Beyond the Flight: CMO Alicia Tillman on Reinventing Delta’s Brand Experience

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[00:00:37] As a marketer, when we understand that we have the ability to best position our brands,

[00:00:44] to be able to tell stories that are relevant and resonate, and use what we know about our

[00:00:48] consumers, be it how they're buying or where they're buying or how they're learning

[00:00:52] to shape technologies that will in fact be ones that they want to attach themselves to.

[00:00:59] To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move at an ever increasing pace.

[00:01:03] I'm Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep

[00:01:09] into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now,

[00:01:12] and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of Culture.

[00:01:22] Hey everyone, this is Matt Britton. Today we are thrilled to be here at the shiny,

[00:01:26] amazing headquarters of Delta Airlines here in Atlanta, Georgia with Delta Chief Marketing

[00:01:31] Officer Alicia Tillman. Alicia was recently named by Forbes as one of the most influential CMOs

[00:01:36] in the world. She's a well renowned expert in the field of marketing. I have regard

[00:01:40] and I'm just so excited to have this conversation today. It's great to see you.

[00:01:43] I am as well, Matt. Nice to see you.

[00:01:45] Absolutely. So, you know, I'm sure way back in the day when you started your career,

[00:01:49] you probably didn't imagine that one day you'd be here in Atlanta running the marketing for

[00:01:53] Delta Airlines. Walk us back to the steps that you took to get you here in a very high level.

[00:01:58] Of course. I dreamed I'd be here but sometimes like, well, I dreamed that I would be in

[00:02:03] a really strong influential consumer brand.

[00:02:07] Why?

[00:02:08] Always from the start of my career, I've appreciated storytelling. So how do you take

[00:02:14] product or service or an idea within a company and how do you tell it to people? How do you

[00:02:21] share it in a way where it's going to compel them to want to attach themselves to you?

[00:02:27] And so I think there's so much creativity in storytelling and even though I spent a large

[00:02:32] part of my career in B2B, which I'm so thankful that I've had that opportunity.

[00:02:37] Yeah, we'll get into that.

[00:02:38] Yeah, I mean taking it now just primarily into consumer, even though we service a fair

[00:02:45] number of business travelers certainly as well here at Delta, it's a dream come true.

[00:02:50] It's a beautiful company, beautiful culture and just super thankful to be here.

[00:02:55] Absolutely. And you cut your teeth so to speak by spending a while at MX looks like

[00:02:59] eight, nine years there. Tell us about that experience and what some of your key takeaways

[00:03:03] were from.

[00:03:04] Well, I always like to say that I feel like I learned how to be a marketer at one of the

[00:03:08] best marketing brands on earth with American Express. If we think about membership and

[00:03:15] access and just this whole-

[00:03:17] Being data driven.

[00:03:18] Data driven, premium focused. And how do we really build premium experiences that attract

[00:03:27] brand loyalty and AMEX is a real leader at that. And so my time there was spent largely

[00:03:35] on the travel services side of the business, but also a lot from a corporate perspective,

[00:03:41] membership, strategy, innovation. My time at AMEX was when digital started as a

[00:03:48] department in organizations.

[00:03:51] Before we became a layer to everything, right?

[00:03:52] It is the foundational layer for how we operate as a world.

[00:03:57] So things like social media and website communities that bring people together, these

[00:04:03] things were all just emerging when I was at American Express.

[00:04:06] If it even exists. I mean, when you started AMEX, there was no iPhone. There was barely

[00:04:10] YouTube, Facebook-

[00:04:11] They're making me feel very old.

[00:04:12] Well, I came out around the same time as you. And I think what's interesting with

[00:04:17] people like you and I who came out in the early 2000s in our career is the amount of

[00:04:21] transformation that we've witnessed and had a front row seat for. It was a completely

[00:04:25] different world. And I bet people coming out today are going to say the same thing

[00:04:29] in 20 years with a fast-paced movement of something like AI.

