Client: Virgin America
Agency: BuzzFeed
Role: CD
Virgin America wanted a way to showcase their inflight experience, specifically their Red™ seatback entertainment system. Entertainment systems are not, generally, that exciting to talk about. So we decided to use them to tell a story.
We chose to highlight the unique seat-to-seat messaging capabilities of the system with hypothetical demonstrative chats to show people how to flirt with other passengers using Red™. To present this story, we chose the medium of believable, low-fi images, to mirror the look and feel of screenshots of AOL AIM conversations from the early '00s.
My goal was to make an obvious ad feel like organic screenshots of internet banter. I also wanted to keep the branding and messaging as unambiguous as possible, for the benefit of both the reader and Virgin America.
The internet liked the Pickup Lines a lot. The campaign performed better than any sponsored content in BuzzFeed history, setting new benchmarks and opening us up to the airline category for future deals.
A few weeks, several million hits and countless ripped and rehosted imgur galleries later, hundreds of thousands of people had new knowledge of, and appreciation for, Virgin America's inflight experience.
Press:
"Virgin America's Inflight Messaging: The Funniest Passenger Messages" - The Daily Mail
"Check Out These Hilarious Virgin America Seat-To-Seat Chats" - Elite Daily
"The Hilarious Things People Say On Virgin Airlines" - Business Insider
"Virgin America Launches Seat-To-Seat Chat - American Genius