After 3 months, I can safely say I am probably married to Illustrator and After Effects, with a bit of Photoshop and Premiere Pro on the side! 
Anyway, I’ve finally finished my Virgin Galactic campaign. Plus big thanks to Peter Marchant for the soundtracks, you did a wonderful job. 
Travel the Universe: A short film
Inflight entertainment sky map presentation – A History of Flight: An Interactive Map (conceptual video presentation)
Ambient media (conceptual illustration)
The Business Challenge
Virgin Galactic is a company that will be flying tourists in to space in the near future. So far, only 380 people have pledged deposits towards their first space flights, a considerably low number for what will be one of the most prominent space airline carriers in the world.
Insight
When researching the insight in to the brand, I discovered that the target audience are successful, middle-aged business entrepreneurs who fondly remember the first moon landing in 1969 and an era saturated with science fiction films and books.
The Brand Purpose
This campaign intends to create a buzz for the brand in time for its commercial launch.
The Creative Solution
Travel the Universe: A short film is intended to convey childhood nostalgia. The story uses Richard Branson as the main character as he is the face of the Virgin brand, and more significantly, could easily be a role-model to the target audience as a successful professional, pioneer and adventurer. He goes through some of the most important events in flight history, such as the first aeroplane flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903 to the longest lighter-than-air journey with the Virgin Pacific Flyer in 1991.
For this campaign, I wanted to use an interactive medium as another advertising platform to perpetuate the idea that Virgin Galactic is an innovative, technology-based brand. A History of Flight: An Interactive Map gets Virgin customers to engage with the new brand in an educational way while getting them to be excited at the prospect of flight and space. It was originally a fairly complex concept to imagine, but it has been simplified to a basic and customised version of the inflight entertainment system’s sky map. It is designed like a video game so it is easy for audiences to use.
The film and the map will be featured on Virgin’s award-winning inflight entertainment systems on Virgin Airlines. This is the world’s first integrated advertising campaign to use this platform.
As Virgin Galactic’s services is based primarily outdoors, I thought that an ambient media piece might also suit the brand experience. My intention was to create something large and eye-catching that would capture the attention of free extra advertising through the media press, such as newspapers and online blogs.
My ambient media piece utilises Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip 2, which will fly over the City of London with a banner stating, ‘Fly Higher’ to reach the aspirational business-minded target audience. The phrase, ‘Fly Higher’ is an inspiring piece of copy that office workers can see from their windows on a dull working day in the City of London.
The campaign will also be featured on the company’s official website, YouTube and social networking websites. It is important today to ensure that all potential audiences can reach the campaign, even if they are technically outside the target audience for the time being.
Enjoy!
