The Virgin brand ranked as a Civil Branding ‘advocate’ in our latest survey (just below ‘hero’ status). Nationwide is also a Civil Branding ‘advocate’, The Co-operative is a ‘hero’, and we think that Virgin having a presence on the high street, as perhaps Virgin Bank, would present some great Civil Branding narratives.

There’s room for Virgin attitude on the high street. The scenario of Northern Rock metamorphosing into Virgin Bank looks quite pleasing and even symbolic of closing the loop on economic recovery given Northern Rock’s role. This symbol of recovery would play nicely to the Virgin narrative of ‘people’s hero in the pursuit of industry change’. It would also play to the ‘inclusive’ dimension of Civil Branding, bringing people in society together.

So what sort of brand communications would we like to see from Virgin Bank? In an earlier post about the Virgin brand we talked about how Virgin manages to sustain rebel status whilst being socially inclusive. So the ‘inclusive’ dimension is already in the bag. Having a topic that is seen as worth discussing by society (our ‘important’ metric) in the brand communication strategy, expressed in a way that starts meaningful conversations (our ‘influential’ metric) would provide all the essential ingredients of a socially-progressive campaign.