Virgin Australia introduces ‘Wiggy’, a flying toupee, as it moves away from focus on flight attendants
Virgin Australia’s new brand positioning features a flying toupee called Wiggy that “puts the joy back into flying”.
Research conducted before the campaign’s release revealed that Virgin needed to re-emphasise its personality and customer experience, leading to a brand positioning that pivoted away from centring on its flight attendants.
The major campaign, by DDB Sydney, launched yesterday with the film ‘Up, Up and Toupee’, which sees a gust of wind lift Wiggy off a man’s head and set off on an adventure to the soundtrack of Jo Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’ ‘Up Where We Belong’. The hair piece travels past an office building, swoops along a beach by a whale, elevates back into the clouds to fly with geese, and finally lands at the airport, settling back on its owner’s head outside the Virgin Australia terminal.
The film, by Revolver/Will O’Rourke’s Gary Freedman and Moving Picture Company, aims to show Virgin as a holiday partner that provides an experience like Wiggy’s: one of ease, effortlessness, and most importantly, fun.
“We know our Virgin personality is so widely loved, and we are so proud to hero this through our new brand campaign,” said Virgin Australia’s general manager of brand and marketing, Michael Nearhos.
“Our focus from a customer experience perspective is always on how our famous service and product make people feel, and it’s really important to us to emphasise this in our new brand positioning.”
Wiggy flies away from suburbia and towards the city, then to the beach, before landing at the airport
DDB Sydney’s chief creative officer, Tara Ford, added that the campaign achieves cut-through because it’s simple.
“In a complicated world, it’s been an absolute pleasure to create something that’s so unique, simple and joyful,” Ford said.
“Fun but with an edge of cheekiness and irreverence – which is perfect for recapturing and igniting the Virgin Australia brand.”
The TV campaign will be supported by digital, print, out of home, and cinema.
Credits
Virgin Australia:
Danielle Keighery – Chief Experience Officer
Michael Nearhos – General Manager Brand & Marketing
Rapthi Thanapalasingam – Head of Consumer & Partner Marketing
Erina Chapman – Brand & Retail Marketing Leader
Alex Davey – Brand Marketing Specialist
DDB:
Ben Welsh – Chief Creative Officer, DDB Australia
Tara Ford – Chief Creative Officer, DDB Sydney
David Jackson – Creative Partner
Jeremy Hogg – Creative Lead
Richard Shaw – Creative Lead
Kate Sheppard – Managing Partner
Claire Hynes – Senior Business Director
Ciara Moloney – Business Manager
Tash Johnson – Lead Senior Producer
Leif Stromnes – Managing Director, Strategy & Innovation
Caroline Ghatt – Planning Partner
Joseph Smeaton – Planning Director
James Davis – Senior Planner
Casey Machen – Project Director
Kelly Barnaby – Project Manager
Cushla Morton – Senior Print Producer
Film:
Production Company – Revolver / Will O’Rourke
Director: Gary Freedman
Managing Director: Michael Ritchie
Executive Producer: Pip Smart
Producer: Alex Kember
Edit Facility: Arc
Editor: Peter Sciberras
Post Production: Moving Picture Company, UK
VFX Post Producer: Philip Whalley
Sound: Song Zu
Sound Engineer: Abigail Sie / Simon Kain
Music Supervision: Level Two Music
Music Supervisor: Karl Richter
Casting: Peta Einberg / Ben Parkinson Casting
Photography:
Production Company – Photoplay
Photographer – Michael Corridore
Executive Producer – Alison Lydiard
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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What a refreshing ad for an industry that is plagued with boring traditional constructs. Well done DDB.
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DDB living up to their promise to deliver emotional advertising. Brand building at its best.
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The best ad of 2019 just landed. Incredible emotional work! The track is amazing.
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Sorry guys, talking cattle class…this will not persuade me to move from Qantas, poor as it is, to Virgin.
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I’m torn.
I admire their bravery in moving away from the tired old traditional airline advertising formula, but not sure what the take away is here either.
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Oh dear, that is appalling.
