BEVERLY HILLS, CA: JetBlue, the air carrier, has benefitted from adding greater "structure" to its corporate social responsibility efforts – a move enabling the firm to focus on specific areas and better promote its activities.

Icema Gibbs, JetBlue's director/corporate social responsibility, discussed this subject while speaking at the 4A's Transformation 2014 conference in Beverly Hills, California.

A few years ago, she informed the audience, the organisation "decided to put some structure" around the various initiatives at the heart of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) agenda.

"There was a moment of clarity where I said, 'We have to streamline this. We have to focus on just doing a few things well, because we're doing a lot of things okay'," she said.

One motivation behind this decision was that a broad brush approach to CSR often dilutes the impression a brand can made.

"You have to be able to stand for something that is concrete and specific," said Gibbs. (For more, including details of JetBlue's specific partnerships, read Warc's exclusive report: JetBlue learns the bright side of mixing social media and CSR.)

Adopting a focused approach has provided enormous knock-on benefits when it comes to communicating a clear message – which is increasingly important in the social media age.

"We were very busy giving ... but our customers didn't know what we were doing," Gibbs said.

Similarly, pursuing a coordinated programme has allowed JetBlue to serve the shared interests of its key stakeholders.

"When you build programmes that are based on what your crew members or your employees and the customers want, then you can transition leadership and those programmes stand strong," said Gibbs.

Data sourced from Warc