Virgin Atlantic Airways
Inducted in 1998

"More Experience Than Our Name Suggests"

It's hard to believe that the Virgin Atlantic brand has been around for only 14 years. It was in 1984 that British entrepreneur Richard Branson founded the airline and launched its first route, from London to New York (Newark) with just one aircraft. Today, Virgin has an extensive route network, flying from eight U.S. cities to London and on to South Africa, Japan and Hong Kong, and has become recognized as the industry leader in innovation and service.

Branson's philosophy has always been to "Give travelers more comfort, more amenities and more entertainment-better value-than any other airline." The airline was built on the principles of innovation, value and fun. The same can be said for its marketing.

To take on such industry giants as British Airways, American and United, on the world's most competitive airline routes, Virgin's marketing has to be fresh and fun and must make an impact. With a much smaller budget, Virgin Atlantic has to get more bang for its 50cents. Prior to launching Virgin Atlantic, Richard consulted Sir Freddie Laker, another British airline innovator, to get his advice on how to compete. He explained that, without being able to match other airlines dollar for dollar, that he would succeed only if he turned himself into a celebrity through savvy public relations. Last month, you may have been one of some 30 million people who watched Branson on NBC's "Friends... season finale, the same episode that showed the series' characters flying Virgin Atlantic to London. Or perhaps you saw him the month earlier launching DriveThru Check-In live on the "Today" show.

David Tait, Virgin Atlantic's executive V-P, said, "We try to sow a seed of interest by making our marketing efforts fresh, fun and different. The hope being that the consumer take-away will be that our product has the same attributes." One early television spot parodied flight attendant stereotypes-the fashion model, the drill sergeant, the flirt-while showing Virgin's flight attendants as truly wanting to be flight attendants. Another early spot promoted Virgin's Miami-to-London route by focusing on a man lying on a Florida beach with a tropical drink in hand, offering to "take you away from all of this." The same man is then seen vacationing in London, with a raincoat and umbrella, smiling in the pouring rain.

Virgin Atlantic has always met the competition head on, and many times even ridden on their coat-tails to gain an even greater marketing impact. Most recently, British Airways launched its "Liar, Liar" campaign that offered free tickets to anyone who had flown a better business class than BA's. The ads coyly hinted that the only way for passengers to get the free ticket would be to lie. Virgin, not so coyly, responded with newspaper ads to help business passengers get the free ticket from BA-the ads included a pre-printed letter for passengers to send to BA, outlining why their Virgin Atlantic flight was better than BA's.

Finally, with a name like Virgin, the airline certainly could not ignore the opportunities that present themselves. Illustrating that are two of the company's most memorable tag lines: "Take Us For All We've Got" and "More Experience Than Our Name Suggests."