Qantas is shifting its marketing focus away from print into digital following a 40 per cent cull of its marketing staff as the struggling airline continues to make deep cost cuts.
A Qantas spokeswoman confirms to ProPrint that, like many other businesses, the company will have significantly less print marketing in the future, but says it is “still very much an important part of our marketing strategy”.
“As more of our customers are turning to their mobile devices to access the latest content, digital is becoming more prominent in our marketing mix. It’s an important vehicle to drive sales and awareness and education of our routes and product,” she says.
“We continue to advertise across a number of print publications, in-terminal, on boarding passes and the Qantas inflight magazine.”
While Qantas retains TMA is its print manager, it is not known which printers will be affected as the airline did not provide the names of its print suppliers, except to say it uses a “wide range of different printing suppliers to complete print collateral” and TMA declined to comment.
Qantas executive manager for brand, marketing and corporate affairs Olivia Wirth told Mumbrella that while the airline would continue to explore a mix of marketing strategies, digital would be a focus.
“We probably haven’t invested in digital as much as we should have so we are putting more focus on digital,” she says.
“It’s an important vehicle to drive sales and important to drive awareness and education of our routes and product.”
Qantas recently launched a new interactive digital content system called QView across its Qantas Club and business lounges at major domestic airports that, in addition to watching news and weather on large digital screen screens, passengers can connect to through the lounge wifi on their own devices and access real-time boarding information.
The content will include 25 per cent advertising.
Wirth says Qantas customers are turning to their mobile devices to access news and sport content.
“By integrating this with personalised flight information, including up-to-the-minute boarding times, walking times to their boarding gate and weather at the destination, our customers will be able to find the information they need in one place,” she says.
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