With the adaption of the internet becoming ever more increasing, in today's market there are far more competitors out there vying for the ever dwindling attention of the customer. With the internet making everyone far more connected and access to information so much easier, it means that attention spans are disintegrating and users can filter out any message that they want with a mere click. Gone. This, unfortunately means that advertising and marketing campaigns really need to thrust towards the glory of true brilliance and elevate themselves about the rest of the mediocre filth swimming in the cest pool of unoriginal efforts to make something that follows the true definition of the word remarkable. These days, campaigns can disappear within an instant and fall into the forgotten depths of the internet before they even managed to have the chance to fly. This is why we love this campaign so much from Virgin America Airlines. A simple safety video grappled through a new direction and lauded to create an entire advertising campaign for an airline.
The above video takes something so mundane and, well, quite frankly boring, and catapults it into the realm of the enticing, all while somehow pulling on your emotional heart-strings so to speak. It combines a number of facets that spring your mood into one of an elevated state and makes you look around in the office to see who saw you jiggling in your seat to the dance moves and music. Don't think I didn't see you Chris... The dancing, happy music, combination of travelling & holidays, and the overwhelming feeling of excitement associated with getting on a plane for most enables this video to strike a chord with the majority of people who will, most likely, associate a plane with exciting adventures on par with the thrill that Peter Pan or Aladin must have felt. Not only is the video excellent, but the entire campaign is structured in a superb manner. They have centered the campaign around the #VXsafetydance hashtag inviting you to take part in the slightly odd take on a traditional safety video for an aircraft through the powerful forms of social media, powered by the deadly force of embarrassing video. They even invite you to upload a video to Instagram showcasing "your freshest moves" ensuring that customers push the campaign forward without the need for further input from Virgin American themselves. Not only does it create further exposure for them, but this is also being used as an audition to spot potential talent to be involved in their next campaign. Genius would be a subtle and pale comparison for this campaign. They also took it one step further and tied in the success of the So You Think You Can Dance show to align customers with icons that they already share a connection with. Who better to include than Christopher Scott, Madd Chadd, Phillip Chbeeb, and Cyrus from Dragon House Crew from the popular show? Due to my unfortunate nature of being born with two left feet and the musical ability of a gem squash, I don't think I will be devilishly dancing around in an audition anytime soon, but we know there are plenty of gracefully talented people out there who would have been practicing their routines for the quadrillionth time as they prepare to dazzle. For more information visit: http://VXsafetydance.com.
