Virgin Mobile's "A Fair Go For All" Campaign Entry # 2

The string of TV commercials produced by Virgin Mobile do a fantastic job at gaining the attention of the consumer and keeping the consumer interested in the advertisement long enough to convey the marketing message of "A Fair Go For All". The comedy aspect to their TV commercials is brilliant and in my opinion Robin Da Hood (at the risk of being politically incorrect) is the best "boganesque" hero Australia has seen in decades.


I begin to wonder though what role the TV advertisements are meant to play in the IMC campaign. The TV advertisements themselves are effective at gaining and holding the consumer's attention, but is Virgin Mobile using this attention to the best of their ability to promote their products and services? Or is this campaign aimed at promoting the overall brand? The more I see these TV advertisements I find myself thinking that this is more like a mini-series sponsored by Virgin Mobile, rather than an actual informative message. For those of you who have not yet been exposed to a typical Robin Da Hood television advertisement, there are links to four of their most well known Robin Da Hood TV adverts on the right hand side. Typically, after about 20 seconds to a minute of the scene, a short message of conveying Virgin Mobile's fight against unfairness pops up. 


Now I don't know about you, but I am not overly convinced that the TV advertisements actually do an effective job at informing consumers about their offers, perhaps that is not what Virgin Mobile intends to do with their air-time. This seems to be more of a brand building effort by Virgin, rather than an actual promotion of products/services like many other telecommunications companies. If these advertisements carry out the purpose of creating awareness of the brand, it definitely works. It's different, memorable and while it doesn't give you a breakdown of offers on mobile phone products and services, it does entice you to go check out a Virgin Mobile store next time you are wandering around the shopping centre.