The challenge
As part of its ‘quest to make banking better’, Virgin Money had opened four customer lounges in financial centres across the UK: London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Norwich. In opening its fifth, the brand challenged Origin to develop the digital assets for the Glasgow Lounge, including a launch campaign. A place for Virgin Money customers to relax and for communities to come together, the new Glasgow Lounge would be the first to offer full banking facilities.
The Solution
With its store at St Enoch’s Square closing and transferring to an area within the new Queen Street Lounge, Virgin Money needed to get this right. Origin’s solution was to develop a launch campaign, followed by three further campaigns to test the effectiveness of alternative routes. All needed to be ready, installed and tested for the opening of the Lounge in July 2014. For the campaigns, Origin created a suite of digital posters and animated ads, supported by edits of existing video films.
The Outcome
The Glasgow Lounge opened on time in a blaze of good publicity. The brand expects 200 people a day to use the lounge and will make it available for use by charities and community groups in the evenings. With around 70 per cent of Virgin Money's business done digitally, the brand is now able to engage face to face in its lounges, offering a unique experience in banking. Shunning heavy-handed selling, its campaigns enable it to encourage customers to buy more products from it over time, such as its planned branded current account.