This cannot be the first time I’ve waxed lyrical about Virgin and their tone of voice (across any of their services), but – post-bank holiday – I haven’t got it in me to look through every post I’ve ever written.
Anyway, to the (mildly hungover) point – I saw an ad in the papers for Virgin Money, this morning, which showed squirrels as a visual. One of the squirrels was wearing a superhero cape (something about super savings, squirelling things away etc).
Sod’s law dictates that I can’t find it online, and I’m nowhere near a shop that sells newspapers, but that ad says everything about the Virgin brand that it needs to.
What other brand – in respect of finance – could be as creative with their press ads, or as carefree, as to show a squirrel in fancy dress… yet still come across as credible and trustworthy?
Could Lloyds TSB, Natwest, HSBC, or Santander get away with the same tone?
I’m not so sure they could.
But Virgin’s tone of voice is the same across every service – air travel, digital TV, broadband, mobile (once upon a time); quick, witty, fun, even risque or slightly irreverent.
And it works…
Take a look at these – all for different services/offers:
There are some brands that – no matter what I was doing – I’d drop everything for, and work for them in a heartbeat. Virgin – because of their tone of voice – are one of those brands.