Case study of Virgin Atlantic crisis in China. Class Assignment Made by Junxian Qu

1. Virgin Atlantic VS250 Crisis
Made by Junxian Qu
LOGO

2. 01
Introduction

3. 1
Staff 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.

4. 3/1 3/273/4 3/10 3/16 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

5. 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

6. Search Engine
• Domestic media picked up the story since March 16th
• The story was covered by 150+ media within 8 days

7. 02
Campaign

8. Later that day, the PR
team decided to
expand their media
pool
March 17
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Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12
Pitching
• Used keywords “Virgin Airline”
• Pitched the story to more than 450 media
professionals on March 17

9. 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

10. Facebook
• 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

11. 03
Virgin Airlines’ Reaction

12. 3/1 3/273/5 3/17 3/18 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

14. 700+ 500+
50+

15. Twitter
• Really sorry to hear about an
alleged incident on flight VS250.
We do not tolerate abuse and
@virginatlantic are investigating.
Facebook
• 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.

16. 3 Contacted Influencers

17. ... 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.

18. News Coverage/ PR Spin
• Removed negative posts
• Changed the subject
• Stall
• Increased media presence

19. 04
Pros & Cons

20. Virgin Atlantic Liu Wei
Pros
1. Reacted fast
2. Sealed information well
3. Did not compromise
4. Spin
1. Emotional story
2. Strong use of media
3. Well organized
campaign
Cons
1. Announcements were not
consistent
2. Slow investigation and
little exposure
3. Never apologised
1. Target was not clear
2. Lack of foreign media
support

21. 05
Conclusions/
Recommendations

22. 1
Conclusions
2Solve the emergencies as early as possible
3
Enhance internal communication and
crisis management training
4
Recommendations
1. Reach Asia-Pacific media first
2. Virgin Atlantic should expose details about the
investigation
Successful campaign needs a singular, clear goal

23. 06
Discussion

24. 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?

25. 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

26. FIN