Virgin Holidays has appointed Detica, the independent IT services company, to advise on how best to automate its campaign management, and maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of targeted direct marketing activity.
Working in partnership with Virgin Holidays’ Sales and Marketing Department, Detica’s consultants will work initially on improving data quality before turning to customer segmentation and profiling. This will then culminate in a pilot scheme using a marketing automation tool and the measurement of the expected increase in campaign responses, resulting from the application of best practice customer relationship management (CRM).

“Virgin Holidays is intent on increasing the profitability of direct marketing and getting the most from its marketing budget,” says Paul Walker, Head of Customer Insight at Detica. “Virgin is totally committed to improved CRM and the right message to the right customers, through the right channels, at the right time. By accelerating its campaign management capability, it will be able to tailor offers to targeted customer segments and therefore increase repeat bookings.”

Detica was initially approached by Virgin Holidays to carry out a Customer Insight Audit, reviewing how the travel group managed its customer relationships and to recommend a series of ‘quick win’ projects. Detica’s specialist Insight Group then advised on what steps could be taken to ensure the travel company delivered the right message, at the right time, to appropriate prospects and customers.

These recommendations resulted in Virgin Holidays asking Detica to carry out a campaign management ‘proof of concept’, using a leading vendor package solution. 

“Successful campaign management is critical to our overall strategy and Detica’s recommendations took into account all our business objectives, not just technical ones,” said Kathryn Beadle, Sales and Marketing Director at Virgin Holidays. “We need to accurately profile our customers and continue to develop our close relationship with them: Detica’s experience in this area made it the natural choice.”
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