Virgin wanted their flagship broadcast brand to have a clear identity not only on TV but with everyone who works on and with Virgin1. The channel needed to outwardly demonstrate their essence of being smart, mixing things up, having warmth but sometimes going too far. Internally they were about TV that is the right side of wrong, but outwardly they felt branding didn’t reflect this.

After winning a competitive creative pitch, Red Bee decided this brief needed a new kind of approach and came up with a trail–blazing solution to create a physical character to epitomize the brand: may we introduce Red, the impish new face of Virgin1.

Red’s world is where the channel lives: all the traditionally graphical elements of the on–screen design have been shot for real, a first in TV channel branding, and alongside the on–screen elements, Red has his own Facebook and Twitter pages where viewers can interact and get behind the scenes gossip.

The new branding launched on June 9 2009 along with 15 new idents and a retro new logo as the channel extends its Freeview hours and announced a new +1 channel.