[00:04:32] So it's just keeping pace. How have you been able to keep pace with these changes

[00:04:36] as an individual? Because you wouldn't have had the success you've had if

[00:04:40] you kind of were static the way that you thought.

[00:04:43] Well, one of the things that I am always been a very curious person. So I studied

[00:04:49] a lot. I love understanding the emerging consumer and how are they learning differently?

[00:04:56] How do they think about purchase decisions? How do they communicate? How do they

[00:05:00] collaborate? And that changed a lot, as you were saying in the early 2000s.

[00:05:06] We were trying to think about how to fit into our businesses, things like technology or

[00:05:13] digital or social media, etc. Now if we think about some of the generations that are

[00:05:19] going to soon be in the workforce, think about Gen Alpha. Those are our 12 to 18 year olds

[00:05:24] or even Gen Z, which are kind of 19 to 25 year olds. These are generations that

[00:05:31] there's lots of things to know about them. Number one is, I mean, they're almost kind

[00:05:35] of born with a cell phone attached to them. How they communicate it's entirely over

[00:05:41] digital means how they learn is by watching videos on YouTube or TikTok. And certainly

[00:05:51] how they buy is become emotional and the emotional part of that, the other side that

[00:05:56] I study quite significantly is these are generations that have been raised within

[00:06:02] a crisis. So if we think about terrorism and a global pandemic and all the financial crisis,

[00:06:09] all the geopolitical challenges that we've had almost in every nation across the world,

[00:06:14] it's a very anxious culture. It's a very uncertain culture. We see it in certain

[00:06:18] behaviors like building equity and saving money. This is not a generation that believes

[00:06:24] necessarily in homeownership. They believe in our YOLO, right? Yeah, like I want it when

[00:06:29] I want it. And when I move on, I want to be able to do that in a very fast pace.

[00:06:35] Mental health as well, right? Mental health and how that really weighs on people's emotions in

[00:06:42] terms of how they buy. I mean, nearly 50% of all buying decisions today are emotionally driven

[00:06:48] decisions. And a lot of it is because of things like what people are carrying from

[00:06:53] a mental health perspective. Absolutely. They want to attach themselves not only to people

[00:06:58] in their lives, but in terms of brands to those that they can trust are going to bring

[00:07:03] them a sense of security and stability. And so all of those things are what's so compelling

[00:07:11] and inspiring to me because as a marketer, when we understand that we have the ability

[00:07:18] to best position our brands to be able to tell stories that are relevant and resonate

[00:07:23] and use what we know about our consumers, be it how they're buying or where they're buying

[00:07:27] or how they're learning to shape technologies that will in fact be ones that they want to

[00:07:32] attach themselves to. Absolutely. I mean, you raise a great point because if you think about

[00:07:35] Gen Xers that grew up in the 80s and 90s, it was largely a period of global prosperity. Yes,

[00:07:40] there was the Cold War, but it never got to the point with some of the geopolitical conflict

[00:07:45] we're seeing today. And it was a peaceful time and there was no social media. So it's not

[00:07:51] like it was perfect, but it certainly wasn't as volatile as the time that millennials and

[00:07:56] Gen Z are growing up in. And understanding that being consumer first, as you put it,

[00:07:59] allows you to have much more empathy, I would assume in terms of storytelling,

[00:08:03] connecting with that audience. And it also, it didn't happen as often as it happens today.

[00:08:07] Oh man, yeah, totally. It was so much more, I mean, I think back to when we were like little,

[00:08:12] little kids and when an act of terrorism or something like it happened, it was shocking

[00:08:21] to people. It was unexpected. And today, sadly, it's when it's going to happen,

[00:08:29] not if it's going to happen. And so that's a fundamental shift too. And we sadly not only

[00:08:36] see it here in the US, we see it in so many parts of the world. And we see it instantly.

[00:08:42] In graphic detail that they didn't in the past, there's no filter for it.

