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Virgin Atlantic get 3 month payback on investment with Skinkers

First airline to use direct-to-desktop push communication technology

17 July 2006

With incremental revenues exceeding £200k in 6 months, Virgin Atlantic today announced the results of using Skinkers technology. The Skinker is used to "push out" offers directly to users desktops within minutes of availability at a significantly lower cost than email. Users opt in by downloading the lightweight Skinker application onto their desktop from the Virgin Atlantic website. Once downloaded, the user is kept informed of the offers on a periodic basis.

The Skinker went live in November 2005 and by January 2006 had already generated enough revenue to cover the costs, representing a 100% return on investment. Over 4,000 customers downloaded the Skinker application in the first 2 months with new customers downloading the Skinker at an average of over 1,000 a month. "We were delighted with the take up of offers through the Skinker and the revenue we've created. In the first 6 months of using the Skinker we have generated revenues of over £200,000." stated Kathryn Viney, Direct Marketing & Promotions Manager, Virgin Atlantic.

In an increasingly competitive market, Virgin Atlantic need to communicate fare offers rapidly and effectively, increasing take up rates, revenues and profitability. Emails can be costly, take up to 24 hours to send out and with SPAM filters sometimes not get through.

They required a new way of communicating that would pay back the investment in the shortest time possible. "We needed an innovative, fast and cost effective way to get promotions to our customers, Skinkers gave us this new way and the results speak for themselves." noted Kathyrn.

Skinkers direct-to-desktop event notification and content delivery solutions are a new way of communicating and distributing information directly to a user's desktop, bypassing email and, in the case of Virgin Atlantic, putting the fare offer directly in front of the user as quickly as possible.

Matteo Berlucchi, CEO of Skinkers, commented, "Unlike email our push technology is an effective way of communicating relevant offers to users in a timely way with visibility and impact.

"Skinkers deliver the technology through "Software as a Service". This allows the Virgin Atlantic marketing department to have control over the content and scheduling of the alerts. The IT support and management for both Virgin Atlantic and its end users are handled by Skinkers on remote servers, reducing IT costs.

"We have enjoyed working with the Skinkers team and are very happy with the results we've achieved. We are looking at other potential opportunities within Virgin Atlantic for using Skinkers and we look forward to working with them in the future." said Kathryn.

About Virgin Atlantic
Back in the early 1980s, Richard Branson was best known for Virgin Records - the legendary record label that signed major names like The Rolling Stones and Janet Jackson. In 1984, much to the horror of his directors, Richard announced to the world that a high quality, value for money airline would begin operating. Three months, some licences, staff and an aircraft packed with celebrities later, Virgin Atlantic Airways was born. By the end of the decade they had flown over 1 million passengers and started shaking up services onboard by being the first airline to offer individual TVs to its business class passengers.

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