In an email seen by AdNews, outgoing Qantas marketing boss Lewis Pullen suggests his advice had been heeded as Qantas restructured its comms channels, leading to his role becoming "dis-established".
In the note, Pullen, who finishes up at the airline next month, admits he had "always been an advocate for external and internal comms integration". Now that Qantas had moved to do just that, said Pullen, "my role has been dis-established".
Pullen, who made no public comment when Qantas announced the changes last week, said the role had been "challenging" but had been "an amazing journey" and thanked senior management for their support.
See the note in full below:
Hi xxxxx
In an effort to stem the tide of emails and phone calls (which have have been an amazing support), I thought I should provide an update on my current status. After three and a half years in the Executive Marketing role at Qantas, I will be moving on to a new challenge at the end of June. I am currently working with the management team on the transition of the International and Domestic Airline marketing portfolio to the Qantas Group Corporate Team.
I have always been an advocate for external and internal comms integration given that one brand needs a single, consistent voice. This restructure brings the paid, earned and owned communications together into a single division, able to be managed by one group executive. My role has been dis-established.
Over the last three years we have built an exceptional marketing team and I'm confident that they will continue to produce great work. The creativity and effectiveness of our recent campaigns has been recognised by a number of industry awards here and overseas, including last years Canne Lion Gold. In addition, we now have a very strong creative, brand design, sponsorship, experiential, media and digital agency partner model to support this new team, following the global agency review last year.
I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved. The global advertising launch of the Emirates partnership and the new Qantas uniform design have been recent highlights. The new uniform is a key component of the brand strategy that I have led over the last two and a half years. Being recognised by the Australian Olympic Committee for the best brand sponsorship leverage of the London Olympic Games was another recent highlight.
It has been a challenging role but an amazing journey. I feel privileged to have had the ongoing support of Alan Joyce and the Business Unit CE0's, Simon Hickey, Lyell Strambi and Lesley Grant and wish the new Comms team well for the next phase of brand and customer engagement.
Lewis
Qantas announced on Thursday it had sheken up its internal structure with a new marketing head, new marketing positions and a customer research unit. With Lewis Pullen moving out, Olivia Wirth is the incoming marketing head.
Wirth's remit and title expands from head of corporate and government affairs to group executive brand, marketing and corporate affairs. She will have group-wide brand responsibility.
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