[00:08:45] There's no filter. And you're exactly right. On one hand, technology has been a great thing

[00:08:51] because it's helped us be more efficient. But on the other, it just gives us a view into the world

[00:08:56] that is no question. We're human. So we carry a lot of emotions with us. And when you see

[00:09:04] devastation happening in any part of the world, we know that it's friends, it's neighbors.

[00:09:09] It's just simply people that we care about that should have a life the way that we do.

[00:09:15] And it's one of the beauties of the generation that's coming in.

[00:09:19] It's not that any generation that's preceded them has thought any differently.

[00:09:23] It's just that they've grown up with more transparency to it. It's a very purpose-filled

[00:09:28] generation. They want to live in a world that is more equal. They're investing that way.

[00:09:34] When they think about brands, they want to invest in brands that they know,

[00:09:39] feel and believe have a responsibility to give back to their communities. That's a big driver

[00:09:43] of brand attachment. And that's a great thing about the generations that are coming in.

[00:09:49] And it's just another thing we need to think about as marketers in terms of how we shape our

[00:09:54] brands. That's a whole other layer. You said you just about your unique selling proposition,

[00:09:58] your price, and now there's so many other factors when crafting that brand story.

[00:10:02] And that's what I loved when you asked me about my journey. And I started with storytelling,

[00:10:08] the greatest stories that as an avid reader with my nose in a book on the beach along

[00:10:14] the Jersey shore growing up, I always found myself most immersed in stories that had so

[00:10:20] many different dimensions associated with them. Because it really does show the kind of complexity

[00:10:26] that the world is. And when you can pull that together and kind of really draw a conclusion

[00:10:32] or help you navigate your path forward, it's a really great thing. And I've always found myself

[00:10:38] loving complexity. And when you can extract out of that real meaning, real purpose and ability

[00:10:45] to put yourself on a path. And I think that that's what every company needs. Every company

[00:10:49] is complicated. Every time I'm anywhere, I'll say, how are you doing? Oh, it's so busy.

[00:10:53] We've got so much going on. There's not a company on the planet that doesn't have that

[00:10:57] same emotional feeling. And I think for marketers, we are at the forefront of being able to sort

[00:11:04] of distill that complexity into something that is really meaningful, really relevant,

[00:11:10] really purpose filled so that a customer can find themselves attaching themselves to it.

[00:11:15] Absolutely. And it's interesting because after your stint at Amex, you had a great run at SAP,

[00:11:21] which as we were briefly talking about, is a different animal in itself. It's an enterprise

[00:11:26] software company. You're marking to companies, not consumers though, I would argue that

[00:11:31] companies are made up of individuals. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the distinction,

[00:11:36] how it was similar to consumer marketing, maybe how it was different and what some of

[00:11:40] your learnings were from your time at SAP. I think my experience at Amex on the consumer

[00:11:45] side is what helped me excel at SAP for the exact reason that you just said.

[00:11:51] Yes, in B2B, you're selling to a decision maker of technology within a company. Right.

[00:11:58] But because of how much evolution has happened in our world, people want to have a voice.

[00:12:04] They want to have a say. Those decision makers need to take on board so much more what the

[00:12:11] end user wants, what their feedback is. And so I led marketing at SAP and I've always said,

[00:12:20] you need to think like a consumer, but you need to make sure at the same time,

[00:12:24] you're appealing to what the decision maker of that technology wants. And on one hand,

[00:12:30] they're looking for technology that's going to help their companies run more efficiently

[00:12:35] and more effectively. At the end of the day, that's ultimately what you're looking at

[00:12:40] corporate technology for. But at the same time, that technology has to deliver an

[00:12:45] exceptional service for the users of it because that's what the end user cares so much

[00:12:50] about. So it is and needs to be such a beautiful mix of both customer service and how well it

[00:12:58] helps the individual do their jobs better, but it also has to speak to the buyer in terms of

[00:13:04] the more B2B types of stories, which is about cost savings and efficiencies and all of those

[00:13:12] types of things. And when you can marry the two, you have a great combination where it

[00:13:16] becomes a win-win not only for the decision maker, but you're also helping her or him

[00:13:23] message also to their consumers, which helps them with their jobs because they're trying

[00:13:28] to make sure that they're delivering technology that their consumers are going to appreciate.

