Episode 2: How Flight Centre reaches new travel marketing heights with YouTube

Mark Ritson: Marketing is increasingly a dual challenge. There's the long of it, the top of funnel, the brand piece. And then there's the short of it, the bottom of funnel, the product piece and the two together present brands, I think with one of the most significant challenges in business.

Welcome to YouTube Works: The Long And The Short Of It with me, Mark Ritson. And I'm lucky enough to be joined by Clinton Hearne. Hello, Clinton.

Clinton Hearne: Hey, Mark. How are you?

Ritson: Good mate. The CMO from Flight Centre to talk about how he and Flight Centre have navigated those challenges. Now, it's a great brand, Flight Centre. It's an old brand, 40 years old. And I think you'll have to explain, first of all, what Flight Centre was pre-COVID and what it's become after, because it's certainly gone through a transition.

Hearne: Yeah, it's been going through quite the transition. It's been exciting, a little bit nerve wracking as well. So pre-COVID, I think we were a thousand stores, across five different countries. And we're really known for that. Well, bricks and mortar. So retail fronts and really known for discount airfares. To be truthful, we were starting to see some economic challenges with that. And at the same time we were seeing some stuff happen with that brand awareness, seeing slight declines in that and in consideration. So it's been an interesting time.

We were sort of traditional media sort of channels. We had a single screen strategy, playing really hard on TV, and we know we needed to change it up. Then COVID hit and that was a game changer for us. We went from a thousand-ish stores to about 400, so we were taking away that, that sort of brand imprint that we had everywhere.

Ritson: And so take me through as a CMO, what were the top of your to do list? What did it look like?

Hearne: I think the biggest ones that we were focused on was how do we grow brand awareness. So we're really looking for a three point growth year on year. Second one is brand consideration. So we wanted to grow that 2% and third one scale. We were a much leaner, fast and furious team. How do I make sure it can not only scale here in Australia but for our other five countries?

Ritson: So we want to talk about the long, the short. Let's start with the long. Give us an example of how Flight Centre would utilise YouTube to do that sort of top of funnel, longer term stuff, which, knowing the company very well, wasn't their natural approach in the old days, was it? And then also how you're using YouTube for the shorter, more targeted performance stuff.

Hearne: So the work we started doing is how do we have an always-on, consistent brand campaign? We dedicated a specific amount of budget that would get us 40% reach on the brand. We're a mass market. Everyone wants to travel. So I had to I have 40% reach and a two plus frequency.

Ritson: Now, a couple of things here, right before we even get on to the short, right that's a big jump for Flight Centre to say, look, there isn't an immediate ROI coming out of this. We're not necessarily selling an immediate product. What was the transition to get to that point, to see more value and shift more money that way?

Hearne: Yeah, I think that the stakeholder engagement is paramount. I think in marketing that needs to be your second job, if not your first - how do you bring them along for the ride? And I'm talking our directors, our founder is still our global CEO. So having some smart simple campaigns that we could sort of push out a little bit more and bring our people to life because it is our point of difference internally is how we sort of got him and others along for the ride.

Ritson: And how have you found YouTube delivers for the short of it?

Hearne: Yeah, YouTube's been awesome because it gives us the agility that we need to make, you know, movements, get insights, data on the fly, and then be able to change something gives us flexibility, also gives us that high impact. So we can push out to either a targeted audience or a little bit wider.

Ritson: And that immediate feedback, plus the in-house team means literally day to day. You can make changes and you're learning what works and what doesn't work yet.

Hearne: Yeah, found out something overnight, implement it that day. Check the next day.

Ritson: I think what I'm learning from, you know, is there's also a more global approach of Flight Centre now, right?

Hearne: Yeah, correct. We had five countries, all decentralised. And sometimes we did talk, sometimes we didn’t, which meant that, hey, everyone could be testing the same thing and not sharing the results.

Ritson: Right.

Hearne: Whereas now we can test five different things at the same time in each market and then use those learnings to fulfil. So, yes it's worked or [no] it hasn't, because failures are still great learnings. Hey, let's put that in the four other regions and validate quickly and move.

Ritson: And so if you boil it down what's YouTube doing for Flight Centre? If you, if you look at it as one of your key media channels, why is it there? What does it do for you that you get so much value from?

Hearne: Yeah, so I think on the campaign front, we sort of put YouTube as an always-on brand campaign channels. So consistent, across mass market, across the board. So that's one key way. The second thing that it's allowed us to do is really build an ecosystem within YouTube. We're creating a lot of content ourselves and some targeted. So we have the "Kids Talk" series that we house on YouTube. We work with some creators like Andy Cooks, the chef, and we have those series that are there so we're bringing people in, they’re getting used to Flight Centre, and they know and allows us to target back out at the same time.

Ritson: So there's YouTube then as an advertising medium. And then there's kind of the second function. YouTube is a repository of material. You've seen an uptake on the YouTube channel as well, presumably.

Hearne: A massive amount. So we went from five different YouTube accounts. So every country had their own to one, and we had 4000 subscribers. Now, today I had a look this morning, but over 900,000 and that's within 12 months. So it shows you the power that it can do. And that allows us to bring in a whole new audience. (Source: YouTube Analytics, 2024.)

Ritson: Let's go back to some of your results then. So it all sounds very impressive, but as you look back on this sort of post-COVID period and an increased use and investment in YouTube, what could we point to to demonstrate that YouTube is doing the business for you? Is there anything that stands out that we should highlight?

Hearne: At Flight Centre, we've seen a three point increase in our brand awareness, a 30% increase in our relative brand search terms, and a huge 1.5% in our purchase intent. And that's been commercially, like we're going off. It's quite a good year. (Sources: Flight Centre - YouGov, 2023., YouTube Search Lift Report, Big Red Sale Campaign, Q3 2023.)

Ritson: Which is ultimately what it's all about,

Hearne: Yes.

Ritson: at the end of the day. And you do get that sense from Flight Centre and from you and your team that this is one step in a longer journey. We would expect this to keep going, by the looks of it.

Hearne: Yeah, we're in a really good state. I mean, it's We've really been set up you know, with that, if I'm talking mass market, you know, that big brand stuff and that really short term, that retail, I think we're winning in both fronts when we're looking at, you know, core deliverables, trust, value, which are really important brand associations.

Ritson: For a travel agent they're essential, right.

Hearne: Huge, especially a people based one where a lot of competitors are online only. They're all up. And realistically, we're just kind of focused on three key areas: Keep experimenting.

Ritson: Yep.

Hearne: Two; how do we start to include or discover more about AI? So working with YouTube and Google closely on that to go, what is coming out and what can we utilise? And third; keep it simple. If we can do that and we don't over bake the cake, we know we'll continue to grow.

Ritson: You say that, but I think there's a complexity and a skill in making these kinds of businesses simple, and I think you've done it. So congratulations. And, thanks for sharing your story with us, Clinton. It's been amazing.

Hearne: Awesome. Thanks for having me, Mark.

YouTube Search Lift Report, Big Red Sale Campaign, Q3 2023.