Virgin America Develops Web 2.0 Online Presence with Omniture

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Monday, October 30, 2006; 05:45 AM

Omniture, Inc., a leading provider of online business optimization software, announced that Virgin America, a highly anticipated U.S. airline launching in 2007, has selected Omniture to measure and optimize their online channel. Operating under the mantra to "build an airline people will love," Virgin America will leverage Omniture Web 2.0 solutions to differentiate its online initiatives -- not only monitoring visitor behavior and promotion effectiveness, but also measuring visitor activity associated with the company's Rich Internet Application (RIA) Web site components to offer a highly engaging online customer experience. Omniture Web 2.0 solutions help companies leverage emerging technologies centered around user interface standards such as AJAX, Flash and Flex, streaming media formats such as RSS and podcasts, and Web services integration protocols including SOAP, WSDL and XML.

"Virginamerica.com represents the largest distribution channel from a revenue generation perspective, so being able to accurately measure and optimize the user experience is absolutely critical," said Jason Kelly, director of distribution sales and revenue management at Virgin America. "By integrating Omniture data with revenue management information, I can quickly understand how people respond to different fares and other interactive components on our Web site -- enabling us to stay competitive on a constant basis."

According to Kelly, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it" -- so implementing the right Web analytics solution was key to accomplishing the airline's online business objectives. Virgin America selected Omniture for the company's vast experience with top-tier brands in the travel industry, and for its ability to combine flexible Web analytics technology with subject matter expertise to assist Virgin America in setting up, capturing and measuring the right key performance indicators (KPIs).

Recently, Virgin America launched their "nameourplanes.com" initiative -- a campaign that allows the public to participate in naming the new fleet of Virgin America aircraft. Kelly's team worked closely with Omniture to set up the infrastructure to measure traffic in a very Flash-heavy site. In addition, Virgin America will be using Omniture SiteCatalyst to evaluate customer retention, track promotions' effectiveness and refine the overall user experience -- including analyzing look-to-book ratios and revenue generation channels.

"Omniture is a leader in helping the travel industry leverage new technologies, such as rich Internet applications, to enable more effective marketing in the era of Web 2.0," said Gail Ennis, senior vice president of marketing at Omniture. "With Omniture, Virgin America has access to the highest levels of expertise and best practices needed to succeed in their very competitive market."

Virgin America, a "new generation" low-fare airline, intends to launch scheduled domestic airline service early in 2007 upon government approval. U.S.-owned and operated, Virgin America is based at San Francisco International Airport and has placed firm orders for 34 Airbus A320 aircraft. 

Omniture, Inc., is a leading provider of online business optimization software, enabling customers to manage and enhance online, offline and multi-channel business initiatives. Omniture's software, which it hosts and delivers to its customers on-demand, enables customers to capture, store and analyze information generated by their Web sites and other sources and gain critical business insights into the performance and efficiency of marketing and sales initiatives and other business processes. In addition, Omniture offers a range of professional services that complement its online services, including implementation, best practices, consulting, customer support and user training provided through Omniture University. Omniture's customers include eBay, AOL, Wal-Mart, Gannett, Microsoft, Oracle, General Motors and Hewlett-Packard. www.omniture.com.