[00:13:33] So if their supplier can support them in the quest, then it becomes a win-win for everybody.

[00:13:38] Absolutely. And when you make a decision to leave an American Express where you're

[00:13:42] obviously on the fast track and you're getting promoted and you're getting new roles to go to a

[00:13:47] place like SAP or any jump that an executive might make when they're in the upswing of their

[00:13:52] career, what goes behind that decision? Who do you take counsel from and what are some of

[00:13:57] your learnings from making those transitions? Well, it's such a great question because

[00:14:02] I believed I was going to be at American Express for the rest of my life. I married

[00:14:06] myself to the brand and every day I worked to sort of elevate our brand and evolve it

[00:14:14] into the places that we wanted to go to and the people that we wanted to associate our brand

[00:14:20] with. And so I had this amazing opportunity to move into technology, to move into another

[00:14:26] industry. I'd been at American Express at this point for 11 years and I thought, okay,

[00:14:32] financial services, consumer, B2B at AMEX. And it was also in the early part of my career journey.

[00:14:40] I had been through so many different roles that I was so thankful of. I had so many firsts

[00:14:45] really helping to build the first digital strategy for the company.

[00:14:50] And then I had some personal life milestones as well. I got married, I had kids. And so

[00:14:54] then I had this opportunity come my way to lead a business line for marketing for one of SAP's

[00:15:03] business units. And I thought timing will never feel right, but what did feel right was

[00:15:09] what I had felt like I had accomplished at AMEX to now allow me to expand, to learn about

[00:15:16] an industry that I had yet had experience in. And so even though there's always going

[00:15:21] to be a fair bit of sadness of what you're leaving behind, I felt more excited about

[00:15:26] what I could take with me from American Express to enable me to now think about success in a

[00:15:32] new industry that I'd be able to learn. Right. To tap into that sort of curiosity

[00:15:37] that I've always possessed and be able to sort of build something now extraordinary for SAP.

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[00:16:25] So moving on to present day, we're here at Delta Headquarters as I mentioned, and

[00:16:28] you've been here a little over six months. What's it like to take on a role as CMO of

[00:16:34] an iconic brand like Delta? And what does the first six months look like on the job?

[00:16:39] Well, I will have to say, I mean, I not only took on this new role, but we also moved to

[00:16:45] Atlanta. So there was- Right, personal too.

[00:16:47] Personal and professional. And so it would not be right for me to say that I didn't have

[00:16:52] a certain level of fear. Everything's changing in your life. And you think, okay, well,

[00:16:59] if I'm going to take a leap, I hope that I get it right. I hope the company is

[00:17:05] everything that I believe it to be and more. And I will say Tim Mape and Ed Bastion

[00:17:12] and Joanne Smith, leaders here at Delta, they had said to me, hey, if you like what you see now

[00:17:19] from the outside looking in, just wait till you get on the inside. And they could not be more

[00:17:26] right. I am continuously humbled, number one, that I'm in this role because this is an

[00:17:33] extraordinary culture. I think it's absolutely a best-in-class culture for a few fundamental

[00:17:37] reasons. I mean, yesterday we just celebrated our annual profit sharing day, which happens

[00:17:43] every year on Valentine's Day where we award a portion of our profitability to every single

[00:17:49] one of the 100,000 people- That's amazing.

[00:17:52] That we have across Delta. So not only does every single employee at every level get to

[00:17:57] share in the profits, they get a piece of that that they can take home with them.

