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24 October, 2022

“kiss ‘nice’ goodbye”: Virgin returns to profit, launches Bring on Wonderful campaign

By Alexandra Coulton

Marking a new chapter in its 22-year history, Virgin Australia has launched a new campaign to Bring on Wonderful, following a mammoth two-year business transformation to return the airline to profitability.

The brand and advertising campaign seeks to reimagine the airline travel experience for Aussies while celebrating the airline’s team members.

It follows an extensive list of business transformation highlights over the past two years including growing the fleet by over 60 per cent, hiring thousands of new team members, greater integration of Velocity Frequent Flyer, the launch of better value airfares, a commitment to target net zero carbon emissions by 2050, refreshed menus, partnerships with iconic Australian brands, resumption of international services, new airline partnerships and more.

At the heart of the campaign is the airline’s people and the customer service Virgin Australia is known for, shown through the eyes of a vivacious member of the airline’s cabin crew team.

While walking through the terminal in the iconic red uniform, she passes a series of mundane airport gates where passengers are travelling with other airlines.

As the airline gate agents scan each passenger’s boarding pass, the airline ground staff robotically repeat the same sentence, “Have a nice flight”.

Following a series of comparisons to “nice” used in everyday, relatable, and forgettable scenarios, the film quickly turns to the tarmac where a group of Virgin Australia guests are beginning their “journey to wonderful”.

The film ends as the Virgin Australia cabin crew member urges everyone to kiss “nice” goodbye with the wonderful ‘movement’ in tow.

The Bring on Wonderful campaign will see Virgin Australia introduce a series of new customer experience innovations including a Middle Seat Lottery, turning the least favourite seat into the chance to win more than $230,000 worth of prizes until Sunday 23 April 2023.

Through a social media survey in May 2022, Virgin Australia discovered that travellers are least likely to choose the middle seat, with less than 1 per cent intentionally selecting the middle seat as their first seat preference.

As of May 2022, 62 per cent of Velocity Frequent Flyer members who nominated their seat preference favoured the aisle, 35 per cent the window and just 3 per cent nominating “any seat”.

For each week of the competition, one winner will be randomly selected from guests who enter the Middle Seat Lottery, winning one of 26 unique and wonderful prizes, including a platinum Velocity Frequent Flyer Status plus one million Points, a cruise in the Caribbean with Virgin Voyages, a range of spectacular AFL related freebies, a helicopter pub crawl extravaganza and a Cairns adventure package.

The campaign came as Virgin announced it will return to profitability this financial year.

Virgin Australia Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said the airline was entering a new era with the mission of creating industry-leading experiences that take flying out of the mundane and into the wonderful.

“We are proud of the journey we’ve been on over the last 24 months, with many achievements and learnings that have formed our ambitions for the future of Virgin Australia, our people and our guests,” said Hrdlicka.

“Virgin Australia is an airline that’s doing things differently and we are having a lot of fun coming up with exciting new innovations to make every part of the travel experience more wonderful.

“Confidence in our business strength and operation is at an all-time high. We have a strong balance sheet, some of the best management in the industry working on our ongoing business transformation and we’re well advanced in returning to profitability this financial year.

“We’ve only just touched the tip of the iceberg in what’s possible and there’s so much energy right across Virgin Australia to make sure we are doing our best to leave a positive difference every time our guests fly with us.”

Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson said he is delighted to see Virgin Australia charting a new path.

“I’m delighted to see Virgin Australia going from strength to strength while reinventing what it means to be a traveller 22 years after we started this airline with the mission to do things differently,” said Branson.

“The passion to make this airline truly wonderful is infectious.

“Wonderful customer service is at the forefront of every Virgin business around the world and I can’t wait to see what Virgin Australia has in store for their loyal customers next,” he said.

To celebrate the new chapter and to give customers the opportunity to experience ‘wonderful’ with great value, Virgin Australia has launched a sale on over 800,000 seats from as low as $55 one-way (economy lite) from Sydney to Ballina-Byron in its Bring on Wonderful Sale until midnight AEST 31 October 2022.

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Bring on Wonderful campaign jayne hrdlicka virgin Virgin Australia Group