Frequent Flyers Highlighted in Virgin America Campaign

Virgin America frequent flyers take center stage in the latest multimedia campaign unveiled by the Burlingame-based airline this month aimed at giving viewers the feel of the in-flight experience.

The campaign brings to life a Virgin America flight through the eyes of high-profile frequent flyers, or “Originals,” such as indie film director Kevin Smith, Pandora founder Tim Westergren and Facebook Creative Strategist Ji Lee.

“For years, flying domestically had largely become a dismal, uninspired experience. When Virgin America launched, the idea that a domestic airline could reinvent that experience – through technology, design and entertainment – was still a pretty radical notion,” said Luanne Calvert, Vice President of Marketing at Virgin America in a statement. “But from the day the airline started flying, our cabin experience has attracted travelers who believed in us – believed an airline could do better, and many of them also happened to be challenging the status quo in their own fields. Those flyers have been some of our most loyal guests, they’ve inspired us – and this campaign was a natural extension of that.”  

These same flyers will curate film picks, playlists and more for the airline’s tech-driven in-flight experience as part of the campaign.

For example, Original Ryan Schreiber, the founder of Pitchfork, created a flight playlist to debut this fall. Alexis Maybank and Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, the founders of Gilt Groupe, created a special sandwich passengers can enjoy.

“Our cabin experience is so different, and for a young airline still new to many—it is tough to convey just how different it is,” said Creative Director Jesse McMillin in a statement. “We focused a lot on video, an immersive digital portal and creative OOH [out-of-home]—as well as a social level.”

The Virgin America cabin offers passengers Wi-Fi, live television, music, on-demand films, on-demand food ordering and more on an individual basis at every seat.

Virgin America invites each traveler to join the campaign by sending a photo of his or her original flight experience using the hashtag #MyVXExperience.

Paying respect to the airline’s hometown, the campaign also features footage of a BART transit tunnel.

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