From the outset, travel to London in 2012 was expected to rise significantly with a series of one-off spectaculars providing the pull. Virgin Atlantic’s global markets saw a business opportunity in using the halo of London in 2012 to drive bookings. However, as BA is the UK flag carrier, they would be best placed to benefit from this rise in visitor numbers. Virgin Atlantic needed to align themselves to the essence of what’ll make London such a great destination in 2012, and position themselves as the most exciting way to experience the city.

Celebrating London in true Virgin style, the final design recreates the famous Union Flag by drawing on iconic imagery of the capital and the airline. The collage aesthetic allowed the design to draw on both London’s rocky, punk heritage and Virgin Atlantic’s glamorous and jet-set attitude to flying.

So far the campaign has been very well received in the USA, Canada, Barbados, the Bahamas, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Dubai, India, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. Initial results suggest that the campaign is successfully improving business performance – in Australia, digital banners promoting fares to London received over 100% higher click-through rate than the previous campaign offering similar fares.