All of Virgin Holidays brochures that it launches from January 2015 will feature customer or agent photographs on the covers.
The long-haul operator will launch a competition in the New Year inviting customers and agents who have been on Virgin holidays or Fam trips, to send in their best shots of destinations or experiences.
Virgin will curate all the entries with the help of a famous photographer, yet to be announced, and display them in a public exhibition of photography.
Fifteen winning shots be selected to grace the covers of all Virgin Holidays’ brochures and the best of the 15 will win a dream holiday to any destination in Virgin’s entire programme.
Announcing the new initiative at its supplier awards on the eve of World Travel Market, managing director, Mark Anderson, said: “Content is so important to us and central everything we do. It’s at the heart of all our marketing because it brings the Virgin Holidays experience to life in a way that immediately helps capture the moments that we can create for people.”
Head of communication, Phil Bloomfield, said the photographs would also be used across Virgin Holidays’ digital channels and revealed the company was about to launch a new app designed to inspire and capture potential customers’ imagination.
“We want to capture people just at the moment that they are thinking about where they might want to go. Retina devices, like macs or the iPhone 6 are absolutely everywhere and the pictures on them are so sharp and can really work as an inspiration piece. As a brand that sells an intangible product, if you’re not using great content via this technology to sell dreams, then you are missing out.”
The app, which is currently at the Apple Store pending approval to go live any day, follows Virgin Holidays’ launch in January of a new quarterly magazine for customers called Unleashed, again designed to inspire and excite potential clients.