Virgin America Elevate - Article: Virgin America targets a different kind of business traveler

Virgin America CEO David Cush says he is creating a business airline for companies too small to have a corporate travel department. Cush believes that high tech and low prices will help attract these "self-managed" travelers, despite the airline's limited route system and lack of global alliances. Virgin America spends up to 70% of its marketing budget on social media where small-business owners are active, leaving traditional mass-media advertising to its larger competitors. "An image ad on '60 Minutes' or '30 Rock' is not going to have a big impact on the customer we're targeting," Cush says

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/grossman/2009-09-09-virgin-america_N.htm

You got the wrong forum - this is the Virgin Atlantic forum. You should have posted in the Virgin America forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/virgin-america-elevate-642/). I'm sure a friendly moderator will shortly move your thread to its proper home.

And as if by magic, a friendly moderator appears :)

Mrp Alert is quite correct - you've got the wrong Virgin. I'll move this over onto the Virgin America forum - please continue to follow it there.

Jenbel
Co-moderator, Virgin Flying Club.

Seems to be working as our organization uses VX and B6 for all of our domestic travel now--unless we have a rare trip to a place not served by them. In the past year we have only bought a few hundred dollars worth of tickets on legacy carriers and have no reason to up those numbers given the high fees and relatively poor service offered by other domestic carriers.

Virgin America spends up to 70% of its marketing budget on social media where small-business owners are active, leaving traditional mass-media advertising to its larger competitors. "An image ad on '60 Minutes' or '30 Rock' is not going to have a big impact on the customer we're targeting," Cush says

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/grossman/2009-09-09-virgin-america_N.htm

In other words, they must spend like 20 dollars per month on advertising!

In other words, they must spend like 20 dollars per month on advertising!

Ya, exactly. I was trying to imagine how an airline could spend 70% (:eek:) of its marketing dollars on social media.

Having just spent the weekend in San Francisco, seeing the Virgin America billboards and transit ads at every turn, makes me think Mr. Cush is a little uninformed about his company's ad buys.

Anything to sound hip and current, I guess. Much like the mother ship -- don't let facts get in the way! ;)

I don't know- if promotional events like "Day in the Clouds" and web ads are counting as "social media" marketing, might be quite a bit more than $20.

I don't know- if promotional events like "Day in the Clouds" and web ads are counting as "social media" marketing, might be quite a bit more than $20.

Well, I was using a bit of hyperbole, of course. But you think VX paid anything for "Day in the Cloud"? I have a feeling Google paid for the whole thing, or perhaps it was a deal done in trade.