Assistant Manager - Direct Sales (Digital Sales & Marketing Manager + R&T)
Cathay Pacific Airways
Total years of experience :11 years, 10 Months
• Supervised Digital Marketing & eCommerce and Ticketing / Customer Service
• Developed UAE’s direct sales strategy with digital and frontline initiatives alongside marketing communications projects, assisted Bahrain’s digital marketing requirements
- Improved the Direct Sales channel’s revenue share by 3% (2Q, 2016) and by 7% (2017)
- Established external partnerships (banks, private organizations, tourism boards, online travel agencies)
• Enhanced airline brand awareness through a mix of BTL and ATL marketing strategies
- Directed content creation, copywriting, and social media projects
- Grew the customer database: enlistment in the rewards programme and e-newsletter
- Conceptualized digital advertising campaigns and collaborated with an external agency (programmatic display ads, social media ads, email marketing, search ads / SEM)
• Coached the digital & frontline teams and the offsite Global Contact Centre, establishing strong technical foundations and optimized performance, created the training flow for newly recruited staff
• Executed the digital business strategy of UAE and ensured online visibility through content creation, social media engagement, tactical offers, and other digital marketing initiatives
- Data analysis, conversion tracking, and reporting using Google Analytics, QlikView, Coremetrics Web Analytics (now IBM Digital Analytics), BrioQuery, and Facebook Insights
- Increased e-commerce sales and click-through rates generated from the eNewsletter and from Facebook by effective scheduling and by publishing relevant content
• Initiated the implementation of search engine optimization (SEO) keywords on our B2C website, managed e-commerce website content with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)
• Revived Middle East’s regional Facebook page and UAE’s B2B website
• Introduced the use of online forms for customer acquisition and database marketing
• Provided transactional support to SME accounts on the online platform; supported offline marketing
• Appointed as Asst. Manager - Direct Sales (on secondment for 4 months)
- Evaluated the B2C online channel to increase revenue: implemented SEO, created relevant content on different digital channels, negotiated bank partnerships
- Managed Reservations & Ticketing operations, loyalty, and customer feedback handling
- Supervised the transition of local telesales to the offsite Global Contact Centre for UAE
• Developed strategies to improve travel agency and corporate revenue production
- Surpassed targets by acquiring 6 new corporate accounts (2015), increased frontend revenue by 22% (2014), grew the overall revenue of 70% of key accounts (2013)
• Doubled as the Sales Coordinator in the absence of a dedicated staff - reorganized data, generated reports, liaised with the global team for fare loading and troubleshooting
• Coordinated local tech adoption for Salesforce CRM and Travelport Airline Insight by consolidating data for migration and conducting training for colleagues (2014)
• Appointed as the substitute and support staff for Digital Marketing & e-Commerce
- Introduced the use of email marketing, reducing distribution cost (2013)
- Created newsletters on Unica and IBM Silverpop, analyzed data from Coremetrics
• Account Management and Business Development: formulated business strategies and improved revenue performance by analyzing market trends, acquiring corporate leads, and evaluating insights from aviation data solutions (MIDT / BrioQuery / BSPLink)
• Conducted airfare briefings & product presentations, assisted in marketing communications and campaigns to educate travel agencies and resolve complaints
• Aided sales executives in account management: Analyzed data, identified clients to target and leads to pursue, resulting in meetings driven by business insights
• Pricing Analysis, Coordination, and Documentation: analyzed airline competitor fares, negotiated tour-based airfares, assisted in fare loading preparation
• Administrative functions: B2B website management with Vignette Content Manager; report generation with BrioQuery, Travelport Marketing Information Data Tapes (MIDT), and BSPlink; organization of sales activities & events
• Facilitated booking arrangements and provided reliable customer service and technical support to passengers and travel agents; promptly and strategically executed flight protections
• Collaborated with airport services, revenue management, hotels, and tour operators to optimize revenue, reduce customer mishandling, and handle flight disruptions
• Awarded as a Top Recruiter for our loyalty programme and travel & lifestyle rewards programme for generating leads from 100+ customers (Aug 2010)
• Duties on rotation: pre-flight handling / operational revenue management, group booking administration, GDS queue handling (QIK-RES by Sabre, Altea by Amadeus)
• Other functions: finance coordination for R&T, cashiering
Honors: Cum Laude