The communication was aimed at people who had flown Virgin Atlantic to London but had flown back on another airline. We needed to tell these people that they’d missed out on earning a free economy class ticket, and remind them that they can still earn it if they make their next journey on Virgin Atlantic. So we sent them a framed certificate signed by Richard Branson congratulating them on getting back overland through Africa (because we know they couldn’t have even considered flying any other airline).

The communication was aimed at people who had flown Virgin Atlantic to London but had flown back on another airline. We needed to tell these people that they’d missed out on earning a free economy class ticket, and remind them that they can still earn it if they make their next journey on Virgin Atlantic. So we sent them a framed certificate signed by Richard Branson congratulating them on getting back overland through Africa (because we know they couldn’t have even considered flying any other airline). The people receiving these mailers are in a high income group and receive a huge amount of junk mail, so the challenge was to create a mailer that broke through. We feel we succeeded in this by creating a communication that was intriguing and amusing. Our secondary goal was to create a piece of communication that recipients might keep for a while, so as to build a piece of communication with a longer life span, whereby people would display them in their offices or studies. Kamalan Naidoo   Senior Designer   Net#work BBDO

This mailer surpassed all client and agency expectations. Response was massive, with almost 40% of recipients making contact with Virgin Atlantic to find out about the free economy class ticket they had missed out on. Preliminary research indicated that a significant number of recipients kept these certificates in their offices as conversation pieces. This added up to Flying Club in South Africa being the biggest frequent flyer programme for Virgin worldwide. It also contributed to the Johannesburg-London route being the most successful Virgin Atlantic destination ever (as measured by an average load factor of 90%).

The people receiving these mailers are in a high income group and receive a huge amount of junk mail, so the challenge was to create a mailer that broke through. We feel we succeeded in this by creating a communication that was intriguing and amusing. Our secondary goal was to create a piece of communication that recipients might keep for a while, so as to build a piece of communication with a longer life span, whereby people would display them in their offices or studies.

Kamalan Naidoo   Senior Designer   Net#work BBDO