When Kirsten Galliott‘s team at Medium Rare won Best Use Of Monetised Content at the International Content Marketing Awards 2024 for their premium Qantas content ecosystem, it was further proof of their unparalleled success.
As head of content, Travel & Business (also working across CommBank and the Australian Institute of Company Directors), Galliott has worked on the Medium Rare Qantas account for nearly ten years, turning an inflight magazine and blog into a strategic network of content channels and platforms, including an app.
“We have 14.3 million brand connections every year,” Galliott told Mediaweek. “So we have the print magazine, Travel Insider website, social channels, events, and a very robust EDM program.”
Qantas magazine is available on all Qantas domestic, regional and international flights and distributed through Qantas Business, Club and First lounges.
But how has Galliott arrived at this point and how did she create such an award-winning strategy that is clearly reaping rewards?
“I’ve always worked in consumer media,” she said. “I started my career at Who Weekly when it was a black and white magazine and an amazing mix of celebrity, human interest, crime and very different to anything else out there.
“After that, I pretty much stayed in magazines and edited B before I went to the Herald, where I stayed for nearly ten years. I edited Sunday Life and The Sydney Magazine, and then I went to InStyle and edited that for a couple of years.
Kirsten Galliott
But Galliott could see the audience decline in magazines and so she looked around for her next move.
“Qantas has more than 28 million passengers every month, and obviously we can’t appeal to all of them, so what we really try to do is make sure we’re talking to very well-travelled Australians.”
As a result, she moved to Medium Rare and used her consumer media approach in the world of content marketing for Qantas, becoming the editor-in-chief of the magazine.
“Everything we do with our content is audience-led and the magazine and website should sit as products in their own right,” she said. “And then we work really closely with Qantas to try and overlay their marketing priorities.
‘Last year we had our biggest readership ever’
“Qantas has more than 28 million passengers every month, and obviously we can’t appeal to all of them, so what we really try to do is make sure we’re talking to that affluent end of the plane.
“Last year, we had our biggest readership ever with, on average, 537,000 readers a month, which was a 19.4 per cent up year-on-year.”
“What’s been really pleasing is we’ve seen really big growth in that Platinum and Gold Frequent Flyer group,” said Galliott. “We know that they’re well-travelled, really interested in business and love to know about design.
“We make sure we’re creating content that speaks to their needs – mostly for travel, but we have a lot of data about our audience from different platforms – so we can cater very well for them.”
Qantas Frequent Flyer lounge
This data insight means Galliott and her team, including Genevra Leek editor-in-chief of Qantas Magazine & Travel Insider, can target their content in a very specific manner across all platforms.
“We use digital insights to enhance print as well,” said Galliott. “For example, we’ve really seen the role of Travel Insider change in the past year. It’s not about inspiration for destinations like it was before Covid. Now, we see people coming to us to look at and book specific accommodation.
“People consuming accommodation content has increased 105% year on year, as people want to book those incredible places to stay.”
“As a result we’ve developed a franchise in print called Epic Stays, which is all about places to stay all over the world, so we are very deliberately targeting that travel trend.”
The special Epic Stays issue of Qantas magazine, June 2024
Now, the path to purchase has never been easier, by adding flight, hotel and holiday widgets to content so that users can engage directly with a story and click through to to book, in a seamless example of performance marketing driving action.
“Obviously we learn from Qantas and make sure we’re supporting their route priorities, and that we work closely with their partners,” added Galliott.
“We know what their loyalty program is doing as well, so there is a real mix of data. We’re creating content and we’re very pointed in how we overlay marketing priorities with that content so that everything ladders back to insights.
“Of course, with magazines there is always a little bit of magic, there has to be. You have to give people what they didn’t know they wanted, but from a Travel Insider perspective we’re just really honing in on data to make sure we’re delivering what people want, at the right time.
Qantas magazine cover
As way of an example Galliott cited a recent initiative with two tourism bodies that have driven success.
“This is where we work really hand in glove with Qantas,” she said. “They have Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with particular tourism bodies, whether they’re international, like Destination Canada or local, like Tourism Tasmania.
“We do really evocative, beautiful content supporting what they’re doing, and that content really drives bookings. So one of the things that we offer tourism partners, that we don’t offer anyone else are solus EDMS.
“We’ve seen in the past year those solus EDMS give an increase of 10 per cent of visitors clicking through to Travel Insider, and then there is a 5 per cent uplift in users clicking through to book flights on qantas.com so that’s very intentional content to drive a result.”
‘We do not create once, publish everywhere’
“We work very closely with Medium Rare’s branded content studio, Rare Creative run by Paulette Parisi, and she’s been really instrumental in driving those tourism partnerships which are gold.”
When asked how Galliott and Medium Rare measure success with their Qantas account, Galliott revealed it’s multi-tiered.
“Obviously there’s advertising revenue. Then on the website, we’re looking at engagement – page views, time on site, unique visits.
“We look at our events and sponsorship. Also, our click-through rate on EDMS, plus our engagement rate on social.
“These are all the same metrics we would use in consumer publishing and that’s what we report back to Qantas.
“I guess the difference is that we also now report back on the direct bookings from our to qantas.com to book flights, hotels or holidays, and that’s where we’ve really seen an increase.”
One of Galliott’s core beliefs is that the content should be platform-specific.
“We do not create once, publish everywhere,” she said.
“Some magazine content can go on the website but we have digital-only pieces, and we’ve put a lot of time into our SEO strategy so we’re really hitting all of our keywords alongside what’s trending, and, of course, social.
“We’ve seen our SEO content jump by something like 10 per cent year-on-year and in January, and if I think back to when I started, we inherited a blog that had no advertising.
“In January we got more than 4.7 million page views, our highest ever recorded, and over 330,000 visits per month. For a branded content site, these are just incredible numbers.”
‘We offer trusted advertisers an opportunity to connect with that Platinum One audience’
The team has also expanded into the events space, a move Galliott is keen to accelerate in 2025.
She explains that these events provide trusted, regular advertisers with a unique opportunity to engage directly with Platinum One’s affluent audience through exclusive, high-value experiences. The goal is to reward the publication’s most valued frequent flyers with something special while also offering advertisers a direct line to this highly sought-after demographic.
“We’ll also create what we call signature experiences, which start with an event at a beautiful restaurant for 100 people,” she revealed. “I host a panel on stage about something topical in the business world, and we create content out of that event for the magazine, for digital video, and we partner with advertisers on that.”
‘Quality is everything’
As for challenges in 2025, Galliott is keen to see how AI will affect and enhance her business, particularly with SEO but she’s excited about another year working closely with Qantas and assisting them in achieving goals.
“Quality is everything,” she said “You know, we would never do anything to tarnish the Qantas name. They trust us and that trust has been developed over a decade. We’re always very mindful that we work for the national carrier, and we have to make sure that everything we’re doing is A1.”
It’s clearly a strategy that is paying dividends for Qantas, Medium Rare and Galliott as they win international awards like the CMAs and she’s determined to keep moving forward.
“I keep telling Qantas we’re best in class, and so it’s great to prove it.”