Virgin Blue uses Twitter to launch new fare war

Virgin Blue has launched what CEO Brett Godrey claims is the airline sector’s first social media fare war.

It is the most popular Australian airline on Twitter with 8,000 followers and has an extra 3,000 people following its international offshoot V Australia.

Since May this year, it has used the social networking device as a marketing tool to announce offers of free fares on the Sydney-Melbourne route and to launch flight sales.

Jetstar used Twitter to sell 1,000 seats for 1c in May and in August offered 10,000 free fares on the Sydney-Melbourne route.

Sean Adams, founder of advertising company The Seed, said Twitter’s immediacy gives it headway over other forms of social media used as marketing tools.

“If they’ve got flight availability at short notice it would make sense to use Twitter to announce this. The immediacy is a huge plus.

“But there are also less tangible benefits in that by using Twitter they’re seen to be embracing new media positions which gives the perception, compared to competitors, that they’re more modern and more in touch.”

And although Virgin Blue is often seen as catering to a young market, Twitter is not only useful for reaching consumers in younger age brackets.

“If you look at the statistics, the biggest growth is in non-youth markets,” says Adams.

But he warns that companies using Twitter need to make it part of their long-term marketing plan.

“If you’re just doing it because it’s the latest thing, customers will see through this. There is a very strong danger of running out of steam.

“It’s also important that Twitter offers customers a real benefit. If it’s just boring status updates your customers will switch off.”