Business leaders are fountains of wisdom, but it’s rare that people outside their organisations get to benefit from their insight. Until today. Adobe is proud to launch a new video series called ‘Beyond the Experience’, which invites leaders from the world’s most inspiring brands to break down the trends shaping their industry and reveal how their organisations are adapting to change at a time of fierce competition and rapid technological change.

And who better to help us kick things off than Virgin Atlantic CXO, Siobhan Fitzpatrick. A true visionary in the world of CX and marketing, Siobhan has built years of experience driving digital transformation for media and retail companies. Today, she is helping Virgin Atlantic fulfil its goal of becoming the world’s most loved travel company.

https://video.tv.adobe.com/v/3476647?hidetitle=true

1.         Align customer experience across functions

The first thing that came through when speaking with Siobhan was her passion for the Virgin Atlantic brand. She still remembers the feeling of excitement upon joining the company. “They’re such a lean-in brand, and so customer-focused,” she said.

Driven by her passion, Siobhan is helping Virgin Atlantic to reframe its approach to customer experiences across its organisation. Before setting up her CXO organisation 18-months ago, Virgin Atlantic previously ran customer experience initiatives across multiple functions, which made alignment difficult.

The first order of business for Siobhan was therefore to align every guest touchpoint, from the Virgin Atlantic loyalty program, to its cabin and in-flight experiences, to its food and beverages, to its digital strategies. These now sit within one cross-functional team at Virgin Atlantic, which means employees can put themselves in guests’ shoes and think about their experience in a seamless way.

2.        Differentiate Through Personalisation ​

As the custodians of Virgin Atlantic’s brand, Siobhan’s team also need a clear understanding of what their company stands for to stay true to their vision and brand while fostering initiatives that differentiate and drive growth. Inspired by the Jim Collins’ book, Built to Last, the team’s approach involves continuously pushing for progress around a foundation that reflects Virgin Atlantic’s core values.

Virgin Atlantic’s CX transformation is shaped by nine key drivers, with personalisation sitting at the top of the list. That’s why they implemented Adobe Experience Platform in 2024 to underpin their personalisation efforts, an investment that has already delivered double-digit returns.

Of course, this change didn’t happen overnight. For context on Virgin Atlantic’s story, Siobhan took us back to the COVID-19 pandemic, which tested the aviation industry’s resilience in a major way. Airlines were the first-in and last-out of the pandemic, she explained, so for Virgin Atlantic to bounce back and achieve double digit growth in 2024 was a tremendous achievement.

Adobe’s support has been instrumental to Virgin Atlantic’s transformation, even helping with the successful merger of Virgin Holidays within the Virgin Atlantic brand. The Adobe platform continues to drive Virgin Atlantic’s personalisation strategy to this day, helping the business align its ambition, processes, and CX metrics to transform its ways of working at pace.

3.       Balance Real-Time and In-Time Customer Engagement ​

For the CXO team at Virgin Atlantic the importance of balancing real-time vs in-time customer experiences is a critical one. It’s like orchestrating a symphony - each note must hit at the right moment, but the entire composition needs to flow with purpose. For Siobhan, success hinges on selecting the right platforms and thoughtfully structuring data, but the true unlock for transformation lies in how to leverage AI to enable meaningful personalisation.

4.       Embrace AI for Scale and Innovation ​

Virgin Atlantic’s current priority is to drive personalisation at scale. For Siobhan, that starts with humanising the moments that matter to its customers, so much so that “human” is one of the key tenets of Virgin Atlantic’s CX business.

To that end, Virgin Atlantic uses Adobe’s AI capabilities to understand its customers’ needs in real-time and respond with the next-best action every time. The business has also made AI a pillar of its 2030 business strategy and is exploring how Adobe’s generative AI solutions can improve its content, governance, and workflows.

From a CX perspective, Siobhan’s team has set three AI opportunities. First up is enhancing Virgin Atlantic’s content supply chain, from asset creation through to customer engagement. Next, they are taking steps to improve the company’s visibility and drive acquisition on generative AI search platforms, such as Google AI Overviews and Perplexity. Finally, the business plans to build AI agents that will act as concierges for Virgin Atlantic guests through every stage of their journey. Excitingly, these enhancements are just around the corner, with Siobhan teasing some big announcements by the end of the year.

At Adobe, we’ve seen AI go from the playground to implementation, especially for customers looking to streamline their content supply chains. To see bold companies like Virgin Atlantic leverage our generative AI solutions for brand and marketing use cases is yet another sign that these technologies are the future of our industry.

It is a genuine privilege supporting brands like Virgin Atlantic on their transformation journeys. And to develop technologies that are now helping them to build more immersive, conversational, and human experiences.

On a personal note, it was a career highlight to launch our Beyond the Experience video series with Siobhan and learn more about Virgin Atlantic’s partnership with Adobe, and I cannot wait to see where we go together next.

Stay tuned for our next episode of Beyond the Experience to discover how visionary thinking and digital transformation are reshaping the way we build, lead, and connect.

For more on Virgin Atlantic’s transformation, check out their session from Adobe Summit this year, or this short video.

Want to deliver true personalisation for your customers? Click here to see how Adobe can help bring your vision to life.

Want inspiration from another transformative brand. Learn how the Premier League partnered with Adobe to rethink personalisation for football fans around the world.

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