Aim: To create a visually exciting set of three stories in a staff communication piece to explain the brand values (stated below). Virgin inspires employees through storytelling to bring to life and demonstrate the new values. We show how we do it, rather than tell staff how to do it. There is no rulebook. Insatiable Curiosity – Innovation isn’t just about technology (though we do have a spaceship). Our staff are empowered to constantly come up with ideas which make the product offering and customer experience unique and up to date. Think about what makes Virgin’s products and services uniquely different and you’ll see where curiosity gets you. Smart Disruption – Virgin companies don’t just launch with a party. We always go into a market where the competition needs to be challenged and the consumer needs a better deal. We take on other domestic airlines, banks, rail providers, entertainment and communications companies and try to shake things up.
Live Competition Brief Steven Parry May 2013
Red Hot – Virgin is always delivered with style. It’s not just about plastering everything in red, our products and services, the experiences we provide are modern, high quality and memorable. Our gyms are bold and high tech, our planes are sleek and sophisticated. We’re cool and sexy, but classy and exclusive. Students are expected to research the facts behind these stories but some examples are provided in the background material. Audience: 45,000 Virgin employees across the world Quantity: Around half of all employees will need to receive a print version and the rest will view the stories digitally as part of a larger Virgin Brand website. Requirements: 4 x A3 boards to present your solution. Virgin corporate branding applied according to the brand guidelines provided. Produce a mock-up of either the print or digital representation of ONE story and concepts for the other two.
Main Story Choosing the stories Taking into account the keywords of the brief - Inspire, exciting and visually exciting, I explored many areas of Virgins sectors to find information that fit these aims. My research led me to many exciting initiatives, including Virgin Galactic, where interesting stories could be extracted. However I decided to go with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Trains and Virgin Oceanic as these areas were rich in data and each had interesting recent stories attached.
Style & context I chose an Infographic style for my stories as it displays information in a compact clear way. It has a unique and aesthetically pleasing feel that can draw attention and get out information quickly. This style lends to the simplification of complicated Information and I feel that is important as over complicated stories may be off putting.
Main story - Insatiable Curiosity Rather than tell a story for Insatiable Curiosity I want to inspire curiosity by taking some raw data and looking at it from a different perspective. From my data I estimated the miles travelled by Virgin Atlantic and converted it into journeys within the solar system. From my research Virgin seems to very much think outside the box which is why I feel this method fits the ‘Virgin Way’ . I feel using space travel has a connection to the exciting space travel program Virgin is currently involved
Continuity & Output The info graphic style remain consistent across each story. I intend the pieces to be displayed in large format in Decal and take up the area of a large wall in a staff area such as canteen The finished graphic for the Insatiable Curiosity story
Insatiable Curiosity in context
Below - shows how the transparencies would look on a white wall - Saving the need to paint the background - Some of the planets are coloured differently to the black version to contrast with the lighter background.
Above - The story works best in large format - It would work by placing the printed adhesive transparencies onto a dark painted background - a diagram of the graphic would be presented with the transparencies as a guide.
Alternative Output: Printed booklet Taking into account not all Virgin premises will be able to accommodate a large wall mural, I propose that a printed book version of the infographic will be made available in these cases.
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Alternative Output: Website
Page 1 The website will display the statement inviting the user to be curious. Once the curious button is pressed the second page will appear
Page 2 Page 2 displays the full version of the infographic
Interaction Using the mouseover function the data for each section of planets will appear as illustrated right
Other stories: Smart Disruption - Virgin Trains
Telling the story of Virgin Trains from the period 1997 to the end of the franchise extension in 2014. Using information such as miles travelled over the history and how the recent franchise loss was challenged and won
Other stories: Red Hot - Virgin Oceanic
Telling the story of Virgin Oceanic using facts such as Ocean depths - water pressures and how few people have ventured this far to emphasise Red Hot