Skift Take
For any travel brand, loyalty done right is the most reliable marketing vehicle.
Editor's Note: Following our previous CEO interview series in online travel, hospitality, and destinations, Skift has launched a new series, this time focused on Chief Marketing Officers.
To better understand the big marketing challenges facing travel brands in an age when consumers are in control, Skift's What Keeps CMOs Up at Night will talk with the leading voices in global marketing from across all the industry's sectors.
These interviews with leaders of hotels, airlines, tourism boards, digital players, agents, tour operators and more will explore both shared and unique challenges they are facing, where they get insights, and how they best leverage digital insights to make smarter decisions.
This is the latest interview in the series.
National carriers play a unique role in the aviation world. They carry the promise of delivering plane after plane of fresh loads of visitors to a country's shores as well as connecting their citizens with new worlds beyond their borders.
They also are often shackled with decades of labor, operational, and other legacy issues, while having to deal with low-cost and other startups nipping at their heels. Face with the, some manage to innovate (British Airways) while others struggle to muddle through (Lufthansa).
Qantas has its own unique challenges. It has ferried people to and from Australia for over eight decades, and it's geographic isolation means it can command a deeper relationship with passengers than most carriers. In recent years it has done so through an expansive loyalty program that goes beyond just points collecting into things like wine clubs and other consumer behaviors.
Skift sat down with Jo Boundy, Qantas' new CMO for loyalty, last month shortly after she took the position. In her previous role as head of digital and entertainment at the airline, she had been responsible for the in-flight passenger experience. In her new role,
