Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays have appointed Proximity London to handle a combined CRM strategy brief as part of a long-term plan to boost their marketing technology capabilities in-house.
While the agency will handle strategy for comms, data, tech, CRM and creative, the appointment signals a departure from previous relationships as both Virgin brands seek to gain greater control over campaign implementation.
Proximity – which first started working with Virgin Holidays last year on a project basis – beat off MBA and Karmarama to the airline’s brief, in what the client described as “an incredibly close pitch”. The process was run through Creativebrief.
The agency will now be tasked with putting the brands’ shared customers at the heart of their communication strategies for flights, holidays and the Flying Club loyalty programme.
Virgin Atlantic was previously handled by Naked Communications, while Virgin Holidays used Lida.
Virgin Atlantic senior manager of CRM and analytics Michelle Robinson said: “The age of the customer is officially here and for a customer obsessed organisation such as ourselves, this appointment is critical for the airline’s future success.
“Whilst we adopt new martech and develop our in-house capabilities, Proximity are the perfect partner to support our customer engagement ambitions. The team at Proximity went above and beyond throughout the pitch process and I fell head over heels for their passion for our brand and CRM.”
Proximity London chief executive Mike Dodds added: “After working with Virgin Holidays for the last year and doing some great work for their predeparture/sale comms it’s amazing to be able to build on this with Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club. The team can’t wait to get stuck in.”
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