April 9th, 2010

Jetstar to Invest 40% of Marketing Budget into Social Media

Jetstar are making big changes to their marketing spend. They are looking at investing 40% of their marketing budget into social media in the future. Head of the marketing and PR, Davis May, said the move followed trials during 2009. The switch will be implemented during next financial year.

This is pretty big move for any big brand and Jetstar is the first big brand in Australia who has dared make such a dramatic change in their marketing spend. Jetstar is apparently not afraid to take the risk of an increasing chance of publishing bad reviews together with the new social media advertising.

The company’s position is that “The significant shift in marketing spend shows Jetstar’s increased focus on social media and acknowledges the significance of social and digital media as a marketing tool.”

Davis May said “We’ve conducted some very successful marketing and PR campaigns via social media in the past 18 months, and the response has been phenomenal. The increase in costs of traditional media compared with the audience reach is significantly higher than with social media, where you can potentially reach hundreds of thousands of consumers with the one simple online message – and digital TV isn’t filling the gap.” He also added that “It’s clear our customers are comfortable in the online space and as Jetstar is essentially an online retailer, it makes sense for us to embrace social media outlets. Online media channels gives us immediate access to our consumers. Social media offers more value for money and is a smarter way to reach our customers.”

Jetstar already uses social media to highlight specials, to respond to customers and to announce news. A Twitter campaign was very successful last years. Jetstar offered a thousand two cents seats that were sold in a few hours. Last month they introduced their customer charter on YouTube.

Image by JamesDPhotography

Social Media