Virgin is the original challenger brand and VMA remains customer focused. VMA doesn’t just say that the customer is in control, it delivers. This philosophy spawned a “reality-advertising” campaign that put the public in control. Russell, the unremarkable campaign hero, miserably advertised VMA’s exciting new offers. A TVC invited viewers to give VMA’s ad and Russell a makeover, directing them call or log-on to vote on which options they thought should be used to create the TVC. The resulting 60” epic contained amongst other things, a naked Russell and a haunted house.

During the initial 10 day “voting stage” of the campaign, almost 10,000 votes were submitted via online and IVR. Over 10 days there were 10,000 clicks on online banner executions and there were 21,000 page views on the campaign website. All of this was achieved with a very light media commitment. In ROI terms there was average of 20,497 new pre-paid customers per month over the campaign which was a 12.5 percent increase on the pre-campaign period.