Virgin BITES

Overview

The brief

To launch a new portal to reposition the network as a fresh and young-at-heart brand, acquire new customers, grow traffic and develop revenues from content downloads.

Our approach

The traditional approach to delivering portal services was to aggregate content from other media brands into huge, tricky-to-navigate sites. We proposed a much simpler magazine-style experience using a few highly-targeted content channels comprised of small, ‘snackable’ chunks of editorial and video – hence the name BITES. We designed BITES to ‘bust boredom’ and provide fun, irreverent experiences in moments of downtime.

What we did

Creative

We created bespoke content directly targeted at ‘tribes’ within the 16-34 demographic: music, film, lifestyle, celebrity, humour and sport. We also devised interactive features including competitions, quizzes, polls and user-generated content to drive engagement and build community around the brand.

We managed the entire portal proposition, launching a 3G iteration in 2006 and managing all content through a dedicated CMS which we developed in-house. We also published a BITES magazine, distributed in store at Megastores / Zavvi and mobile retailers so that users could see and sample real content before buying.

Technology

We built and hosted the Content Management system, integrating with client and partner systems for the most effective route to publication.

Gallery: click to see full size images

The results

Response

 In the year after its launch, BITES was nominated for four awards and traffic to the new portal grew 27%, demonstrating its power in driving acquisition and retention. Downloads revenues grew substantially and BITES made it into the pages of The Mirror, The Sun, The Times and The Independent, each of which picked up on stories that Que Pasa had broken first on the portal.
BITES was a ground-breaking concept which has been imitated across the industry and our terminology has become the language of mobile content.

Best bits

Being the first mobile site to respond to an event as it happens by updating the V Festival 2006 microsite with news and gossip live on-site.

Our UGC channel saw Virgin Mobile customers send in hilarious photos for Lookalikes/Rate The Face – not all of them publishable!

Client feedback

'Que Pasa were central to the development of the portal proposition. Their editorial vision and knowledge of the market meant we built a strong user community and created a groundbreaking proposition that has since been much imitated.'

Nick White, Head of Value Added Services and Product Development, Virgin Mobile.

Press

Many of our celebrity interviews have been picked up on by the media…
'We followed him on the CCTV and found out he was sifting all the ideas out of my kitchen. So I stripped him stark bollock naked and wrapped him in cling-film,” Gordon Ramsay told Virgin Mobile BITES.'
The Daily Star, Feb 2008

Outcome

Ongoing client relationship via Virgin Media On Your Mobile.

David Hasselhoff interview from Que Pasa on Vimeo.