There has been multiple developments in Virgin Atlantic. The immediate recent one was Delta’s 49% stake acquisition in Virgin Atlantic for $360 million. Another interesting development that spiced this deal was the war of words between Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson and Willie Walsh, CEO of British Airways owned IAG (International Airlines Group). Mr Walsh predicted that the Virgin brand would vanish if the deal with US airline Delta was agreed.

Richard Branson has thrown an open challenge to Willie Walsh. In his Virgin blog, he wrote:

“Rumours have been spread in the press that I am planning to give up control of Virgin Atlantic and, according to Willie Walsh – who runs BA – that our brand will soon disappear.This is wishful thinking and totally misguided. Will BA never learn? Let’s see how much they believe this. Let them put their money where their mouth is. Rather than suing them on this occasion, I will pay £1million to their staff if Virgin Atlantic disappears within say five years. If not, BA pays our staff £1 million.”

Recently, Virgin Atlantic launched a video ad titled “Flying in the face of ordinary”. The ad essentially portrays that Virgin Atlantic’s crew members possess extraordinary power that they will apply for the betterment of Virgin Atlantic by helping the flyers. We have seen numerous video ads in travel industry, but this ad from Virgin Atlantic stands apart. The initial few minutes doesn’t give out the clue that its an airline ad. Beautifully thought and executed.

Virgin Atlantic’s ad: 

Sir Richard Branson, said

“We’re always on the lookout for gifted people to grow our business. Our staff hold the keys to the future of Virgin Atlantic; they work so hard, and we are delighted to dedicate this new advert to them. Our advertisement is a powerful New Year message encouraging everyone to look again at young people and the talents they have to offer to businesses and industries all over the country. People are at the heart of Virgin Atlantic and this campaign celebrates them.”

Looks like the marketing trend is moving towards making innovative and memorable videos.

Another ad that stands out (still) was by Hotels.com. They created a video in which a person skydives from a plane and lands on Lake Tahoe. During his skydiving journey, he pulls out his mobile, opens the mobile (native) app of Hotels.com and makes a hotel reservation. The moment he lands on ground, he calls the front desk of the hotel and checks whether he has got a reservation under his name, and the reply from other side of the call was “Yes sir, you have got a reservation”. This video campaign shows the SPEED in which customers can make a reservation in Hotels.com mobile app.

There are few such good and memorable examples in travel industry. The strategy is to spend good amount of time on thinking the concept for video – what you want to convey, how you want to convey. Spend a great deal of time in this planning stage. Then get the concept executed, upload in social media, sit back and reap the benefit.