[00:18:03] But the investments that we make in learning and recognition, these are programs that I've seen

[00:18:09] most companies cut out years ago. Any period of turmoil or change and costs need to be extracted-

[00:18:16] Yeah, COVID would have been a great excuse for the company to pull the profit sharing

[00:18:20] program. And this is the beauty of Ed Bastion

[00:18:22] and his vision and his leadership. He is an absolute believer that the more you can create

[00:18:28] a really healthy culture that we're investing in people, the more that they are going to bring

[00:18:34] this authentic level of experience to our customers. And whenever I come in contact with

[00:18:41] someone who's a customer of Delta, they always light up and want to tell me about a great

[00:18:48] service experience they had or how much they value and believe in our product. And they too

[00:18:54] speak to the culture because the quality of the product, the quality of the service,

[00:18:59] they know is at the heart of how much we as a company are investing in all of those things.

[00:19:04] And I'm blown away. I will say the very first day I started, I was definitely

[00:19:10] that new kid feeling really anxious and will I be accepted and will I be embraced? And I had

[00:19:17] my whole team here waiting to welcome me and recognize me. And it was just such an amazing

[00:19:24] feeling. And we've just continued as a team to think about what are we delivering and can we

[00:19:30] be more efficient with that? How do we continue to tell the great story of what we know to be

[00:19:35] the culture of Delta? And then where are there sort of new and innovative ways that we can

[00:19:40] think about how Delta shows up in the lives of our customers? And those are some really

[00:19:45] fun and innovative things for us to think about. Yeah, I mean, obviously you inherited

[00:19:50] a great brand but obviously you're going to be putting your own stamp on it and taking the

[00:19:53] learnings that you had at some of the past experience we've talked about and try to

[00:19:57] elevate the brand and take it to new heights, which I know you will. What are some of those

[00:20:00] things that you hope to accomplish here in 2024 and beyond to evolve the brand and keep it

[00:20:06] pushing forward as a leader in the marketplace? One of the things that I think we have an

[00:20:10] opportunity for is how do we continue to show up in places that matter for the Delta customer?

[00:20:19] So our first and foremost obligation that we have, which is the core of our business,

[00:20:26] is we've got to get our customers from point A to point B. We need to do that safely.

[00:20:30] They need to have a clean and healthy experience associated with that. And we

[00:20:34] always got to make sure their bags are right. It's like the hierarchy of needs, right?

[00:20:37] It's the hierarchy of needs and how do we continue to perfect that? And there's always

[00:20:43] work to do. We are continuously investing in our operation every single day and we will never

[00:20:49] stop because that is, at the end of the day, the first and foremost reason why our customers

[00:20:56] need what they're depending on us for. In addition to that, when we start to think about

[00:21:01] brand evolution, there is so much about this notion of building a lifestyle brand

[00:21:08] and dissecting what that means and how that translates into other opportunities that we can

[00:21:13] offer. We spend a lot of time focusing on the benefits that we bring to our SkyMiles members,

[00:21:20] our loyalists, if you will. We're always innovating on what are the very core

[00:21:26] airline loyalty benefits that we can bring. There's another component that we've begun to

[00:21:33] introduce over the past year. We introduced free Wi-Fi as a benefit for our members.

[00:21:38] Just use it this morning. Thank you.

[00:21:40] And free Wi-Fi also helps to unlock these new content experiences that we're introducing

[00:21:47] on personal devices, as well as in flight with organizations such as Paramount Plus and

[00:21:52] Walmart Plus and Atlas Obscura and Rezzy. These are all very unique experiences that we are now

[00:21:59] offering as a benefit to our SkyMiles members as well. The third and more emerging component of

[00:22:05] that is creating this experiential layer that we can bring to our members. That is one

[00:22:13] that I am paying particular attention to architecting for us, which is essentially

[00:22:20] what are these experiences that we can bring to our members? One such opportunity that we

[00:22:27] introduced in the second half of last year, we introduced what we called our Window Seat Shop.

