Virgin Money Brand Experience Design

Making people happy about money

Expertise

Customer Journey Mapping
Experience Module Creation
Branded Environment and Interior Design
Brand Application
Digital Integration
Community Building

120%

More account openings

123

Branches completed

+300%

Higher sales than the next best branch

Watch the Virgin Money cutomer expeirence design story

The challenge

Re-writing the traditional branch experience to bring new meaning to the physical space.

Responding to the latest needs of SME’s, business owners and private customers that have shifted to digital banking – together, we decided to turn the traditional in-branch experience on its head, and into an innovative and inspiring journey. Creating community-led, social learning spaces in-branch.

The big idea

A new way to engage with the customer IRL, brought to life in an inspirational space underpinned by the positioning: Learn. Work. Bank.

People at the Heart of the Experience

Following the merger of CYBG and Virgin Money and hot on the heels of the successful opening of B-Works, Manchester; We developed a customer centric store format strategy, that includes a family of concepts specifically tailored to serve the needs of local communities. The design highlights feature modules built to engage and serve customers throughout every area of the space.

So Much More Than Bank

The new stores, open to customers and non-customers, provide facilities for entrepreneurs to co-work and create, whether in the social media studio or the flexible co-work areas, all fuelled by bottomless cups of excellent coffee.

The approach I-AM bought was collaborative, workshop based. They bought in a whole wealth of different experts and a variety of expertise and continuously pushed us even after we’d built. They did not stop asking questions, walking us through the initial vision.”

Lee Chapman, Head of Innovation at CYBG

Local, for the Community

The first set of Virgin Money branch designs were trialled in London, Birmingham and Manchester. Providing a local platform for social engagement, a destination for a diverse range of networking events, seminars, and panel discussions, and even a space for morning yoga and evening gigs – all tailored to the needs of the local market.

Our process

Behind the scenes

Audit & Interviews

Covering an area of 2.5 thousand miles with 26 branches in 11 cities, we gained an in depth understanding of the real-life issues facing customers and employees. This unveiled a great potential to define a completely new purpose for the bank based on a service offering built around lifestyle. We held 65 hours of one-on-one interviews in key locations, and we spent 68 hrs observing the actions of customers.

Strategic Workshop

The our workshops were a wonderful opportunity to bring 3 banks together for the first time, to create a clear vision for the future under the Virgin Money brand. The insight gained from the audit and interviews, provided the workshop stimulus to define what customers need from their financial provider; branch locations, how they will use them throughout the day and social activities. We defined 3 formats, all aiming to break down traditional banking barriers and build new communities.