Virgin Atlantic and Holidays align creative accounts, pick AMV BBDO over Adam & Eve
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have aligned their creative accounts and handed the three-year contract to AMV BBDO.
Adam&Eve/DDB loses Virgin Atlantic account
It is the first time the two Virgin entities have appointed a joint creative agency. They are the latest brands to overhaul and restructure their agency roster in order to ‘improve marketing efficiencies’.
The decision deals another blow to Virgin Atlantic’s incumbent Adam&Eve/DDB, which went up against AMV BBDO in a closed pitch. The Omnicom shop was fired as Harvey Nichols’ agency after 17 years less than a week ago.
“Aligning our creative work under a single award-winning agency will help us ensure we deliver more complementary marketing strategies that continue to grow each individual brand – and the creativity and enthusiasm from AMV BBDO knocked it out of the park for us,” said Claire Cronin, senior vice president of marketing at Virgin Atlantic.
“Adam&Eve/DDB has been a phenomenal agency partner, who we cannot recommend highly enough, and we would like to thank them for the incredible work they’ve delivered over the previous four years.”
Virgin confirmed that International agencies, such as Figliulo & Partners in New York, would not be affected by the news.
Aside from cost-saving, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays hope the joint strategy will lead to greater ‘synergy and cohesion’ between the sister companies. AMV BBDO has been tasked with creating ‘complementary but distinctive’ marketing strategies for each.
Its priority will be to launch a new creative platform for Virgin Atlantic, following the decision to retire ‘Let It Fly’, and to extend the current ‘Seize the Holiday’ platform for Virgin Holidays.
AMV BBDO will report to both Cronin and Amber Kirby, vice president of marketing and customer experience at Virgin Holidays. The latter joined last week (12 March) from Boots Walgreen Alliance.
Justin Pahl, managing director of AMV BBDO, said: “Adding the super prestigious Virgin Atlantic to our roster is a spectacular win and we are extremely proud to be working with such an exciting brand. But of course we are just as delighted to continue working with our superb clients at Virgin Holidays.
“We can’t wait to get started making some exciting work full of Virgin spirit.”
