An airline that mainly has their business in United Kingdom,
Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic has been known for providing one of the best
customer services to their customers. They also have been known for creating
interesting and newsworthy promotions to surprise the media, competitors, and
consumers. They were originally focusing on only offering flights
internationally; however, they starting on April 2013, they have added their
new line, “Virgin Atlantic Little Red”.
Virgin Atlantic Little red is their new United Kingdom domestic service.
They are offering multiple daily flights between London to Manchester, Aberdeen
and Edinburgh.
To celebrate the opening of Little Red, starting this August,
they are providing live in-flight entertainments. What they are going to do is
that they are going to have live comedians and band members come onto the plane
with the customers and provide entertainment. Those performers are from
Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is the world’s largest arts festival. In august,
comedians were on board and in September, bands are on board playing acoustic
music.
The idea Virgin Atlantic came up with is surely newsworthy. I
have never heard any airline companies bringing on live performers on board. Therefore,
I believe that this is a great marketing method to get their names out to the
world. I found out about this promotion on a Japanese website called Adgang
where they post many different unique and eye catching advertisements and
creations from all over the world and share it with people in Japan. Because of
this website, I learned about this promotion and got interested in it. There are
many other advertisements on this website that are interesting. However,
because what Virgin Atlantic did was so out of ordinary, it caught me off guard
and got me more interested and curious to know more about the promotion. I believe
that is the first key to a good marketing. Getting consumers interested in what
they have to say. Therefore, I believe that Virgin Atlantic did a great job
coming up with this promotion to get their names out to the world.
However, to be realistic, is this really a good idea? Let’s think
about it. From my personal experiences, I like to sleep in air planes. No matter
how long of a flight it is. I like to listen to my own music when I sleep. No matter
how soothing the music “they” decide to play. I like people sitting around me
to keep quiet and mind only their own businesses. I do not want to be bothered
at all. I want to keep my privacy and bubble. Since this new promotion Virgin
Atlantic is doing is live performance, there are no escapes away from them. It
is not something you can turn off or ask to stop. Wouldn’t it bother you? If you
had some other things you wanted to do in flight other than enjoying the live
performances? Well, it sure will bother me.
What about for those who do not find comedians funny. They would
have to sit through a show that is not entertaining no matter what. What if you
are on board with little children? They just fell and sleep and you were
expecting nice peaceful comforting flight, and then they wake up because of the
live music or laughter due to comedians doing what they are supposed to do?
Virgin Atlantic may attract those who are interested in live
performances. However, this idea may also let some customers away due to the inconvenience
of not being able to escape since we are going to be up in the air.
It is October now, it means that their promotion has ended. They
have not released any statements saying if they are going to keep this
promotion going or how successful it was. I am now curious to know if they have
had any complains or suggestions, both positives and negatives, about the
promotion. I am sure being biased about this promotion since I do know that I will
not be happy if live performances happened when I am flying on an air plane. But
I am curious to know what others have to say about it too!
