Allegiant flips its digital marketing focus

There is a car at the gate in Las Vegas.

Allegiant cut its online advertising budget at the beginning of the COVID-19 PAIN. As travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, the company is keeping its ad spend under control. Allegiant believes in the value of digital marketing. It wants to be the seller of ad space rather than the buyer.

The holy grail of digital marketing is to make sure that consumers engage with the ad rather than ignoring it. This promise has been talked about by airlines and their suppliers for a long time. Success stories are not very common. Allegiant thinks it has found the perfect spot in the market.

Targeted marketing is a big part of our evolution. We have the tools in place that allow us to do that at scale.
That’s right.
Scott DeAngelo is Allegiant’s chief marketing officer.

Most airlines are proud of the customer data they collect. The high percentage of package deals it sells, including hotel and rental car, further leads Scott DeAngelo to believe Allegiant can grab outsized returns from running its own ad serving solution in-house. The results from the proof-of-concept are promising.

Allegiant has implemented an ad serving platform in-house that allows the carrier to package the customer, according to DeAngelo. The first purchase passengers make when planning a trip is the flight. Allegiant has a lot of success with its hotel and car package deals. The company believes it can drive sales for retailers by exposing potential for marketing activities and other purchases.

DeAngelo explained.

These trips are imminent. We are aware of the ages of the travelers. We know what it will be. They will want to wear swimwear and sunscreen if they go to the beach. We know they are going to be making a purchase and the question to a Kroger to Walmart is, would you like to get these purchases or let them go somewhere else?

The company knows that the timing of the pitch is important. DeAngelo doesn’t expect the best performance from display ads on the website.

After a booking, the company sends six marketing emails. Passengers are aware that any email about a trip could cause a schedule change or other problem, so open rates are high. These are a good place to sell. The places where it would be appropriate to say, “Hey, here’s a packing list provided by Kroger” are those. There are brands where you can save a bit of money. Business will go to the stores to buy the full basket.

The first few campaigns were free to prove that the system works and can deliver conversions. He describes the initial results as “phenomenal”, helping the company develop the sales collateral it needs to go out and closeadvertising deals with major partners.

DeAngelo doesn’t think it will cost the retailers anything. He hopes they use the promotional budgets from name brands to develop large in- store displays. The stores never found ways to spend the promotional budget. It would be great if we could get a small amount of those dollars for our program.

Everything the company does will be managed internally. Allegiant has a strong in-house ad sales team. As they talk to retailers, those employees have more ad space to work with.

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