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Space is Virgin territory

By Andrew Warren, Director

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November 12, 2015 | 4 min read

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Just over 100 hundred years ago we saw the world’s inaugural commercial flight with the launch of St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line flying a total of 23 minutes between the two cities separated by 21 miles.

Fast forward to today, thanks to Virgin Galactic, space flight is being democratized to expand beyond the elite club of 551 brave astronauts who have ventured before them.

Today the world watches and waits for the launch of Virgin Galactic. Their aim is to start carrying eight passengers per flight into sub-orbit space, traveling at speed of Mach 3.

The ticket price of $250,000 can be afforded by very few of us but the alternative is significantly more which is $60m to join the Russian space programme as a space tourist.

It’s Veteran’s day and the IPA/UKTI West Coast delegation is now at Virgin Galactic’s Long Beach HQ. And yes, this privileged group of grown-ups have turned into excited children all clambering to learn more about the next phase of flight… space flight for all.

Very soon Virgin Galactic’s passengers will board Spaceship II to travel 50,000 feet with the support of another aircraft before being launched 50 miles up to sub-orbital space.

To achieve their passengers’ dreams of viewing the earth from space and experience four minutes of weightlessness a team of true visionaries have been brought together to prove it is possible.

To challenge their sceptics they have used smarter composites and lighter metals to make space travel simpler, more efficient and quicker.

The science behind Virgin Galactic is complex but their approach is beautifully simple; develop a great team culture to solve problems quickly, to launch the service. It’s wonderful to hear the golden rule is being applied, even to reach new technical feets.

The Virgin Galactic, Long Beach site houses rocket mock ups and state of the art machining equipment, used to create and test parts again and again until perfect, by a talented group of engineers.

The benefit to the customer is that this space flight means they can bypass the existing requirement to become a space traveler, and for Virgin they can brand the experience of space travel.

The evolution of earth air travel in the last 10 years has meant that every corner of the earth can be reached. But now Virgin Galactic has created a new frontier.

Granted such new experiences always come at a high price point at first but in time this price will reduce making it more affordable to a larger customer base. In turn the Virgin brand can benefit from this achievement re-establishing the company as being innovative and pioneering.

Next month sees Tim Peake, Britain’s second astronaut take off to the space station, courtesy of the Russian space programme and we wish him a safe flight.

I have a feeling the third British person to travel in space will be hosted by Virgin Galactic and I am certain it will create a wonderful story for the brand and many more. To date 700 tickets have been sold.

Andrew Warren, director at marketing agency Feref

Follow the mission on Twitter #createuk

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