Virgin Mobile Australia

Infobox Company
company_name = Virgin Mobile Australia Pty Ltd
company_
foundation = October, 2000
location = flagicon|AUS Sydney, Australia
key_people = flagicon|GBR Sir Richard Branson, co-founder flagicon|USA Peter Bithos, CEO
industry = Telecommunications
company_type = Subsidiary of Optus
products = Prepaid and Postpaid Mobile Phones, Broadband
num_employees = 400 (2008)
parent = Optus
homepage = [http://www.virginmobile.com.au Virgin Mobile Australia]
footnotes =

Virgin Mobile Australia (VMA) is a telecommunications company based in Sydney, Australia. They sell through over 3500 retail outlets, including flagship stores in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, as well as via telesales and web-based stores.

VMA offers pre-paid, monthly and CAP plans for mobile phones. It also has two wireless broadband products: Broadband At Home and Mobile Broadband.

History

VMA was founded in October, 2000, as a 50/50 business partnership between Virgin Mobile UK and Optus. VMA were Australia's first Mobile Virtual Network Operator. In this case the arrangement was to use the Optus network infrastructure but with Virgin management of all aspects of the customer experience including branding of products, customer service and billing.

In 2002, Virgin Mobile UK increased its shareholding to 74.15 per cent.cite news
last = Tanner
first = Ben
title = Optus acquires 100% of Virgin Mobile Australia
publisher = DM Asia
date = 2006-01-11
url = http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?ArticleID=12540
accessdate = 2007-08-22] after Optus refused to inject more cash into the operations. Optus was reported to have lost $AU116 million from the operation since the joint venture began. cite news
last = Luna
first = Lynnette
title = Virgin Mobile Launches in U.S. Despite International Setbacks
publisher = Telephony Online
date = 2006-06-24
url = http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_virgin_mobile_launches/
accessdate = 2007-08-22]

At the end of 2005, VMA claimed over 300,000 customers.

In January 2006, Optus bought all other shares in the business, and VMA became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Optus. A long-term licensing agreement is now in place for the business to continue trading under the Virgin brand.

In April 2006, VMA were merged with SIMplus and M8, other Optus subsidiaries. The new entity, still trading as Virgin Mobile Australia, now claims a customer base of over 500,000 customers.

Products

VMA offers pre-paid, monthly and CAP plans for mobile phones. Their online-only prepaid product, [http://www.virginmobile.com.au/rates/bean_counter.html Bean Counter] has won Australian Money Magazine 2007 Best of the Best Gold Medal for Low-User plans.

These products include all modern telecommunications features such as mobile phone calls, SMS, Multimedia Messaging Service, voicemail, international calls, global roaming, ringtones and Java games.

In April 2007, VMA launched its 3G service including mobile web browsing, email and data services.

In August 2007, Virgin Mobile launched the Virgin Broadband (Australia) service, offering two products: Broadband at Home (a bundle service including a fixed phone equivalent plus broadband), and Mobile Broadband (a portable USB modem). Both products utilise the Optus 3G wireless network.

In August 2008, VMA became the fourth major telco in Australia to begin selling the new Apple iPhone 3G.

Advertising campaigns

Since its inception, VMA has been associated with several innovative and award-winning advertising campaigns, as perhaps expected for a company connected to a very strong international brand.

• Warren Campaign This campaign created a character known as Warren, a 'lovable loser' type of lonely bachelor who was looking for love. TV advertisements encouraged customers and others to text Warren, and they were sent an automated response in the appropriate style. VMA is reported to have received tens of thousands of texts, as well as many genuine requests from the unsuspecting public to meet or contact Warren. This campaign won Lions Direct Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2004, plus top awards from ADMA, AWARD and AdNews.
• 5c Campaign This campaign introduced a character known as 5c, a rapper of small but rotund proportions, who by his name was clearly a parody of rap artist 50 cent. This campaign won the Titanium Lion award at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2005.
• Enjoy Our Rates Responsibly Campaign This campaign utilised the celebrity Jason Donovan in a guerrilla marketing style campaign. It began with deliberately planted internet pictures of Jason supposedly trying to sell his 4WD, with a sign on it clearly showing his personal mobile phone number. The campaign centered on the phrase 'Do Not Text Jason D on 0403xxxxxx', as well as the theme of 'enjoy text responsibly', with of course the exact opposite intention. It won several awards including the Lions Direct - Gold at the 2006 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

Flickr advertising issue

VMA's 2007 national advertising campaign - 'Are You With Us Or What?' - has used images from Yahoo's popular image sharing site, Flickr, without the consent of the subjects, resulting in media speculation about the possibility of legal conflict. The uploader's did give permission for the use of the photo by assigning the Creative Commons license to the photos.cite web|url=http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22117051-601,00.html|title=Virgin 'in the wrong' on ads|accessdate=2007-07-22|date=July 23, 2007] One of the uploaders, Molly Herzschlag, stated on her weblog that, "What they (Virgin Mobile) failed to do was get permission from the people in the photos ... Not sure what the next step will be legal-wise, if any, but I'm looking into it ... This is not the kind of famous I had in mind."

Corporate sponsorships

VMA are the major sponsor of the Australian V Festival - a major music festival held in Sydney, Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Perth.

VMA also sponsor local community aid organisations [http://www.stretch-a-family.com.au/index.html Stretch-a-family] and [http://www.det.nsw.edu.au/eas/youth/publica/southsyd.htm South Sydney Youth Services] .

References

See also

*Virgin Mobile
*Virgin Broadband (Australia)

External links

* [http://www.virginmobile.com.au Virgin Mobile Australia]
* [http://www.virginbroadband.com.au Virgin Broadband]