Virgin America's CMO and CIO come together with 'techmarketing'

The airline's IT and marketing leaders stress the importance of collaboration, empathy and teamwork in building effective modern marketing strategy

Virgin America vice-president of marketing, Luanne Calvert (left) and CIO and VP, Dean Cookson
Virgin America vice-president of marketing, Luanne Calvert (left) and CIO and VP, Dean Cookson

Collaboration and empathy with IT is vital for CMOs looking to be effective in the new age of customer-driven, digital conversations, according to Virgin America’s CMO.

Speaking during the keynote opening of the Oracle Interact conference in San Francisco, Virgin America vice-president of marketing, Luanne Calvert, and her CIO and VP counterpart, Dean Cookson, explained how their teams have come together under the tag ‘techmarketing’ to better tap into each other’s skillsets and improve customer experiences.

The pair used the recent launch of Virgin America’s website as an example of the work now being done in partnership, and why marketing today can only be effective if it’s driven and supported by technology smarts.

Calvert pointed out digital channels are core to the airline’s interactions with consumers, and said marketing’s role has changed dramatically as a result.

“Marketing used to be like being a film director, where we controlled the conversation, you could polish things up, it was all one-way, and it was rather more glamorous,” she told attendees.

“Today, it’s more like being a farmer – it’s 24 hours a day, you don’t know what people are going to be doing on Twitter overnight, so you have to be aware of it, and there are these seeds we need to plant in conversations. These are going on between our guests, consumers and the brand. We need to put those thought starters out there as well as have a product people want to talk about.”

Calvert cited a number of recent campaigns where Virgin America has strived to trigger conversations by tapping into social and digital channels, all in the name of making flying a more enjoyable experience.

One example is the ‘My Virgin Experience’ social campaign, where consumers were asked to take photos of themselves flying on the airline’s planes, which were flashed on a billboard in Times Square, New York. The campaign generated significant social engagement, as well as consumer generated content, Calvert said.

The airline’s VX safety video is another example of trying to kickstart a digital conversation, Calvert said, and has had nearly 10 million views since its launch.

“When we launched the video, we treated it like a movie, with a premiere, interviews with the director, our dancers went on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and it was supported by an email campaign with attributed revenue,” she said. “We also had a safety video fare sale, which generate half a million dollars in value. The idea that a safety video could generate that kind of content for us was pretty astonishing.”

Calvert then moved on to overhauling Virgin America’s website, stressing the importance of the technology team in its creation and efforts to change the travel booking process. The pair began work on the new site two years ago and shared revenue management and design.

While Cookson said his priorities were a responsively designed site for all devices and touchpoints, as well as a superior ecommerce experience, Calvert said protecting customer data was a key consideration for her.

To ensure the site met everyone’s needs, the two teams built a personal relationship and worked in partnership, a key to minimising animosity, Cookson said.

“Reaching into each other’s sphere of influence and understanding the importance of both sides is a big part of how we work well together,” he added.

“Dean knows things that I don’t, so getting together to create effective marketing is crucial,” Calvert continued. “Having collaboration and working in a startup mode is vital to this.”

Cookson stressed the role of today’s CIO is about helping the business do things faster, smarter and better not just for marketing, but all lines of business.

“Tech is great – I’m a geek at heart ... but it’s important to make sure the technology team helps the rest of the business get its job done,” he said. “Our business needs marketing to do more, to be faster and better. The only way marketing can do more with a flat budget is by being able to lean on tech as a force multiplier for getting things done.

“If we are able to support each other in getting the job done, then when it comes to going for budget and priorities, we have an understanding of what everyone needs.”

Cookson compared the changing relationship between IT and marketing to the struggles IT operational executives have had with developers over recent years and the rise of the ‘DevOps’ methodology, which emphasises constant collaboration, communication and information sharing.

“DevOps has been an attempt to straddle the line between development and operations. Together, they make something more reliable, that’s faster and gets to market easier. ‘Techmarketing’ is extending this concept into the rest of the business and about getting out of this tug of war between marketing and technology teams,” he said.

Nadia Cameron travelled to Oracle Interact as a guest of Oracle.

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia, or check us out on Google+: google.com/+CmoAu

Signup to CMO’s email newsletter to receive your weekly dose of targeted content for the modern marketing chief.

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in