Spirit Airlines
Company: Spirit Airlines
Company Description: Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Spirit Airlines is the largest privately-held airline in the U.S. With a fleet of 30 modern aircraft and 2,300 employees, Spirit currently serves 15 markets, from Los Angeles to New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Nomination Category: Organization Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Marketing Organization
Nomination Title: Airline Team Comes Together for September 11th Anniversary
- Tell the story of what this functional organization has achieved in 2002 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
In early August 2002, the marketing team at Spirit Airlines, led by Tom Anderson, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, faced the challenge of how to appropriately handle the first anniversary of September 11, 2001. Their solution – the “Day of Freedom to Travel” program - became one of Spirit Airlines’ biggest accomplishments to-date and was a true public relations triumph, garnering not only extensive media coverage but increased customer loyalty as well.
The “Day of Freedom to Travel” program was developed to thank Spirit’s customers in a way that would reward their loyalty (helping to keep the airline in the black for 2002) while celebrating America’s freedom to travel and sending the message that we aren’t afraid to fly. The concept was simple: every seat on every flight on September 11, 2002 would be free; the goal was clear: give away all 13,400 seats on a first-come, first-served basis (no strings attached).
The execution, however, took an act of commitment and caring well beyond what is normally expected of (or received by) any corporate marketing department. The marketing team had less than one month to coordinate the system-wide effort necessary to accomplish their goal. Knowing that every department would be affected from accounting to customer service to website technicians, the team spent countless hours - coming in early and staying late, coming in on weekends, even offering to work without pay – to ensure that every system, department and employee was ready to handle the anticipated onslaught of both consumer and media response to the offer.
And respond they did! On August 6, 2002 international travel industry expert, Peter Greenberg, appeared on CNBC news noting that while other airlines were cutting back on this first anniversary of September 11, Spirit would operate its entire schedule with all seats free. A news release announcing the specifics of the offer was sent immediately following the broadcast and the phones began ringing immediately: consumers, hoping to beat the crowd and media, intrigued with the offer.
Tickets were available beginning at 8 a.m. on August 7, 2002 and within eight hours every seat on every plane was taken. More than one million people had jammed Spirit’s website and phone lines to get free seats.
Media response was equally impressive. Each of the top ten daily newspapers picked up the story and USA Today ran four consecutive articles (including an editorial). More than 1,000 broadcast stories aired including coverage on the Today Show, CNN, Nightly Business Report and MSNBC. Internationally, print and broadcast stories ran in more than 18 countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Thailand, China, Singapore, Japan, France and Germany. To- date, more than $10 million in positive 1:1 advertising value has been generated, all direct coverage of the “Day of Freedom to Travel” program.
As the largest privately-held airline and thirteenth largest overall, Spirit Airlines has already come a long way from its beginnings in 1980 as a Detroit-based charter tour operator. But the teamwork and commitment to excellence exhibited by Tom Anderson and his team launched Spirit Airlines to a new level of recognition with both media and consumers that will undoubtedly prove to be a key aspect in the companies continued success.
- List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above.
To include a URL you must begin and end the URL with a square-bracket and include http://
Example: [http://www.yourdomain.com]http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2002/2002-08-07-free-spirit.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?
res=9F07EFDB1E3BF934A3575BC0A9649C8B63 - Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of this nominated functional organization:
With 20 years of experience in the travel and hospitality industry, Tom Anderson joined the executive ranks at Spirit Airlines as senior vice president and chief marketing officer in November 2001. After graduating from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Anderson spent 10 years in the hotel business working for leading hotel chains such as Marriott and Four Seasons and spending two years with the Houston CVB. Prior to joining Spirit, Anderson was Vice President of Latin America, sales and marketing for Continental Airlines where he was responsible for driving the revenue for one of their most profitable divisions.