benchmark report
airline marketing
google cardboard
flyer’s perks VIRGIN AMERICA
In mid-January, the Virgin Group will open its first ever Virgin Hotels , which will be located in downtown Chicago. Fur ther Virgin Hotels are planned to open in Nashville (2016) and New York (2017). In true Virgin style, the ambitions are set very high: “Virgin brands are known for shaking up the status quo in the travel sector. Virgin has re-invented the upper class flight experience, created award winning Clubhouses, developed superior enter tainment systems, and built a reputation for brilliant service. It’s time to extend this thinking to hotels.” There will be a strong link between Virgin Hotels and Virgin America. All members of Virgin America’s loyalty program Elevate will receive 1,000 points per stay at Virgin Hotels, Elevate Gold members will get complimentary breakfast and a room upgrade, based on availability. Silver JANUARY 2015 ISSUE
VIRGIN HOLIDAYS
members will also receive an upgrade, if available. And putting an experiential twist to this cross-promotion, on December 9th Virgin America surprised flyers on the airline’s routes to/from Chicago with a ‘Virgin Hotels Social Hour’ in order to show “what perks Virgin America’s frequent flyers will enjoy when on the ground and in bed.” Virgin America offers three daily flights from San Francisco and two daily flights from Los Angeles to Chicago. The inflight event saw Virgin America provide passengers with free in-flight WiFi and a complimentary cocktail, which are two of the amenities the new Virgin Hotels will also offer guests for free. One passenger on each flight also won roundtrip tickets and a 2-night stay at the Virgin Hotel Chicago.
As the travel industry is always among the first to trial new technologies, we have featured experiments with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset by British tour operator Thomas Cook (‘virtual reality holiday’ ) and Marriott Hotels (‘Teleporter’ ) to drive consumer engagement in recent editions of this report.
50 Virgin Holidays stores currently feature Google’s technology, which uses a mobile device inside a Virgin Holidays branded Google Cardboard mask, playing footage of the Riviera Maya in Yucatan, Mexico. Later in 2015 footage of Miami and Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando will also be available to view.
On a similar note, Virgin Holidays at the end of December introduced Google Cardboard and Disney’s MyMagic+ technology in its physical retail stores to let customers test out holidays before making a purchase.
Meanwhile, Virgin Atlantic Director of Brand and Consumer Engagement Reuben Arnold said the airline is also “eyeing potential augmented reality opportunities as devices such as Google Cardboard become more common place among its passengers.” […] “We have to think about how can we curate that [augmented reality] experience and what content we can provide them in-flight to add to that experience.”
Google Cardboard is a smartphone virtual reality viewer that lets users use their own smartphone and a set of apps available through the Google Play store. The Cardboard can be fully homemade for a list of components provided by Google. Alternatively, Google has also produced a pre-prepared kit starting at USD19.99.
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EXPERIENTIAL SOCIAL DIGITAL TV, PRINT, OOH
