Virgin takes B2B approach for 8th Birthday

National - To celebrate Virgin Atlantic Airways' 8^th Birthday in China, the airline has engaged Rapp Collins China to launch an eight day B2B marketing initiative aimed at reinforcing the message that Virgin was still the only daily direct service to London from Shanghai targeted at travel agencies in the country.

The assignment was to announce and celebrate Virgin's 8^th birthday in China on a very small budget.

The campaign taken from initial proposal to implementation in less than four weeks involved sending a Virgin "8" mouse mat and birthday cards to all staff in the 30 identified travel agencies as well as an online game to win instant prizes such as T-shirts, caps, luggage straps and tickets to London.

In the course of eight days, the promotion generated 32% higher volume than expected with over four million RMB of tickets sold and 100% participation by the 30 travel agencies collecting personal data of 89 individual agency staff for future one-to-one relationship activity.

"The feedback from the travel agents was excellent. They had all received an 8^th Birthday card and a gift from Virgin plus with the chance to win prizes everyday. They were saying that they felt like it was their birthday too," Daniel Yang, sales and marketing manager for Virgin Atlantic Airways in China said.

"B2B marketing can be very cost-effective and can be implemented very quickly. This case study is a demonstration of the power of well-targeted B2B marketing," David King, MD for Rapp Collins in Shanghai said.