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This is such a great ad. Lets hope they make Wiggy a distinctive asset and feature it in other mediums and other ways (one thing the Cadbury Gorilla ad messed up was extending the use of the Gorilla for a bigger and better campaign). They could feature Wiggy in a museum style box at Virgin terminals….or allow kids to try it on when waiting in line….or even AR in OOH billboards! I’ll stop now….
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Assuming you travel a little for work Martin – this ad was most likely intended for light travellers (people who don’t travel much, which would be the majority of their consumer base, as per the research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute revealing there are more light travellers than heavy travellers).
Therefore the people who this ad is meant to resonate with aren’t necessarily tied to one air partner – they are more likely to substitute air partners.
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The ad is beautifully, but unfortunately, Virgin Australia cannot be saved by its “personality” anymore. Anyone who’s traveled on multiple airlines in Australia knows that Qantas & Jetstar have a much more enjoyable experience. And comfort level on Virgin Aus is so beneath those two other carriers that it’s no surprised the toupee decided to the trip outside the plane…
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Don’t get it. Doesn’t work for me.
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Yeah, yeah…that’d be so kewl. They could even put one on the top of a plane! Or a giant rug in the lounge. Except that’d be toolish.
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Why does it take 48 seconds until the brand appears?
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And the astroturfing award goes to . . .
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Nice ad that leaves the customer with nothing to do.
They’ve done a couple of these more charming commercials. But I don’t feel compelled to consider Virgin.
This shows that don’t know their audience.
The business (not business class) needs serious rethinking strategically.
As for the comment about astroturfing then no doubt DDB are at fault..But they would do bettwe to listen and learn from constructive comments. Solve the business problem guys!
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Clever. Creative. Cut through. It doesn’t get better than this.
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I’m sorry, for a company that is losing money hand over fist this is a despicable waste of money and won’t drive a cent of revenue.
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See name above
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I reckon it is a dumb ad.
But then, not being in the ad industry, I don’t have the need for mutual backscratching.
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Ewwww hair! Repulsive. What the hell were DDB thinking? How does this show the joy of flying as in a Virgin Jet. Absolute shocker.
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https://mumbrella.com.au/french-bulldog-finds-comfort-new-plush-sofas-ad-389603
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It’s not the first or the last time some anatomy has been used in an irreverent way. But, unlike this, here’s a good example where the idea is central to the brand benefit “Tongues can’t get enough of Tooheys Extra Dry because it tastes so good.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=g3-0rtWrGac
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… no, not for the ad.
But apparently a credit for Donald Trump’s comb-over appears to be missing. That’s what was flying aorund wasn’t it?
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Flights are an infrequent purchase, and this is a brand ad. It doesn’t need to mmake people do anything other than drive associations that will help them evaluate the brand when they need it.
As for the business problem, this is something that can’t simply be solved by comms. It’s an equation involving dry stuff like cost per seat mile and routing, of which marketing is just a small part.
This is a brand ad doing its job.
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First 4 comments for sure.
More astroturf than a mini-golf course.
Petrified of the rabble pointing out the emperor has no toupee.
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What a waste of time and money for a company who can’t afford it. Where is the aspiration in this commercial? I would also be interested to know how the research had DDB land here without being on an acid trip.. it embarrassing, misaligned to the sexy global brand and while it might be disruptive in comparison to traditional airline advertising, that alone isn’t enough to save this. RIP Wiggy.
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Not really a big idea is it?
The Virgin brand has so much work to do to establish any meaningful differentiation.
Will Wiggy be the idea for the job? Will it be around in 3 years time?
Is it just one of a series of executions about the joy of flying? (Hope so)
Will be most interested to see experientially (not marketing activations) what they will do to bring the joy.
Plus how dated does that Virgin branding look these days.
Lots of work to do…
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Then why are you even here Greg?
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First ad in a long while that’s made me smile. Great job DDB.
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As a consumer I don’t understand this at all. A case of advertising industry narcissism? How is it clever? What does a wig have to do with inflight experience, the ecological impact of flight and the overall brand? What is the message? Undoubtedly its amusing for some, but for me its a bit of an infantile and obtuse gilded doodoo. Sorry.
