Broadcast: Virgin Media: the story so far.(Company overview)

As the company settles into its second year of trading, Nicola Clark talks to its marketing chief about branding Virgin's biggest venture.

The fact that Virgin Media's managing director of brand and marketing, James Kydd, is the only original Virgin Mobile executive still with the business is testament to his willpower. Since Virgin Media launched in February 2007, following the merger of NTL and Telewest and the takeover of Virgin Mobile, Kydd has been at the coalface of marketing. As well as a multimillion-pound marketing spat with Sky, he has overseen the wholesale re-launch of the biggest Virgin brand in the company's history.

'A company is only as good as its brand perception - the Virgin brand certainly has a halo effect on customers' expectations,' says Kydd, who also accepts that these expectations can be challenging.

Kydd's first task during Virgin Media's three-month launch was to second NTL and Telewest staff for positions in the new company. The 80-strong NTL/Telewest marketing team was almost …