Llama Launch Press Release
LLAMA ‘PRO-SULTANCY’ LAUNCHES TO HELP MARKETING LEADS NAVIGATE TRAVEL’S NEW TERRAIN
Llama, a ‘pro-sultancy’ that brings together some of the foremost and experienced UK travel marketers of the last 25 years, launches today to provide CEOs, CMOs, Marketing Directors and other senior marketers with access to unrivalled experience, expertise and insight as the travel industry enters a new era.
Founded by Andrew Shelton and Heath Heise, who between them have held senior positions at British Airways, Virgin Holidays, American Express and Amex Travel, STA, Dnata and the metasearch platform Cheapflights, Llama boasts nearly 150 years of collective marketing experience across customer-focused brand building, creativity, measurement, and data-driven strategic development. Members of the Llama herd include Dean Harvey, Lisa Edwards-Webb, and Phil Bloomfield - award-winning experts in their chosen fields who have worked at over 15 travel brands including Kuoni, Saga, Titan and Dnata Travel Group encompassing Travelbag, Travel Republic and its B2B collection, with their inhouse and agency experience ranging from digital start-ups to established high street names. Further Llamas will be announced in the coming weeks.
Llama aims to work with brands with both established marketing teams in place but whose strategy needs a refocus to achieve its desired objectives, as well as smaller, newly formed or start-up brands which would benefit from CMO-level input but don’t currently have it available in-house.
Shelton comments: “Having been in the position of leading the marketing for several travel brands, I would have found it invaluable to be able to validate my thinking or stress-test my options with an objective expert. In that role, you’re acutely aware that you’re responsible for one of the biggest cost centres in the business, and there are multiple stakeholders invested in how that budget is used, and what the outcomes need to be. A fragmenting media landscape, a skills shortage, and an ever-changing number of external factors over which you have no control, make the job even more challenging. It can be an isolating experience.
“The terrain of the travel industry has changed in recent years and will be constantly reshaped by developments in technology and changing customer behaviour – and marketers find themselves tasked with reading and understanding that new landscape. We call ourselves a ‘pro-sultancy’ because our aim will be to always add value to ensure their brands not only survive but thrive in that landscape. Collectively we’ve faced every kind of travel marketing challenge, and our purpose is to ensure that our knowledge is used proactively and with intent for travel brands, to deliver solutions that make a difference.”
Llama Co-Founder Heath Heise said, “In this challenging and highly competitive environment, travel brands can’t waste time hoping to find the right direction to take. Like our namesakes, we’re agile but reliable, considered yet creative in the advice we give, and will use the combined strength of our herd to guide clients to the richest grazing. Llama will help them to sharpen their marketing, to get where they need to be.
“The Llamas have all operated right in the heart of the travel industry, and guided brands and teams through every challenge to achieve real success. We now see an opportunity to use the unrivalled expertise and insight gained over those years to help travel marketers to navigate the new terrain ahead of them, and to get to where the grazing - in the form of acquiring, retaining, and providing value to their customers - is best.”
Llama will operate as a networked collective, ensuring client investment in the expertise of the Llamas is both maximised and tailored to the challenges they face, and the specific requirements for their resolution.
Find out more about Llama here: www.wearellama.co.uk.
-ENDS-
Further information:
Phil Bloomfield
T: 07763 113243