[00:22:33] This was a pop-up retail experience that we introduced at JFK right before the holiday

[00:22:39] season kicked off. We curated products from local artisans in priority destinations that Delta

[00:22:46] flies all over the world. And we sold them in this pop-up store, in addition to these products.

[00:22:52] And it was Think Pottery from Brazil, Think Liquor Making Kit from Madrid, very unique

[00:23:00] variety of price points. We also created these experiential packages with some of our

[00:23:05] sponsorship partners. So Madison Square Garden, New York Knicks, we did this pregame shoot

[00:23:10] around, we did courtside seats, we paired it with dinner reservation at Carbone, which is still

[00:23:16] very impossible to get your hands on in Manhattan. And so that sold all the way up to a price point

[00:23:21] of $2,500. Experiential packages we couldn't keep on the shelves, they sold out in the

[00:23:25] first 24 hours. And even the products that we curated from all over the world, they sold out

[00:23:30] in the first 72 hours. And so there's something there. That's an experiential offering that we

[00:23:36] offer to members, and they're attaching themselves to it. My goal is to think about

[00:23:42] what else can we offer that enables us to help in the lifestyle that our members are seeking?

[00:23:50] We helped them during a really busy time of the year to think about the creativity that

[00:23:56] everybody often wants to have when it comes to holiday shopping, but they have no time for.

[00:24:00] Right.

[00:24:01] And so we took the stress out of that. We enabled it with a high level of creativity,

[00:24:06] curating products from every price point from around the world. And we gave them that benefit.

[00:24:11] All you needed to do is be a Sky Miles member and every dollar you spent in the store,

[00:24:16] you got an MQD in exchange for it that counted towards future benefits that you'd have as a Sky

[00:24:22] Miles member as well. And so I want to scale opportunities like that because not only do all

[00:24:29] of our members seek experiential, but in particular when you look at Gen Z and Gen Alpha,

[00:24:35] all they want is experiential. Some of the airline specific benefits in particular to them,

[00:24:41] they just expect. But what's really appealing to them is give me access to things that I

[00:24:48] otherwise would not have access to if I was not a member of Delta Airlines' network. And

[00:24:55] so that's the opportunity that we have that we're really focused on innovating around.

[00:24:59] Yeah, I mean, in some ways, if you think about the product in its most traditional sense,

[00:25:03] it starts when you get to the airport and it leaves when you leave the airport.

[00:25:07] But I've read a lot about how a big vision that you have is actually extend what it means

[00:25:13] to be immersed in the Delta brand with what do you go after you arrive?

[00:25:17] That's exactly right.

[00:25:18] And how does Delta help play a role there?

[00:25:19] It's the journey.

[00:25:20] Yeah.

[00:25:21] How do we show up in multiple places of the journey? And this is not uncommon when you

[00:25:28] think of some of the world's most successful brands. Disney is a great example.

[00:25:32] AmEx being one of them too.

[00:25:34] AmEx is a great example. Starbucks is a great example. These are all businesses that

[00:25:39] at their core, there is a product that they have brought to market. Credit card,

[00:25:44] parks and Disney's case, coffee from a Starbucks perspective. But if you think about where the

[00:25:51] value and the growth from all of these brands came from, it came from all of these product or

[00:25:58] experiential adjacencies that they created around the product. Disney, known as a parks

[00:26:04] brand, the majority of Disney's revenue today is coming from their media, entertainment,

[00:26:09] and experiences businesses. It's not coming from the parks.

[00:26:13] And so think about Starbucks. This is a business that's a highly commoditized category.

[00:26:18] There's thousands of coffee brands on the planet, but yet Starbucks has had this ability to amass

[00:26:24] this incredible valuation. It's an over a hundred billion dollar brand because of

[00:26:30] the experience that they built around the core product to differentiate itself.

[00:26:34] People want to be part of the Starbucks brand because of what they enabled that

[00:26:40] surrounded the product. This is no different from what we have the potential to do from a

[00:26:45] Delta perspective. So us building these experiences across various stages of their travel journey,

[00:26:53] in the destinations that they find themselves in, in their home markets,

[00:26:58] there is just endless possibility that our members are saying they want.

