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Virgin Atlantic VS250 Crisis
Made by Junxian Qu
LOGO
01
Introduction
1Staff on VS250 ignored Liu Wei’s complain
On March 1, a Caucasian male passenger on Virgin flight VS250 said to a Chinese girl :"you f*****g Chinese pig! get the f*** out of here!"
She had a quarrel with this man and asked the crew to help, but they ignored her complaints and asked her to sit down or they would expel her from the flight.
She posted her story online, and her experience went viral in China. Virgin Atlantic still refuses to apologize.
3/1 3/273/4 3/1
03/16
3/17
Landed in Shanghai
Post her story online
Professionals get involve
1M+ People viewed and shared her story
Chinese media covered her story
Started oversea campaign
Failed to make Virgin apologize
Weibo• By March 20, 8M+ people viewed her post
and 1.3M people visited a #Boycotting Virgin Airlines page set up on Weibo.
Zhihu• 600+ discussions under VS250 on
Zhihu.com
Search Engine• Domestic media picked up the story since March 16th • The story was covered by 150+ media within 8 days
02
Campaign
Later that day, the PR team decided to expand their media pool
March 17
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12CE/ 通用格式
CE/ 通用格式
CE/ 通用格式
Pitching• Used keywords “Virgin Airline”• Pitched the story to more than 450 media
professionals on March 17
Results• Pitched 3300+ media professionals by March 18
• Around 20% of recipients read the pitch letter
• Generated 700+ tweets on Twitter
• More than 50 foreign website covered the story
• Set up a campaign homepage on Facebook, received 1300+ likes
• 47 discussions on Quora
• VS250 was a popular keyword on March 17 for 3 hours
Quora Twitter
03
Virgin Airlines’ Reaction
3/1 3/273/5 3/1
73/18
3/20
Gave Li Wei a fake steward’s name
Replied to her on Weibo
Made an official announcement
Promised to investigate
Crisis Management
CEO posted an reply on his blog
Told Li Wei the investigation was ongoing
Refused to apologize
Prepared for a settlement
700+
500+
50+
• Really sorry to hear about an
alleged incident on flight VS250. We
do not tolerate abuse and
@virginatlantic are investigating.
• We are aware of this incident and would
like to reassure you that the safety and
wellbeing of customers is always our
priority, and we are taking these allegations
seriously.
3 Contacted Influencers
... as social media expands, we have to be careful about how it is used…We have fully investigated this incident …There was an altercation between a female customer and a male customer who has Parkinson’s disease … Our cabin crew did their best to resolve the situation … one side of the story was shared widely online … (and) resulted in allegations of racism - I reiterate that Virgin companies and people take a zero tolerance approach to racism. We equally take a zero tolerance approach to discrimination against anybody due to a disability … Sometimes the consequences of jumping to conclusions can have a significant impact, in this case on crew members … have received an enormous amount of abuse online.
News Coverage/ PR Spin
• Removed negative posts
• Changed the subject
• Stall
• Increased media presence
04
Pros & Cons
Virgin Atlantic Liu Wei
Pros1. Reacted fast2. Sealed information well3. Did not compromise4. Spin
1. Emotional story2. Strong use of media3. Well organized
campaign
Cons
1. Announcements were not consistent
2. Slow investigation and little exposure
3. Never apologised
1. Target was not clear2. Lack of foreign media
support
05
Conclusions/ Recommendations
1 Conclusions
2Solve the emergencies as early as possible
3 Enhance internal communication and crisis management training
4Recommendations
1. Reach Asia-Pacific media first 2. Virgin Atlantic should expose details about the investigation
Successful campaign needs a singular, clear goal
06
Discussion
Q1: How much responsibility does Virgin Airlines have in this issue?
Q2: Did Virgin Airlines do a good job from the PR perspective?
Q3: Is there any other way Liu Wei can use to protect her rights?
Jianmin R. (2016, March 18). woman was called "Chinese pig" on flight by passenger, only to be threatened by crew to leave the plane in mid-air. retrieved April 1, 2016, from People.com, http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0318/c90000-9031909.html
Benjamin Z, Richard Branson writes a heartfelt letter after virgin airline staffers were accused of racism. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from business insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-caution-social-media-virgin-airline-accused-racism-2016-3
Xiaoying C, (2016, March 17). 维珍航空布兰森回应中国乘客“被歧视”事件 . retrieved April 1, 2016, from BBCchina, http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/03/160319_china_virgin_airlines_investigation_branson_response
Mingjie W, (2016, March 17). Virgin Atlantic investigates abuse case as story goes viral. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from Chinadaily, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-03/17/content_23928643.htm
Ashitha N, (2016, March 18). Richard Branson apologizes to woman called ‘Chinese pig’ on virgin flight. retrieved from April 1, 2016, from metro, http://metro.co.uk/2016/03/18/richard-branson-apologises-to-woman-called-chinese-pig-on-virgin-flight-5759688/
Kevin M, (2016, March 17) Virgin Atlantic feels force of Chinese social media after alleged racist incident. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from tnooz, https://www.tnooz.com/article/virgin-atlantic-feels-force-of-chinese-social-media-after-alleged-racist-incident/
Richard B, (2016, March 18) social media and understanding all sides of the story. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from Virgin.com, https://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/social-media-and-understanding-all-sides-story
Haze F, (2016, March 20) Virgin trashed on social media over China racism claims. Retrieved April 1, 2016, from CNBC, http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/20/virgin-trashed-on-weibo-over-china-racism-claims-branson-blogs-on-social-media.html
References
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