Virgin Atlantic 'Flying in the Face of Ordinary' - Interview

Virgin Atlantic "Flying in the Face of Ordinary" - RKCR/Y&R Interview

What's better than a luxury long-haul flight? A luxury long-haul flight staffed by SUPERHEROES! So goes the creative concept behind the new proposition for Virgin Atlantic from RKCR/Y&R. Showcasing the formation of an Avengers-style mega-team of airline professionals from childhood to flight, 'Flying in the Face of Ordinary's cinematic style and grandiose presentation (created by Partizan's Antoine Bardou Jacquet) has marked it as one of the early big-hitters of 2013. We sat down with RKCR/Y&R Creative Partners Pip Bishop & Chris Hodgkiss to talk about the campaign's influences, the execution of the film and how the commercial and its follow-on material form a fresh fantasy universe.

The commercial sees the crew developing their magical gifts from youth. What was the influence for the campaign? Have you guys been watching a bit of X-Men/A-Team?

Yes and no. The influence for the campaign wasn't any particular movie per se, but we did seek inspiration from the superhero genre – particularly the convention of character backstories. The stories about how a hero comes into being are often the most interesting parts, and this inspired our idea of showing how extraordinarily gifted children are naturally drawn to Virgin Atlantic as adults, to save us all from 'the bland, the beige and the common can't be bothered'.

The campaign announces a new global brand proposition, focussing on 'the airline's passion for flight'. Do you feel added pressure when presented with a challenge like that, or is it nice to effectively create your own creative concept from scratch?

It is nice to create our own concept, and even nicer when the idea then grows to become something much bigger – in this case an idea that informs how the entire brand behaves.

Does the history the agency has with Virgin Atlantic aid you in getting creative ideas OK'ed? Are they good clients?

The advertising team at Virgin Atlantic are amazing to work with, but we are never complacent about the length of time we have worked together. If anything, we felt greater responsibility to challenge ourselves and challenge VAA to make sure this was our best campaign yet.
 

How was the shoot and post? It looks like a blockbuster so can't have been a speedy one.

It was a bit of a whirlwind from concept to delivery! The shoot was over the course of 7 days in South Africa. We shot in November and the final ad was aired on 1st January. To be honest, we couldn't possibly have done it without the close relationship we have with Partizan – Antoine Bardou Jacquet was amazing and David Stewart, his producer, somehow managed to keep pulling our various requests out of the bag. MPC then had 2 weeks to do 6 week's work. Rob Walker and his team did us proud.

The spot introduces a number of interesting characters. Will there be further work featuring them? Is this the start of a franchise?

A prequel? A sequel? Who knows.

How did you go about creating the characters?

Creating the characters took a long time. We wanted to represent other areas of Virgin Atlantic's business rather than just cabin crew in order to show that 'Flying in the face of ordinary' is a philosophy that permeates through the whole business. We also wrote detailed backstories for each character to ensure they were completely rounded and believable in the storyline.

How does the film fit into the campaign as a whole? Do the online, outdoor and print elements expand the universe?

The online, print and outdoor elements of the campaign continue the brand world. Iconic cabin crew present individual cabin experiences with collaged product photography. Here we are substantiating how we fly in the face of ordinary by explaining the product and service features you get onboard.

The ad certainly looks at the glamour of air travel. Do you think it still holds the same appeal to consumers nowadays? Is it to mark it out from the budget airlines?

Long haul air travel will always be glamorous. We didn't intend to mark VAA out from budget airlines (they do that themselves), but we wanted to show that there is something a bit special when you fly with Virgin Atlantic, something that sets it apart from everyone else.

Considering the special skills the folk in the spot possess, what position in a Virgin Atlantic crew would you fill with your hidden talents?

We both had a not too secret crush on our gorgeous Captain, so maybe we'd have a bit of a superhero spat to decide who sits next to him in the cockpit.

Published on 10th January 2013