Qantas’ Olivia Wirth warns of ‘changing agency roster’ as airline increases focus on social
Wirth speaking at the Travel Marketing Summit
Qantas’ top marketer Olivia Wirth has warned its agency roster will continue to change and revealed that up to half of its marketing budget is now spent on digital and social channels.
While cinema and TV will continue to play a key role in high profile brand campaigns, she added that “no stone will be left unturned” in its quest to find the right digital and social platforms to reach consumers.
In a wide-ranging interview at Mumbrella’s Travel Marketing Summit in Sydney yesterday, Wirth also spoke of the “huge opportunities” of Qantas’ data marketing business Red Planet and of the airline’s on-going challenge to win the affection of the travelling public, and described the industry’s interest in Qantas’s agencies as an “obsession”.
The ” Feels like Home campaign was very old school. Yes the public is nostalgic about Qantas bit that ad was very boring. Qantas needs to look at its booking website – it’s still not very friendly to its customers projecting an arrogant attitude.
Qantas is a market leader in devaluing customer loyalty. They have ignored the goodwill of the Australian public towards the popular brand for far too long and now are suffering the consequences. Forget digital, get your business model right first…
“You can’t launch a campaign in a void. You need to realise what the context is, what environment the business is operating in…It was not the right time to spend money on a brand campaign. It is very important that the audience is receptive and open to the type of messages that we wanted to put through.”
Hallelujah, a marketer with a PR background and sensibility!
What a rare treat, but never more important that today given the greater frequency and ferocity of social-led negative issues for corporates
too many obtuse marketers have launched upbeat campaigns to unreceptive audiences because the brand isn’t delivering elsewhere.
Not only does it piss money up against the wall, it can damage the brand by demonstrating its disconnected from its customers
wow, guess she is shows her agencies the same respect that customers are now showing qantas, but hey “I guess that’s life.”
I love Olivia Wirth. What an inspiration to other women in the workforce.
Qantas’s booking website is among the most user-unfriendly experiences one can have in the cyber world. Spent last night trying to reserve a couple of seats for an upcoming international flight – $25 a pop for starters – and it was like trying to whip a stubborn mule into a slow plod. Gave up in the end and resorted to the phone where the person on the other end could not have been more friendly and helpful, even might have been an Australian and somewhere in this country! Told on good authority that Qantas is continuing to get rid of humans when it comes to bookings – and just about everything else except upper management, of course – in its endless efforts to save cash. Might be an idea to find a human who can sort out their bookings website before that happens..
I think Qantas have nailed it with their “Feels like Home” campaign. Rather than an aspirational approach commonly adopted by the industry where the focus is on the destination, we see an anticipated, warm and safe homecoming. I think it’s a master stroke at a time when there is a sense of nervousness about flying and generally travelling abroad. I well up every time. I hope it works for them.