Virgin Voyages has unveiled “Mermaid Origins”, a cinematic brand campaign created in collaboration with creative studio Magnific.
As part of the original campaign, Virgin Voyages released a four-part short film series that explores the mythology behind the four mermaids at the helm of the Scarlet, Valiant, Resilient and Brilliant.
“Every brand says it has iconic characters, but we actually built ours a mythology,” said Billy Bohan Chinique, VP of marketing and innovation, Virgin Voyages.
“‘Mermaid Origins’ is Virgin Voyages doing what we do best: taking something playful and pushing it further than anyone expects, with artists from around the world who brought their own vision to Scarlet, Valiant, Resilient and Brilliant,” added Chinique.
“Every brand has stories it has never been able to tell. Virgin Voyages’ mermaids have been part of the brand since day one, but giving each of them a world of her own would once have needed a feature-film budget, so the mermaids stayed still,” said Joaquín Cuenca Abela, CEO of Magnific.
A behind-the-scenes documentary offers a closer look at how a different global artist brought each heroine’s story to life using emerging technology.
The documentary debuted at Native Foreign’s inaugural “L.A. Made” event in Culver City on October 14.
To expand on this vision, Virgin Voyages and Native Foreign partnered with artists from different countries on each origin story.
Using Magnific, an all-in-one creative AI suite, Native Foreign developed unique personas and folklore for each mermaid through narrative storytelling, amplifying and accelerating each artist’s direction, the company said in a press release.
“AI can amplify an idea, but it can’t replace the person behind it,” said Nik Kleverov, co-founder and chief creative officer of Native Foreign.
“Storytelling will always need creatives and artists to lead the narrative. This campaign put that into practice, using the mythology of Virgin Voyages’ mermaids to expand the characters, build interconnected worlds and create unique stories, guided by each artist’s distinct vision,” added Kleverov.
“With Magnific, we used AI as another medium in our creative toolkit to explore new possibilities.”
