With Windows 10 Virgin Atlantic Shows Business Travelers What Its Really Like to Fly on a...

[Guest Jeremy Korst]

When I think of Virgin Atlantic and its brand, the first thing that comes to mind is adventurous. A brand that is willing to do things differently, to take risks, and above all make a flight an incredible, unforgettable adventure. With that in mind they came to us with a very specific objective in mind: come up with a new way to help their sales team engage with business customers and business travelers outside of traditional marketing and sales tactics that don’t provide the transformational impact they need. They wanted to give their team a sales tool to tell their story in a unique and unexpected way – to allow travelers to actually see and feel what a travel adventure on their airlines is like.

 

This is the kind of challenge we love sinking our teeth into, especially with our new Windows 10 platform. Together we created ‘Ida’, an interactive digital adventure that takes customers on a guided tour and shows them virtually what it’s like to be in upper class on an actual flight. The experience starts by checking in at the airport, moves through the fabulous Clubhouse at London Heathrow and takes you through what happens on the aircraft, either at the bar or in your seat, and then ends with you waking up refreshed and ready to land.

 

Check out the video below to hear from the team at Virgin Atlantic about how they’re using the experience:

 

 

“Competition is fierce; and we need to compete, but in smarter way than our competitors. We challenged ourselves to create something really new and different but also something that didn’t require the same scale investments as our competitors. Windows 10 gave us exactly what we needed. Developing a Windows 10 universal app across the broadest range of devices has allowed us to offer choice to our customers in how they experience Virgin Atlantic,”

 

— Reuben Arnold, SVP, Marketing and Customer Experience, Virgin Atlantic

 

What makes Windows 10 incredibly unique in solving Virgin Atlantic’s objective is the power and flexibility of our universal Windows app platform. This allowed us to build one app that can run across any Windows 10 device, from the smallest screen to the largest. All of our devices work together in concert, something our competitors can’t do. This allows Virgin Atlantic to use a wide variety of devices to meet the specific needs of a given setting, including the ability for the tour to be viewed through a tablet and phone powered 3rd party virtual reality headset, which is enhanced through narration. Not only does the app make presenting the Virgin Atlantic story easier and more compelling, but it can be presented on multiple devices like a Windows tablet or a phone.

 

Virgin Atlantic’s Windows 10 Ida app, home screen pictured above, allows the viewer to go on an interactive digital adventure and experience what it’s like to be in upper class on an actual flight.

 

The Virgin Atlantic sales team will use this experience with business customers and will take this experience on the road at tradeshows and potentially use it in high-traffic areas during the workday, like corporate lobby locations (i.e. imagine seeing this at The Shard in London or the Bank of America tower in midtown-Manhattan in New York).

 

This week, at Future Decoded in London, Microsoft will bring together 10,000 business decision makers, developers, IT pros and partners from across the UK and Europe to decode the future of business and technology. As part of this event, Craig Kreeger, Virgin Atlantic CEO, will talk about how the company is working with us to find new and unexpected ways to engage customers with their brand and we’ll show off ‘Ida’ for the first time to business decision makers.

 

With Windows 10 off to the hottest start ever for a new version of Windows with more than 110 million devices upgraded to date, we’re honored that companies like Virgin Atlantic are able to leverage the unique and innovative experiences Windows 10 delivers across devices.

 

Keep seeking new adventures!

 

Jeremy

 

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