Taking frequent flyers to new heights

Virgin Australia’s award-winning frequent flyer programme, Velocity, has made the recent choice to refresh its visual identity. The decision comes after the expansion of Virgin Australia’s loyalty offering tops polls as one of region’s most reliable. Yet its collaboration with Australian brand and design agency, Hulsbosch, seeks to energise its brand profile with refreshing imagery, leveraging the intrinsic vibrancy of the Virgin brand.

For Claire Bailey, head of account management at Hulsbosch, the rebrand taps into the need for effective branding within loyalty schemes and the credit and debit ecosystem, particularly with relation to airlines. “We’re bringing the Velocity positioning to life. They needed beautiful, elegant and simple solutions to showcase who they are. Bold and engaging concepts integrate Velocity’s brand values, personality and essence. The impactful design elements create a look and feel that is uniquely Velocity and leverages the spirit of the global Virgin brand.”

Hulsbosch has led the charge on innovative design within the region, incorporating unique design elements into varied projects. Examples such as Qantas' 'flying kangaroo' as well as clients such as Kimberly-Clark and SC Johnson illustrate the influence of Hulsbosch design. In 2011, Hulsbosch rebranded what was then known as Virgin Blue to today's Virgin Australia, contributing to its growing fleet by overhauling its brand identity and transforming the standards of branding across the landscape. 

Velocity’s identity has long mirrored the scarlet typeface and signature identity of its parent brand, yet in scaling up the airline to compete with top-flight competitors, the new imagery takes a more youthful appearance, centralising colourful backdrops and bold proportions in both welcome packs and loyalty cards. Additionally, to coincide with the gradual progression of a growing member base, Velocity introduced status levels (red, silver and gold) in 2007, with a further platinum option unveiled in 2011. Its recent rebrand offers a unique and varied design to each loyalty option.

Managing its implementation, Hulsbosch developed an extensive brand portfolio guideline as well as an internal launch video that solidifies Velocity’s digital experience across varying platforms. The rollout will initially consist of social media and print advertising collateral, with further digital implementation to follow later this year.