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Totally agree. The concept might be ‘creative’ to the ad industry but to the average consumer, WTF?
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Sorry Wiggy but complete fail.
Easy to spot the DDB people planting the positive comments. Lol.
Online engagement and buy in is terrible and the brand when it finally appears, looks weird and disconnected.
The toupee tagline sucks as a play on words and should never have got past the client.
An enormous waste of money and its this sort of rubbish that the data boys scream in delight about, how brand marketing and their agencies are becoming irrelevant.
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It is quite obvious you are not a frequent flyer as you would not mentioned Jetstar in the same class as Virgin Australia. VA has done some amazing innovations – look at the superb Business class and seating on the A330’s and 777s. Not to mention the incredible Luke Mangan inspired meals – some of the best food that I have had in the world let alone in a flying tin can (look how Qantas FFs are complaining about the food on forums). VA was also the first airline in the world to introduce carbon offset and they introduced biddable upgrades to Australia. Regarding lounges, the House is excellent, although I would like to see a Platinum lounge in the domestic airports. The only downside is a lack of lifetime status. However VA wins for me every time and I have been a Platinum FF for six years.
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because advertising isn’t made for others in the industry…
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Absolute joke. Where’s VA’s flair? How Virgin could approve this to be aired???
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I’m glad you stopped. This is Astroturfing at its finest. As if any punter would write this line “Lets hope they make Wiggy a distinctive asset and feature it in other mediums..” Obviously one of the agencies involved. If you’re going to cheerlead your own work make it less obvious. Ha Ha Virgin, probably best to stick with your flight attendants.
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Might be a clever ad but what does it have to do with Virgin? At first viewing, thought it was for Movember. End shot with brand uses white font on light background so almost illegible. Sure it was probably lots of fun to write and make, but irrelevant to the brand. Might win awards, though…
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Guess we just had someone from the strategy dept. weigh in…
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Virgin you must be bloody desperate to allow this absolute brand destroying piece of work to Air. Take a step back breath, think, fire the idiots who put this in front of you, reboot and go again. This new look will not create trust in consumers.
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With the clever pun on this one sounds like the work of….
….Cummins ?
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Just wondering if anyone noticed that the wiggy in question looks remarkably like one R. Branson’s actual hairstyle. I’m sure he’ll love to see wiggy tributes in boxes in all his airport lounges…
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I think the ad is pathetic.It has absolutely no connection to an airline.I also feel it is focusing on a sensitive subject for many people. If a man is wearing a toupee it because he doesn’t like the fact that he is losing his hair.
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Pathetic… aging… repulsive … “toupees don’t sell”
Why can’t he be happy with the head he’s got?
That’s someone’s hair flies onto some other man…thank god not pubic one – or is that the intended connotation?
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I made the “I know, but…” “Awesome” and “Who hurt you” comments. And now of course this one.
I would like to point out that the points I made where all talking about different aspects of this campaign (unlike the other IP address you’ve pointed out, who is pretending to be different people). I was not doing this at all and I feel a bit disheartened that you would group me into one of those people.
I would also like to point out that I do not work for Virgin, nor any agencies that work with them.
I genuinely thought this work was good. And I’m happy to be wrong here, but I am not happy about being accused of beating the Virgin drum and pretending to be multiple people on a Mumbrella comment thread.
I have a feeling you have worked out who I am, and viewed my LinkedIn, so you know that I am in no way associated with Virgin or its agencies.
People can get really toxic in these comments. But I didn’t expect it from you Mumbrella. I read you every single day. Please be better.
If you don’t want to post this comment I understand (I’ll try and find an email address I can anonymously reach out to), however at least I will know that someone in the team has read it and might re-think about identifying the IP addresses of people who have multiple comments and have NOT intended to pretend to me multiple different people.
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Hi there,
I’m not aware who you are, but feel free to contact me with your concerns: vivienne@mumbrella.com.au.
Thanks,
Vivienne – Mumbrella
Astounding the number of people involved in creating a very average ad.
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Please STop the flying wig ad – it is not fun – once is enough – shut it down. I normally like unusual advertising campaigns, but really = even the black swans (Australian) must hate being referred to as Eagles.
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