Brand, demand

Les Binet and Peter Field’s lessons on the long and short of marketing have not been lost on Virgin senior marketing manager, Patrick Millington Buck.

Taking the stage at Seven House at SXSW Sydney on Tuesday, Millington Buck shared practical ways he’s applying both types of approach across the airline’s commercial partnerships.

“The long is the brand building, emotive, long-term awareness you can drive; the short is about short-term revenue and activations. I’m constantly thinking about how I can bring both into Virgin partnerships,” he told attendees.

Take Virgin’s multi-year, multi-million-dollar partnership with the AFL: “We go after the long by driving home the partnership awareness piece, looking at our assets, ensuring we get high exposure and brand awareness and build brand IP association with fans," per Millington Buck. "That could be through broadcast exposure, pitch signage and activations to build brand affinity with fans. Drawing that association is about how we can draw on the passion connection for Virgin." 

Millington Buck described the airlines’ brand proposition, to be Australia’s most loved airline; its purpose, to create uplifting experiences; and its brand repositioning campaign, ‘Bring on wonderful’, which launched 12 months ago, as "gifts" for building such brand saliency and emotive connection.

The short is then about landing revenue-driving activities as the airline rebuilds its balance sheet, last week posting its first profits in 11 years. Not only does that include the millions of dollars AFL teams spend flying with Virgin, it’s about targeting club fans and encouraging them to pick Virgin Airlines over Qantas and other rivals.

Affiliate play

Millington Buck revealed the Bain Capital-owned carrier is now setting up affiliate models with many of the AFL clubs so they receive a kickback on all flight revenue sold to their fan bases. It’s a win-win-win: Virgin benefits because the AFL is flying on its planes; for clubs, there is 4 per cent commission for any flights they sell to fans. And by adding in some savvy experience activations in-flight and the “ultimate fan prize pool”, fans vie for prizes or money can't buy experiences with AFL club idols.

“So if you book a flight through your club, you might get an ad served from the club considering a flight to [an] away game. If you book through Virgin link, you go in the draw to win prizes,” Millington Buck said. Not surprisingly, clubs are getting behind this by incentivising purchases through promotions and offers directly to fans on their platforms.

Amplification altitude

In the prize mix are 2024 Grand Final tickets, merchandise for signing up, business class flights, and a share in a million Velocity points. Arguably the most visceral and immediate experience on offer, however, is around what Virgin is doing with AFL ambassadors for fans while in-flight. With AFL players often travelling on the same public flights as fans for an away game, Virgin has been connecting the dots in order to deliver an in-flight activation that also encourages amplification socially.

“If you’re a massive fan, five of your club heroes rocking up on the plane is a moment to own. We needed to amplify this,” Millington buck said. “We identified a few club flights and then working with AFL over a season, created moments on-board.”

Halfway through a flight, for example, AFL club captains get on the PA, welcome passengers and offer up free tickets to the grand final, or business class flights, or jerseys, by calling out row and seat winners.

“It’s an activation for 174 passengers, but we need to amplify that. An old M&C Saatchi boss of mine’s mantra is to create an experience for few that’s seen by many. We worked with TV networks, our social team, club social teams and we package this content up and do it quickly to share.”

Within an hour of landing, content is cut and ready to hit social channels. In addition – although Millington Buck admitted success remained hit and miss – Virgin has been recruiting select AFL players to capture content while in-flight to also share with their own social networks.

For Millington Buck, it’s about owning the moment: “These are things where you connect to your target audience and create an experience they love, but you can then share, so thousands of others see it as well."