Virgin Atlantic recently launched its ‘Little Red’ brand, flying between Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester and London.
Little Red aims to take market share not just from BA on short-haul and domestic flights, but on connecting long-haul flights to destinations across the globe. The service launched using Airbus A320 aircraft operating 26 flights daily from Heathrow – taking the former slots Virgin acquired from BMI after its acquisition by BA’s parent company, IAG.
As could be expected, the Little Red launch was typically high profile – with lots of appearances from the Virgin head-honcho himself, Sir Richard Branson (sporting underwear bearing the motif ‘stiff competition’…), and press events designed to showcase the new service. Across the weeks either side, Virgin implemented a cross-media campaign which covered press, social media, outdoor, digital and radio – big budget, multi-channel and impossible to ignore. Classic Virgin, then.
Perhaps not so typical though, is the emphasis on partnerships with other big name brands on the service. Virgin made a big in-flight meal – ahem, sorry – of new partnerships with the likes of Irn Bru, Tyrell’s crisps, Bacardi and Krispy Kreme. The airline hopes to add that extra ‘brand affiliation sparkle’ to its services; something which other operators have perhaps overlooked and have yet to embrace in the domestic market. We’ve seen brand partnership work well for other companies in recent times – one of the latest examples being Diet Coke’s collaboration with Jean Paul Gaultier.
Will you be using Little Red? Do you think brand partnerships work well? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Tweet us – @transportdsn.
Image credits: Not that grumpy on Flickr and virgin-atlantic.com.
