Virgin Money: ON THE CARD

Credits & Description:

Category: Financial Products & Services

Advertiser: VIRGIN MONEY

Product/Service: CREDIT CARD

Agency: HAPPY SOLDIERS

Date of First Appearance: Jun 26 2010

Entrant Company: HAPPY SOLDIERS, Sydney, AUSTRALIA

Executive Creative Director: John Kane (Happy Soldiers)

Creative: Ben Sampson (Happy Soldiers)

Creative: John Kane (Happy Soldiers)

Agency Producer: Helen Hendry (Happy Soldiers)

Director: Ben Lawrence (Caravan @ The Feds)

Producer: Michael Cook (Caravan @ The Feds)

Strategy Director: Mark Sareff (Happy Soldiers)

Channel Planner: Sophie Price (Happy Soldiers)

Business Director: Sasha Firth (Happy Soldiers)

Account Director: Emma DiGiacomo (Happy Soldiers)

Designer: Tim Haynes (Happy Soldiers)

Senior Marketing Manager: Nathan Wilson (Virgin Money)

Marketing Director: Ryan Dinsdale (Virgin Money)

Managing Director: Lindsey Evans (Happy Soldiers)

Media placement: TV - Channel 9, Channel 10 - 26 June 2010

Media placement: Print - Voyeur Magazine - June 2010

Media placement: Outdoor - Airport - June 2010

Media placement: DM - Door Drops - June 2010

Media placement: EDM - Virgin Database - June 2010

Media placement: In Flight Media - Virgin Airlines - June 2010



Describe the brief/objective of the direct campaign.

The brief was to launch the new Virgin Flyer Credit Card and show people that it was a great way to earn points to fly on any Virgin airline. The target audience was a mixture of current Virgin customers and the general public at large. The strategy was to prove the credit card worked as opposed to just saying it worked.



Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective with reference to the projected response rates and desired outcome.

The idea was to pay for the entire advertising campaign for the new credit card on the new credit card. This earned over 200 rewards flights around the world. We then gave these flights back to the consumer. This wasn’t a gimmick we really did pay for everything. All our communications made people aware of this and the fact they could get themselves a free flight by taking part. We ran TV, print, outdoor and online pushing people towards the website. The desired outcome was to get the new card into as many peoples wallets as possible.



Explain why the creative execution was relevant to the product or service.

Only a rewards credit card could carry out this campaign. The idea was central to exactly what a rewards card is beneficial for. It was generous and transparent. It was appropriate to Virgin because people expect Virgin to do things differently. They also expect them to be a generous brand and a brand of the people. Giving the flights to the people really was an act Virgin had the right to do.



Describe the results in as much detail as possible with particular reference to the RESPONSE of the target audience including deliverability statistics, response rates, click throughs, sales cost per response, relationships built and overall return on investment.

The campaign not only launched the credit card it also launched the Virgin Money brand back into Australia. In the first month, targets were exceeded by 1394%. Over 100,000 people visited the website on the card’s launch day. Hundreds of people got to go on a free flight. Apart from that every product in the Virgin Money portfolio was up on sales. Car Insurance, Superannuation and their High Interest Savings Account all benefited dramatically.