SYDNEY: Qantas, Australia's national airline, is embracing data to personalise its customer experience at a one-to-one level, a senior marketer at the company has revealed.

Stephanie Tully, Chief Marketing Officer at Qantas, told the recent ADMA event in Sydney that marketers must consider the goals they are trying to achieve, rather than creating data for the sake of it.

"You've got to come back to the change you want to create," she said. "How does data inform and execute that change?" (For more, read Warc’s exclusive report: Qantas uses data to personalise customer experience.)

"It's really important to not just talk about data, but talk about what you're actually trying to change," Tully stated. "Coming back to those basics of what you're actually trying to do as a business and for your customers is key."

Tully believes that traditional segmentation is on the way out, and there’s a real opportunity for brands to use data to truly personalise their customer experience, including empowering frontline staff, and to attract a premium from a value perspective.

That could mean something as apparently inconsequential as knowing a passenger’s preferences for still or sparkling water without having to ask.

"It really becomes about trying to make those direct connections with customers and ultimately our viewers," she said, noting that "Even the most traditional of media channels are likely to move to one-to-one.

"We really need to get to the point where we're talking to someone as an individual and doing one-to-one marketing and working out how to execute one-to-one strategies across channels to create awesome customer experiences."

Data sourced from WARC