Extra sales. Lower media costs. Proof in the modelling.
How Virgin Atlantic turned full-price flights into £3.4m of value — £2.7m of it incremental sales, independently validated by Marketing Mix Modelling.
Client Name
Virgin Atlantic
Company Size
Enterprise
Industry / Sector
Aviation / Travel
Virgin Atlantic had to prove marketing’s commercial worth in a business where fare yield and profitability are watched closely. The task: get more from a constrained media budget and show measurable, incremental return beyond the core plan — without ever compromising brand equity or pricing.
Find a cost-effective way to reduce the effective cost of media while generating extra sales that Marketing Mix Modelling could independently evidence. It also had to add financial flexibility and support cashflow resilience through disruption.
What We Delivered
Astus designed a barter partnership that cut Virgin Atlantic’s net media cost while unlocking extra commercial value. Through a full-price flight mechanism, Virgin Atlantic turned its own inventory into marketing value — without discounting the product. We brought Connected TV into the mix early, and drove new customers through an exclusive Friends & Family offer, every sale tracked via a dedicated URL for clean attribution.
Channels / Products Used
Barter media trading (multi-channel) · Connected TV (proactively introduced) · Full-price flight funding · Marketing Mix Modelling attribution · Friends & Family acquisition offer
Campaign Timeframe
A long-term partnership of 10+ years — including right through the Covid period — with Virgin Atlantic Holidays added in 2021 after business consolidation.
- £15.6m of net media traded across TV, Press, OOH, Digital & Cinema
- £3.4m of total value generated — including £2.7m of incremental sales
- £700k of additional media secured at standard agency rates and parameters
- Incremental sales independently validated through Marketing Mix Modelling
- 5/5 value for money · 5/5 recommendation · client since 2017
- A clear, evidence-based proof point for marketing’s contribution to the business
- Cashflow support and commercial flexibility when it mattered most, through Covid-19
- Effortless day-to-day management, built on a trusted long-term relationship
- New customers acquired through an exclusive Friends & Family offer, fully tracked
“It’s a no-brainer. You get extra sales and you’re saving money on media. Strong deals — no-one else has offered anything like it. If we need anything, we just pick up the phone.”
Senior Marketing Leader, Virgin Atlantic
Why It Worked
The Astus Angle
Key Insight or Approach
Astus solved the commercial and the organisational challenge at once. A lower effective cost of media, plus attributable incremental sales validated by MMM — a data-backed case for marketing that finance could believe. Full-price product funding, measurable outcomes and a genuinely responsive relationship created value well beyond the media plan. If you need to prove marketing pays its way, this is the proof.
Years of trading
Clients
In billings
Retention Rate
