The Challenge: Virgin America was a new airline brand in the US, partially owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin, but operating as an independent company. With ad agency Anomaly, we were charged with the marketing of the airline in the period prior to their receiving approval from the FAA to fly in the US. Our goals were first to educate the public about the approval process, and secondly to generate interest and anticipation in the airline’s launch, in the face of uncertainty on when the airline would actually fly.

What We Did to Make It Awesome: In conjunction with Anomaly, we created an overall digital strategy for Virgin America, and developed two websites: the Virgin America corporate site, which addressed the consumer education and recruiting needs of an airline in need of hiring 2,000 employees. From the digital strategy and creative guidelines, we also created a marketing site at nameourplanes.com, which allowed the public to participate in the process of naming Virgin America’s airliners. Participants could browse and vote on the various planes in a unique visualization system that meshed Web 2.0 community functionality with an entertaining data visualization system.

The Results: Within weeks of the launch of the sites, over 20,000 people had submitted names and entered into the Name Our Planes contest. All recruiting goals were fulfilled from the corporate site, and in April of 2007 Virgin America received FAA approval for a summer 2007 launch. The sites were heavily trafficked, receiving mentions on influential sites such as Boing Boing, the most-read blog in the United States.