Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have handed over their social media controls to We Are Social following a three-way pitch, in an attempt to give the firms’ marketing efforts greater thrust.
The agency will work alongside Proximity London and Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, which were appointed to handle CRM and advertising last year, and create and deliver new social media strategies.
Social media will play a significant role in plans to build the brands’ market share and support the goal of increasing positive brand sentiment to become the most loved travel company.
In addition to strategic planning and development, We Are Social will also be responsible for delivering creative social media-led campaigns. This will be supported by an ongoing newsroom function as well as in-depth “social listening”, allowing the agency to adapt its strategies based on consumer feedback.
We Are Social is set to deliver the first of its new creative campaigns for Virgin Atlantic next month.
Virgin Atlantic social media manager Sarah Winter said: “The passion and expertise of We Are Social will allow us to further develop our approach to social media. The team demonstrated an in-depth understanding of what we want to achieve on social, and how it can support our business goals.”
Her counterpart at Virgin Holidays, Stuart Chapman, added: “We’re delighted to be working with an agency of We Are Social’s creative and strategic calibre. The pitch showed the team’s talent for turning a complex brief into brilliant and insightful ideas, and we’re looking forward to seeing the work come to life.”
We Are Social chief executive Jim Coleman gushed: “Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays are iconic and forward-thinking brands. They’re already doing some fantastic work on social, which gives us a great platform on which to build upon to become even better. They want to push the boundaries of travel marketing and the role social media can play in inspiring holidaymakers, which makes them the ideal partner for us.”
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