Virgin calls themselves ‘Uptimists’

Virgin Australia has launched a new brand campaign on the weekend, called ‘here’s to looking up’ and coining its own made-up word.

“We couldn’t find the right word to embody our belief so in true Virgin Australia style, we created a word that we call ‘Uptimism’,” Virgin Australia chief marketing officer Inese Kingsmill said.

Virgin Australia believes Uptimism taps into the can do attitude inherent in their staff and flyers.

“Brands that connect emotionally are the most powerful brands in the world. Our competitor has done a consistenly good job of being an emotive brand and people know that they stand for coming home and everyone likes that – but there’s a lot of white space in the market and the virgin brand naturally lends itself to the energy and possibility of the take off,” Kingsmill told Travel Weekly.

Kingsmill said the focus of the last 12 months has been to establish their true north.

“We are a brand who takes an optimistic point of view. We’re not saying that everything is always perfect in our world. We fundamentally believe that when we adopt that positive mindset that we have a better chance of better outcomes happening,” Kingsmill told Travel Weekly.

Advertising agency DDB Australia believes this campaign could work only for one aviation brand: Virgin.

“You come up with an idea perfect for one brand and almost one brand alone. The Virgin brand is borne from uptimism and its full of energy and excited about what lies ahead. Taking off is the moment you get excited,” DDB Australia chief creative officer Ben Welsh said.

“There has been stress testing and there is a lot of stretch in this idea so what we will launch this weekend is the start of a brand platform,” Kingsmill said, without putting a timeframe on its longevity.

“I am most excited about how I hope this will make our own people feel – we’ve been a little quiet in market over the couple of years I get the sense that the time is right and our own people are feeling like they want to be represented and to take a stage in some way,” Kingsmill said.

“I know people are going to fall in love again – if they’re ambivalent about virgin they won’t be anymore,” Welsh said.

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