How New Alaska Airlines’ Head of Marketing Eric Edge Plans to Put Customers First

A flight attendant may point out emergency exits, pour you coffee and gently prod you back to your seat when the fasten seatbelt light is on, but their job is to get you to your final destination. Eric Edge began his career as a flight attendant for United Airlines in 1998. A switch to internal marketing for the airline shortly thereafter launched a career that made him Facebook’s first head of marketing in Europe and a marketing executive at Pinterest, Uber-owned Postmates and online fundraising platform Omaze. In October, Edge was named head of marketing at Alaska Airlines. After nearly two decades of working in tech marketing in the Bay Area—where startup culture often limits planning to the next three, six or 12 months of funding—Edge said he’s welcomed the chance to work on long-term goals again in Seattle. To think less about the trip and more about the destination. Alaska Airlines and Tillamook Creamery Tempt Tourism’s Return With a Wine and Cheese Spread “Thinking about not just strategy for this month, but strategy for next year and strategy for five years beyond that is something that I really missed,” Edge said. “We want to have the best December possible, but at the same time, I'm thinking about how we also map it out so that next December and the December after are even better from a marketing standpoint." Minor turbulence Edge has been at his new job less than two months, but has already identified the three “orbs” he and his colleagues are particularly excited about heading into 2023: The Alaska Cares concept and messages around passenger comfort.The airline’s growth and its recent purchase of upgraded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.The overhaul of its West Coast airport lobbies and streamlined ticketing. The first, introduced during the pandemic and launched broadly with a “Care Coalition” spot featuring Queer Eye star Tan France, puts Alaska’s flight attendants, service agents and other frontline employees at the front of the airline’s marketing efforts. Alaska is bringing all of those employees—or roughly 13,000 of the airline’s 23,000-person workforce—back to it headquarters in Seattle for “care retreats” through April 2023. The events provide self care for Alaska employees who've weathered multiple years of the pandemic, but also encourage them to bring care "to every part of the guest experience." Though Alaska didn’t have as tough a summer as most other airlines, airline data firm Cirium notes that 16.6% of its flights between Memorial Day and Labor Day were delayed and 1.7% were canceled. It was enough to prompt a preemptive apology from CEO Ben Minucci in May, and it made Edge want to show people what he saw each time he took an Alaska flight from his home in the Bay Area to his job at Omaze in Los Angeles. “Every time I got off the plane, I thought ‘This was different,’” he said. “The people were fundamentally different: They were nice, they cared, they actually were human. What I didn't know is if that trip translated through to every work group and everyone that I met along the way through this process… what was truly amazing is that it did.” Getting Queer Eye's Tan France to wear this ugly sweater may have been Edge's first marketing coup. Some of Edge’s first marketing efforts for Alaska brought back Tan France for National Ugly Sweater Month, but surrounded him with Alaska workers doubling as models and pitch persons. However, he has also been focused on increasing “care” through technology, especially as the airline continues $2.3 billion in upgrades at terminals in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. “Our goal is to get you through the lobby in five minutes or less,” Edge said. “That means you have to be digitally focused.” Mekanism is their co-pilot That’s going to require getting more people onto Alaska’s app and getting them to do what, to a tech-trained mind like Edge’s, is obvious: Buy tickets, check in, pay for bags, change flights and order the in-flight cheese tray through the app. Edge has Alaska’s entire marketing funnel and in-house studio helping him in that endeavor, but he also has the airline’s agency partner Mekanism, which saw it through the pandemic and served it for nearly half a decade. Edge got up to speed with Mekanism when he first came on and has been in discussions with them as recently as last week. In his view, it’s a vital relationship that’s “going to continue.” “They're almost an extension of our internal team,” he said. “They understand the brand DNA so well… they're making work because they fundamentally believe and have passion for our brand. I've been super impressed with them and everything that they're doing.” While Alaska and Mekanism are still teaming up on large-scale media offerings like the “Care Coalition” spot, Edge sees more room for segmentation going forward. Whether its emailed reminders about in-flight food offerings or onboard digital ads and entertainment, Edge said he wants Alaska to reach customers “where [they] are on the journey.” “What it means for marketing is not only do we need to really bring you on to the core DNA of care, but we also need to show you the tactical of how we make this even easier for you,” he said. “We also want people to know that there is innovation that is happening now, and that it is coming to make this entire journey even easier for you.”