Posted on by Nathalie Tay
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Virgins Wanted: Jetpac Goes Ballsy For Its Latest Campaign
23 May
ballsy, the two-person creative consultancy based in Singapore, is making its global debut in a truly unorthodox way by hunting for virgins in the U.S.A. and the U.K. – travel virgins, that is. Created for Jetpac, a travel eSIM, the summer campaign has launched its first OOH advertisements in Los Angeles and London.
“When Jetpac first approached us, they didn’t want yet another ordinary campaign; they were looking for a global, significant storyline. We pitched something wild and Jetpac didn’t flinch, because fortunately, they share our ballsy DNA of being fearless and experimental – so that’s when our ‘virgin hunt’ began,” shares VJ Anand, co-founder of ballsy.
Together with business partner Eddy Lim, they proposed an unconventional international campaign for the travel eSIM: find travel virgins and accompany them as they venture out of their home countries for the first time.
By analysing travel data, ballsy discovered an interesting insight that led them to present their ‘Virgins Wanted’ idea to Jetpac: circa 23%-25% of adults in the U.S.A. and 13%-15% of U.K. residents have never left their respective countries for a holiday.
“When we saw that, we thought: this is not only a travel insight, but also a pop culture opportunity,” explains VJ Anand. “Instead of creating a boring old campaign targeting the well-traveled, we asked, what if we gave the Jetpac eSIM to someone who’s never used one before? We wanted to capture the unforgettable moments of someone stepping out of their own world for the very first time – travel virgins.”
Kicking off its first phase on May 19th, Jetpac’s multi-step summer campaign starts with eye- catching OOH ads placed in high traffic areas in Los Angeles and London. Billboards, posters and painted murals boldly announce cheeky phrases such as ‘Virgins Wanted’ and ‘Time to Pop Your Cherry’ with a QR code that leads the curious-minded to Jetpac’s campaign website.
Campaign mural in Los Angeles
Two people – one each from the U.S.A and U.K. – will then go on a journey of a lifetime with Jetpac in ‘The Travel Virgin Show’ that VJ Anand says is part campaign, part social experiment, and part unscripted reality show.
“The climax of the campaign is ‘The Travel Virgin Show’, a social-first, edgy docutainment series featuring real people experiencing new cultures and countries for the first time,” adds VJ. “In a sea of influencers and airbrushed travel reels, we choose to go raw with authentic and honest storytelling via the lens of virgin travellers.”
According to Pearlyn Yeo, Head of Marketing for Jetpac, the brand aims to make a statement with this campaign. “Everyone remembers their first trip abroad – usually for the stress, and we want to flip that. If we can make people proud of their first trip, they’ll never stop exploring, and that’s Jetpac’s key philosophy to encourage travel freedom.”
“Once they’ve tried us for the first time, they will know why we’re different from the rest, and that’s exactly what we want to amplify with this creative concept. We don’t want to be remembered as ‘any travel brand’. If we want to make a mark in the industry as a new entrant, we’re going in big and bold.”
“So, when the ballsy team brought this idea to us with the surprising statistics on people who have never traveled from the U.K. and U.S.A., it immediately connected with us, and we were all ready to go big and wild with it.”
In order to bring their idea to fruition, ballsy has collaborated with a dream team of local and international talents:
Singapore’s own Friends agency for social and content assets
A group of American and European creatives for campaign execution
Ion Michael Furjanic, a director from Brooklyn
Malaysian production company We Are Kix
Build Media for traditional media buying duties
Connect Management for influencer engagement
This campaign marks a milestone for ballsy, whose ambition has always outgrown their two- person consultancy headcount. “We’re small, but our ideas are limitless and our work is borderless,” says the team. Jetpac’s global summer campaign will also be activated across different European and APAC markets, as well as Canada and Australia.
The APPIES is an annual event that presents a rare opportunity for creative, media, digital and marketing agencies or brands to present their best campaigns to the industry.
This is the only event where Live Presentations meets Live Judging.
Similar to TED Talks, The APPIES is the chance for great presenters with outstanding work to show it off to some of the industry’s most important industry leaders.
This year’s winners will receive Gold, Silver or Bronze trophies for 21 categories, and 6 special Best of Best categories (red trophies) that require no submissions!
Campaign entries must have run between June 2024 to May 2025