[00:27:03] The generations that will soon be Delta members I know definitely seek. And so

[00:27:08] that's what's just so inspiring here for us.

[00:27:11] You're not limited by the airplane or the terminal. In some ways I would imagine this

[00:27:16] also forces you and your team to redefine what it means to truly understand your customer,

[00:27:21] because it's not like you just need to understand now the hubs they want to fly out of and what

[00:27:25] they're willing to pay or what they expect the in-seat experience to be. But you need

[00:27:29] to understand the full breadth of their life and their lifestyle and their interests and

[00:27:33] their passion points and all those things. That's exactly right. Because even though

[00:27:37] there is so much choice in the world, what I'm also finding from a consumer perspective is

[00:27:44] they want to marry themselves to brands for life. They want to have a very category specific

[00:27:50] brand. But if that brand has an ability to take them into other categories that feel

[00:27:57] relevant to that brand, but also meaningful to them, those are the brands that consumers of

[00:28:03] today and consumers of tomorrow that are coming in. That's the way they think about brand

[00:28:09] associations. Absolutely. And I know you also, we talk about marking the consumers, but

[00:28:13] you do have business class seats and you have Delta One, which is awesome.

[00:28:16] When you look at business travel post COVID, what trends are you seeing coming out of the

[00:28:21] business traveler that you think are relevant to how you're planning moving forward?

[00:28:25] Business travel in terms of it coming back to where it was, let's say in 2019, a lot of

[00:28:32] it has been driven by the kind of back to work policies that companies have put in place.

[00:28:39] Sure. Because as we know,

[00:28:40] coming out of the pandemic, a lot of companies went to this remote working structure. Then

[00:28:46] several evolved into a hybrid structure. And now there are certain industries that are calling

[00:28:53] their employees certainly back. And we started to see that in the fourth quarter of last year,

[00:28:58] making employees come back to the office, technology, financial services, five days a week.

[00:29:03] All of that impacts business travel because if companies are still in the remote and hybrid

[00:29:08] space, we don't see many people getting on planes. We saw an incredible growth rate in

[00:29:14] our business travelers in particular. And we saw a direct tie based on the construct of how

[00:29:20] industries were formulating what their back to work policy will be, but we're seeing

[00:29:26] tremendous growth. We see most every industry technology in particular is a big driver because

[00:29:32] of the role that they play in the world. The overall growth of the category.

[00:29:35] And how many employees you see in some of our largest technology companies,

[00:29:40] all of which we have the great fortune of having them as customers of ours.

[00:29:45] But they are all back as the economy returns, as we start to see interest rates and

[00:29:51] inflation begin to stabilize a bit than where it's been over the past 12 to 18 months.

[00:29:57] We're seeing businesses fully get back to work. And so we're seeing a lot of tremendous

[00:30:01] growth from a business travel perspective as a result. Yeah, you definitely see that

[00:30:04] your lounges in the airport are packed. They are packed.

[00:30:07] Business travelers. Yeah.

[00:30:08] It's great to see. And if they're going to go back on their road after

[00:30:12] two to three years of having a far different set up in their lives, they want an environment

[00:30:20] that feels like home. And so when we think of the construct of our lounges, it's everything from

[00:30:26] the service experience we deliver you by way of our people to the quality of the food,

[00:30:32] to the comfort of the furniture, to the aesthetics of how it's all set up.

[00:30:38] That has to feel like home. And so when we look back on the past 18 months in particular

[00:30:43] with all the expansions and new clubs that we have introduced across our network,

[00:30:50] and we have a new suite of clubs that is going to be introduced here over the coming months that

[00:30:55] we announced last week, which is now our premium level lounges, which will first introduce

[00:31:01] in JFK at the start of the spring. It is customer first, and it is all about,

[00:31:07] let's bring them an experience that feels like home. It feels like the comforts because

[00:31:12] companies are going to send them out on the road, their employees out on the road. They want to make

[00:31:16] sure that it is as comfortable and as efficient as they can be. And that's the style and the

[00:31:21] experience that we're trying to focus on giving our customers when they walk into a delta club

[00:31:27] on any level that we offer. Very cool. Definitely checked it out at JFK for sure.

