• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, June 30, 2010

 Virgin America has tapped crowdsourcing agency Victors & Spoils for the launch of a new online campaign announcing its entrance into the Toronto market.

The concept, The Virgin America Toronto Provocateur, was developed in-house by Victors & Spoils as an online PR stunt to generate excitement for the airline's first international destination, Toronto.

The Web site and video content, created by the agency's Chief Creative Officer Evan Fry, asks Toronto locals to prove they are "Virgin enough to be a provocateur" with videos demonstrating they are the ultimate Toronto insider.

"Because it was the first venture into Canada for Virgin America, we wanted a solution that brought a Canadian/Torontonian culture point of view," said Fry.

Video submissions will be voted up or down by the public, with the most popular Provocateur getting the chance to be Virgin America's brand ambassador in Toronto for one year.

The Boulder, Colo.-based agency Victors & Spoils only launched last year, but has already built a name for itself as a pioneer in crowdsourcing principles.

For Virgin America, it developed the concept for the campaign in-house, only turning to the crowd later in the search for a brand ambassador -- or Toronto Provocateur -- who will be expected to create buzz and interest for Virgin America in the Canadian city.

"This first work from our collaboration with [Virgin America] -- a platform through which an idea that uses crowdsourcing can come to life -- illustrates one way we can work with a given client while staying true to our own vision of being built on principles of crowdsourcing," Fry added.

Virgin America and their development company, Type 3, oversaw production of the Web site. Virgin America's Creative Director, Jesse McMillin, met with Sir Richard and directed a Branson intro-video -- which challengers visitors to be provocateurs -- with direction and inspiration from Fry, who led the edit at Victors & Spoils.

The campaign Web site, powered by Google's Moderator platform, went live this week, and can be viewed at virginamericaprovocateur.com.

Earlier this month, Victors & Spoils debuted a major national TV campaign for Dish Network to promote its new "Free HD for Life" service. The campaign is made up of a suite of 15- and 30-second spots for network and cable TV, plus a 60-second spot for cinema.