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by Paul-Mark Rendon
Marketing Magazine
Mar 14, 2005
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How a slew of shops coordinated a mega-launch
As product, service and company launches go, Virgin Mobile's splash
onto the scene earlier this month is a textbook case on how to make
an entrance. Think of it this way: If the Canadian marketplace was a
prom, Virgin would be the kid who showed up in a sequin tux.
Launch events in downtown Toronto and Montreal attracted hordes of media,
all of whom were drawn to the promise of death-defying publicity stunts
starring the company's billionaire CEO, Sir Richard Branson. Virgin
didn't disappoint, with events that included everything from Branson
sliding down a commando-style zipline hoisted 15 storeys in the air,
a monster truck, buxom blondes and obvious shots at the competition-all
visual metaphors of everything the company says it stands for: a new
and irreverent alternative.
"It was the biggest launch I've ever worked on," says Laura
Fisher, director at Toronto's Segal Communications, one of six agencies
on Virgin's roster of shops. Fisher says Segal toiled for 12 weeks planning
out every detail of the Toronto stunt, from making sure transit officials
closed a nearby subway entrance and dealing with pyrotechnicians, to
taking out multimillion-dollar insurance on the event.
Not exactly the kind of launch that happens every month-or year for
that matter. One that may be tough to compare to launches of other pizzazz-challenged
brands that, say, don't have a billionaire spokesperson.
But despite Branson's celebrity status, there are still lessons other
agencies and their clients can glean from the launch, says Brett Marchand,
president and CEO at Toronto's Lowe Roche, which handles Virgin Mobile's
creative advertising.
"You want to be narrow in how you position it, and be broad in
appeal," Marchand says, referring to Virgin's unabashed irreverence,
seen everywhere from the scantily clad "nurses" present at
the launch, to features available on the actual phones, like a Date
Rescue option that owners can program to receive a fake call in the
event of a date-gone-wrong. "So many people want to be broad in
how they position it, because they think that equates in breadth of
appeal, but that's the biggest lesson in Virgin by far-you can't be
everything to everyone."
Nathan Rosenberg, Virgin Mobile's chief marketing officer (above,
left, with James Powell, Virgin senior manager of brand and communications),
who had the experience of launching the brand in Australia, says the
company was aware of how crucial the launch was to the brand's success.
"In a scale of event like this, there's a security point of view,
but also managing people's expectations of what each event is going
to bring," he says. "When you've got the media there, or the
general public, what is it they're expecting to see? And making sure
you deliver on that."
So far, the events have garnered approximately 70 million media impressions
and counting, according to Virgin's PR agency for the launch, Hill &
Knowlton.
Marchand says that whether it's the launch of a new car or a new retail
chain, maintaining the same look and feel throughout every element of
the campaign was a task all the agencies involved were challenged to
do. "You get so little time with consumers' brains to establish
a brand," he adds. "It made us think every single one of those
touchpoints is critical."
Television, radio and cinema spots for the company begin this week,
elements that Rosenberg says will continue with the campaign's theme
to cure the fictional "Catch" disease.
Whether or not Virgin Mobile takes well with consumers (the company
says it wants two million pre-paid subscribers in the next few years),
there are still some hurdles that an integrated ad campaign might not
be able to overcome.
Kaan Yigit, president of Toronto's Solutions Research Group, says Canada's
absence of number portability, or customers' ability to take their number
with them when they change carriers, is a huge issue for Virgin Mobile.
The youth demographic "has largely already had phones for a couple
years, and their phone number is the singular identifier they have,"
he says. "They'll have a great reluctance to change that."
Rosenberg says the portability issue is something they plan to voice
to the CRTC and the federal government, "because we do believe
the customer owns the number, and if they want to leave you and take
the number with them, they should be able to do that." If not,
it could mean Virgin wouldn't stay at the dance very long, sequins or
otherwise.
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