[00:31:31] So shifting gears as we wrap up here, Alicia, I mean, you've had an amazing career. My

[00:31:35] observation about you is you have great energy and passion, but you also take pride in being

[00:31:40] a domain expert in what you do. And I think that's the powerful combination

[00:31:44] to be a successful executive in today's world. When you look back at your career,

[00:31:48] what were some of the things that you think you did right, whether it be personal development,

[00:31:52] leadership development that put you in a position you are today that maybe we can impart on some

[00:31:56] of our younger listeners here at the podcast? Well, it starts with having a really clear

[00:32:02] vision. Oftentimes leaders or organizations, they struggle because there's just not clarity

[00:32:08] and purpose. And by purpose, by vision, I mean, where do you want to go? And how are you going

[00:32:18] to get there? And with whatever role that I've taken, I have worked really hard and really fast

[00:32:26] to make that really clear in whatever team that I've led. Now, when it comes to

[00:32:34] the definition of how we're going to get there, I absolutely focus at a top level in helping to

[00:32:40] articulate what that journey is going to look like. But I embrace my teams to really then work

[00:32:46] together through whatever our given functions are to play a really meaningful role in helping to

[00:32:53] be very detailed then in terms of understanding what that journey needs to look like. And so

[00:32:59] having a clear vision, everyone needs to have. And I would say that even if you're new in a role

[00:33:05] or you're even new and starting out your career and you may not yet know where you want to go,

[00:33:11] what I would say is start with understanding what you're really good at and what you

[00:33:17] want to do. And I would also say in helping you to really formulate where you want to go,

[00:33:24] ask others that are close to you what they see as your strengths. And I will say early in my career

[00:33:31] and I still to this day, I always ask for a lot of feedback on where I'm doing well and

[00:33:37] where you think I can do better. And oftentimes people generally tend to lean on your strengths

[00:33:42] and what you're really good at. And I will say even when I was in high school, I had asked

[00:33:48] one of my friend's parents, I was like, what do you see me doing one day in life?

[00:33:53] And they had said, I actually see you in marketing. And I said, well, why? I don't

[00:33:58] even know what that is. And they said, well, because you're curious and you're articulate

[00:34:07] and you're passionate and you need to have those things to really be able to

[00:34:14] tell the great story of your company so that others want to attach themselves to it. And I

[00:34:20] really took that to heart because when someone was giving me praise for something, I started

[00:34:26] to understand what space I could occupy and I was relentlessly focused on perfecting my skills

[00:34:35] in those areas. Oftentimes, especially when you're earlier in your career, and I think even

[00:34:40] women in particular, they tend to focus more on where they're struggling. And yes, we always

[00:34:47] have to think about ways in which we can improve ourselves, but do not let that be what occupies

[00:34:54] the forefronts of the way you operate. Focus on where you know you are good and lead with

[00:35:02] that. So that would be my advice and how I've definitely sort of charted my journey through life

[00:35:09] so far. Amazing. Well, I can't wait to see how you continue to chart your journey here at Delta.

[00:35:14] And I have no doubt you're going to take this company to new heights and spread new heights.

[00:35:18] So thank you so much for joining today. It was an amazing interview. Thank you, Matt.

[00:35:21] It's been so great to spend time with you as well. Fantastic. Thanks so much to the great

[00:35:25] Alicia Tillman, the CMO of Delta Airlines for joining us today at the Delta Airlines

[00:35:30] headquarters here in Atlanta, Georgia. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the Speed of Culture

[00:35:33] podcast on your favorite podcast platform. And we'll see you next time everyone. Take care.

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