Qantas marketing boss Lewis Pullen exits as Olivia Wirth steps up
Qantas marketing director Lewis Pullen is leaving the organisation after three years, with corporate affairs chief Olivia Wirth taking responsibility for the airline marketing function too.
During his time Pullen led wide ranging shifts of the organisation’s global agency arrangements, running a wide ranging media and creative pitch which saw duties for the global creative lead account switched to Droga5. However , 12 months on, no major work from Droga5 has yet emerged. (1.45pm update: Qantas says that Droga5 remains as its lead agency).
Pullen also led the repositioning of the brand under the new line of “You’re the reason we fly”, along with a new piece of music created by Silverchair’s Daniel Johns.
According to the announcement, Pullen will leave at the end of June.
The announcement to staff from Qantas boss Alan Joyce:
All of us can take pride in our recent progress.
“We have the right strategy, we’re delivering on our commitments, creating a better, stronger Qantas, and confirming our position as Australia’s great airline.
As a result, we are achieving record levels of customer satisfaction, improving Net Promoter scores, winning on-time performance, and significantly improving employee engagement scores.
We have a fantastic story to tell our customers.
Earlier this year I commissioned a brand review to find out how we might strengthen the marketing and communication of our Qantas brand.
As a result of that review, today I am pleased to announce a range of changes to the business.
I have asked Olivia Wirth to expand her role to become Group Executive Brand, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, with Group-wide oversight of the brand. New Head of Marketing positions will be created for Qantas Domestic and Qantas International, and those positions will report to Olivia.
The Chief Marketing Officer for Qantas Loyalty will also report to Olivia. The Head of Marketing for Jetstar will continue to report into Jetstar, but will work as part of the Brand team to ensure we maximise the power of our two brands.
Marketing functions, including the Qantas ambassadors, sponsorships, inflight entertainment and digital marketing will also be part of this new team. Olivia will retain the media, internal communications, events function, community, and social media responsibilities.
Under Olivia’s leadership we will have a powerful and integrated marketing and communications capability. We will be far better placed to tell our story and promote our brand at the Group level.
Close collaboration with the CEOs of Qantas Domestic, International and Qantas Loyalty will ensure the strength of communications at the segment level.
As a result of these changes, the existing Executive Manager, Marketing position, currently held by Lewis Pullen, will no longer exist. Lewis has been managing the Qantas marketing team, under the leadership of Simon Hickey, for the past few years. Lewis will be leaving the organisation at the end of June. We thank him for his contribution and wish him the best for the future.
More than ever we need to understand what our customers think and feel about us, and what they want from us. While we have strong customer research capabilities, they are currently scattered across the business. I am therefore creating a centralised customer research unit, reporting into the Executive Manager of Strategy, Rob Marcolina. Customer Insights (currently in Marketing) and Group Insights (currently in Loyalty) will now move to Rob Marcolina’s team. Group Insight will retain a dual reporting line to Loyalty to ensure we make the most of our rich customer data. This new approach will ensure we can use customer insights and data from across the Group to maximise the strength of the dual brands.
Strategic partnerships are vitally important to us as we pursue our goals. Making these partnerships work relies on having quality government relationships. The task is expanding as we maximise our international gateway strategy and build our Jetstar presence in Asia. We are also building our relationships with various state governments, and continuing to deepen our relationship with key stakeholders in the Australian government.
I am delighted to advise that Andrew Parker will be joining Qantas and taking up a new role as the Group Executive, Government and International Affairs, reporting to me. He will be a member of the Group Management Committee.
Andrew is a highly respected airline executive. He joined Emirates in 2007 as the Senior Vice President – Public, International, Industry and Environmental Affairs, where he was instrumental in growing the Emirates global network and managing government and stakeholder relations worldwide. Andrew also played a key role in forming the partnership between our two airlines.
Prior to Emirates, Andrew served as press secretary and political adviser to various state and federal political leaders and ministers. Andrew established a public affairs agency in Australia, which was later acquired by Ogilvy Worldwide. He will join us in July, and until that time Olivia will retain responsibility for this area.
I believe these changes will help us better position and strengthen the Qantas brand. We’ll be able to know our customers better, market and communicate our stories more effectively, and help us strengthen vital government partnerships for success.
Please join me in congratulating Olivia and Rob on their expanded roles, and welcoming Andrew.
The promotion for Wirth comes weeks after she was profiled in The Weekend Australian Magazine.
That’s my boy
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great news for corporate affairs leaders looking to expand their remit
my sense is that this will be a growing trend due to the rise of social and the various reputational stuff ups wrought by marketing folks with no PR sensibility
corporate affairs people bring a broader reputational understanding, a better understanding of editorial angles for content marketing, a better understanding of the overall business in which they work and are generally more cost-efficient because they’re used to being effective using much smaller budgets
this is the way of the future, marketing folks!
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It happens very rarely, usually it’s the other way around, with marketing having corporate affairs reporting into it in some structures I’ve worked in/seen. Can’t see it becoming a trend though. The marketing directors won’t give up that territory.
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The heads are still rolling after the “your the reason we fly’ fiasco. how much collateral damage can a kangaroo bear?
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Congratulations Andrew and Olivia.
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PR Pro, in which company have you seen corporate affairs report into marketing?
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ps…i just think we saw a Marketing Director being forced to give up his territory. Just sayin’….
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Talk to Holden, patriotism in purchase is dead. Get me there, as cheap as possible, and don’t crash. Don’t care who it’s with. It’s not about the flight anymore, it’s all about the destination. Most people would happily stand on their heads naked if it meant a $35 flight to Bali!!!!
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I love it, it highlights complexities of organisational communication these days and how you cant afford a fragmented approach with your brand. Marketing, Comms and Media have to get some synergy happening.
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@Groucho… there is no substitute for Koala Tea
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Wasn’t Olivia in charge of the dreadful PR debacle when Joyce gave a big fuck you to his customers and grounded the fleet, leaving travellers stranded and their plans ruined all around the world?
It’s certainly a courageous decision as they say on Yes Minister
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HI Sally,
She was in charge of the communications, not the decision to ground the fleet. You may recall that considering what was going on, the comms were very good, even if the message was unpalatable.
I think you may be shooting the messenger somewhat…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
She was also in charge of the message when the A380 suffered some grief out of Singapore. It was a textbook example of crisis mangement.
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None of these examples of good PR of course point to any marketing expertise.
It seems Pullen is the sacrificial lamb for an appallingly amateurish corporate campaign no doubt signed off by all at the time , including Wirth & Joyce. His mistake was his choice of creative ‘guru’
Like the Emirates alliance, the fleet grounding, to list just a couple this change will be another in a line of dumb decisions as this once proud airline heads for a wheels up landing.
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@Groucho… Well said. And essentially the same as mine, except my comment is still awaiting confirmation…
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otherwise known as ‘moderation’
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@Groucho, Qantas is clearly saying that PR is more important to the company than marketing, and WIrth’s intelligence & mgt capabilities are sufficient that she’ll have the ability to get across her new brief. At her level the skills she needs are mgt skills – how to identify and recruit the specialist disciplines and how to keep her team focussed and motivated etc
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@nell schofield you are probably right. Clearly they expect crisis management to be more pressing than competing for passengers. Scary isn’t it?
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