt, Ming Mong, 50 cent…
It’s not very Virgin Mobile at all.
BTW: What’s with all the poms bein’ all the star of the ad an’ all that?
Its been years since Whybin sydney did anything worthwile.
Hey way more fun than those Vodafone ones.
Very ordinary, lacking any real style or wit.
If Vodafone are the bar you aim to beat over previous campaigns for Virgin Mobile, I genuinely fear for the brand’s future.
I don’t get it. Could someone explain it to me?
that is awful, mostly it’s the lead talent that kills it…
Considering every client asks/mandates to see real people enjoying and endorsing their products – this is a cool way of showing those people off.
Good stuff.
If you want to use real people, don’t ask them to act. That was horrible.
Surely nobody except the people who created this would criticise me for describing this as awful. Quite apart from the excruciating ‘acting’, what the hell does it mean? Even as a concept, let alone a script, I can’t imagine it making any sense.Well done to all those who sold it up the food chain. An incomprehensible waste of time and money.
The comments here show just how out of touch ad people are with real people.
Punters will love these silly spots.
Cause it’s just advertising.
This should of been good.
Do you know any ‘real people?’ If you do let them watch the spot, they’ll tell you they’re crap. Real People aren’t uneducated morons who’ve only been introduced to electricity. They’re as savvy as everyone on this blog.
The ad is rubbish.
I’m hoping that when I wake up this will just have been a very bad dream.
And you would know because…?
One word, shit. That’s all, nothing to see here. Move along.
Surely the first rule is to have some sort of empathy with the lead talent…sorry, but I hate this guy from the get- go. He is way to self serving and smug and bad as an actor.
The talent direction is actually quite average. I get that directing talent on a moving boat has a degree of difficulty…but this is just laboured and not very good.
Agreeing with Old CD guy…..’An incomprehensible waste of time and money.’
Shame, placed in the right hands this may…just may, have worked.
‘Why am I telling you this while fighting off bad guys in a speed boat? Well it’s just a bit more Virgin Mobile, in’it?’
Innit.
Ignoring how shit it is, he’s getting mugged while fighting people …. is this a metaphor for being mugged by the competition… is this…. what the fuck is this supposed to be?
Now I’m sorry, but you have an Aussie client who not so long ago produced some of the most effective and awarded advertising in the country. Teamed up with an agency who (yes yes, everyone moved on) was winning a crap tonne of awards.
How does this happen? In this country? With that client, and that agency?
Who the fuck is responsible for this shit-stain?
Sorry, thats not Whybin, thats TBWA.
What an awful nose dive this brand has made over the past few years. Negligent of everyone involved!
It’s not as good as the Kenzo spot. Get with the time TBWA
@’Why am I watching this while stabbing my eyes’
How does what happen? In this country?
Have you been living somewhere else?
Because the majority of advertising we produce in THIS COUNTRY is god awful.
According to this blog anyway, because I never see this great work you speak of being praised on here.
Who doesn’t loves puppies and drag queens are so fun. I liked it.