Could you tell us a little bit about your background?
My career started back in 2012, when I completed an early insight marketing development programme with Procter & Gamble. I didn’t attend university, but after getting a taste for the industry, I knew I wanted to follow a career in marketing.
After finishing college, I secured a sales role and worked in the industry for two and a half years, gaining some really valuable experience. From there, I went on to work for Merlin Entertainments, where I had the amazing opportunity of working on launching a mobile app for the company alongside supporting their digital marketing strategy.
I joined IAG Cargo earlier this year, in the role of Loyalty Marketing Executive, with responsibility for managing our award-winning loyalty programme FORWARD.REWARDS. Anytime a customer flies their cargo with us, they earn points to redeem on great rewards.
And now you’ve just launched FORWARD.PLATINUM as an additional programme. Who is the scheme targeted at and what can they expect from it?
FORWARD.PLATINUM is the latest addition to our tiered loyalty programme and is designed for our larger customers. Participation in this tier is exclusive and invitation-only. It provides members with the flight and hotel rewards associated with FORWARD.REWARDS, plus we will be establishing a few extra perks to further recognise the value of our partnerships.
What has been your greatest achievement in the role so far?
I only joined IAG Cargo in March. I had three and a half days in the office before lockdown and I’ve been working at home ever since. Under these current, quite exceptional, circumstances, I’ve adapted, learnt and helped to deliver the new tier in a very a short time frame.
I’ve been able to achieve so much during this period. I’ve developed a collaborative marketing strategy, working with teams across our business (all through video conferencing) for the launch of FORWARD.PLATINUM. This has included creating a brand identity for the programme and developing two websites. I also designed, built and delivered the email campaigns launching the new tier. Once I started to see these come together, it really made the project come alive.
What are your keys to success when it comes to managing a launch?
Relationship building has been crucial; being new to the business, it’s important for me to introduce myself so my colleagues know who I am. Doing so also helps me develop a greater understanding of our business – I have been able to learn from my experienced peers to ensure a successful delivery of the launch.
Visual plans are also very important to me and I took it back to basics by focussing on understanding the consumer perspective and what the brand stands for. This involved working with account managers across our business to take a deeper look at customer feedback from the programme, helping to identify what has worked well in the past and how to build on those successes to ensure our customers get the most out of the programme.
What’s one thing that has surprised you about the air cargo industry?
All of the acronyms! Who knew there could be so many in aviation?
Find out more about FORWARD.PLATINUM, the new tier of our award-winning loyalty programme, FORWARD.REWARDS.