• by Aaron Baar , March 6, 2012

Apparently, even billionaire playboy Richard Branson had an awkward adolescent phase.

A new television advertisement for Virgin Mobile depicts Branson in his youth (complete with signature goatee) as he ponders the idea of founding a wireless telephone company in the future. “In the future,” he tells a group of his university chums (while wearing that awkward headgear for his braces), “we’ll be able to talk to each other using our thumbs.” In another sequence, he has the brainstorm (while in bed with a woman who is clearly out of his league) that there’s no reason to pay for minutes when the real currency is data.

The new commercial is intended to introduce a new mantra, “A Higher Calling,” for the Sprint-owned prepaid wireless company. In a video, Branson -- who founded Virgin Mobile, along with Virgin Airways and Virgin Galactic -- says the new marketing effort is intended to underscore a new relationship between the company and its customers.

“We want to transcend this noise that’s out there and take a fresh look at how we wanted to talk to a customer,” Ron Faris, Virgin Mobile’s head of brand marketing, tells Marketing Daily. “We wanted to make sure if we’re going to sell something to a customer, we would sell them what they’re going to need.”

The new positioning is intended to cut through the noise in the mobile industry and introduce a different “conversation” with the consumer (and in particular, the brand’s 18-34 target demographic) about how they should view their mobile carrier. “The irony is that the phone has become the center of your universe,” Faris says. “But no one is saying ‘I love my cell phone company.’”

In addition, the company relaunched its online content platform, Virgin Mobile Live, to be more than the streaming music site it has been for the past several years. In addition to the music, the new portal will feature videos, photos and humorous infographics that take a humorous slant on the news and happenings in pop culture and technology. All of that content will be updated daily to keep that conversation fresh, Faris says.

“If you want to thrive, you have to publish daily,” he says. “The second you stop talking is the minute you lose [customers and fans].”