Profile: Wings of desire - David Magliano, Sales and marketing director, Go

On this day, amid the fashionable chaos that is home to HHCL &

Partners and birthplace to the Go concept, David Magliano is an

infectious bundle of energy.

’I’m in a good mood today,’ he grins. ’My one-year-old daughter has just

slept through the night for the first time.’ He is full of beans despite

working late the previous night with his boss, chief executive Barbara

Cassani. ’She only stops working when she’s asleep,’ he groans.

Magliano is feeding off the buzz around Go’s new ad campaign, which

broke earlier this month. The dancing graphics and retro music may take

us back to the 1960s in design terms but, as the first TV branding

campaign for a budget airline, it heralds a new maturity in a sector set

to flourish.

’It’s classic HHCL work,’ says Magliano, ’distinctive, mould-breaking

and cost-effective.’

A former Ogilvy & Mather ad man, Magliano was hired by HHCL in the

summer of 1997 to work on BA’s concept for a budget airline, before

being poached by Cassani as her number two at the tender age of 34.

Since Go took off in May 1998, it has quadrupled its destinations to 12.

Its staff numbers have doubled and Magliano predicts that the headcount

of 330 employees will reach 450 by the end of September.

Exciting times, but Magliano is a man under pressure. Like the rest of

Go’s management team, his reputation relies on the airline breaking even

by April 2001, when BA will review the whole initiative in which it is

investing pounds 25m. In May, Go publishes its first year’s results.

Although Magliano won’t reveal the airline’s load factor (how full its

flights are), he insists Go is grabbing a disproportionate share on

those routes it operates.

Magliano believes that Go is putting clear blue sky between its brand

and rivals; principally Ryanair, EasyJet and Debonair.

Some of this he puts down to luck. ’There’s actually very little

marketing opposition at the moment. The other budget carriers suffer

from a lack of long-standing marketing chiefs,’ he says.

His most notable adversary, EasyJet marketing director Tony Anderson,

has been moved to the firm’s cyber cafe spin-off, EasyEverything. It has

yet to replace him.

Magliano also benefits from an unusually clear vision of the brand he

promotes.

’Our attendants’ uniforms define us. They are professional but modern

and simple. Scheduled airlines tend to revert to 1950s mode. Who wears a

hat these days?’

To an extent, Magliano is moulding the brand in his own image. With many

friends in the design business, he is a self-confessed minimalist, a

claim authenticated by his close cropped hair and sharp sartorial style.

Apparently his North London flat is the sort of white-walled, stripped

floorboard space beloved of design magazines.

Such confidence in this late-90s zeitgeist is also a key tenet of

Magliano’s marketing tactics. The new campaign includes ads in style

mags such as Wallpaper, The Face and Marie Claire, all aimed at a young

ABC1 market.

But does this wooing of bright young things risk alienating other

potential audiences? ’I don’t think we’ve made it too trendy; 51% of our

customers are under 35 and 45% of them are using a low-cost airline for

the first time. We can change their perceptions of this market.

’The conventional thinking on budget airlines is that we are competing

on price so the brand doesn’t matter, but the people who travel with us

are likely to be cash rich and time poor. I want a brand that fits into

the rest of their shopping portfolio. I’m not saying we want to be The

Ivy or Prada but we can be Pret a Manger or the Gap.’

One senior travel marketer believes Magliano has brought a breath of

fresh air to the airline business. ’Most airline marketers are trained

at one of the big carriers. He is bringing a new take on brand

strategy.’

’My marketing inspiration continues to come from beyond the sector,’

says Magliano. ’Supermarkets are customer-driven and continually

innovate. It’s no coincidence that we have three managers from

Sainsbury’s.’

This aside, Magliano’s key contribution to the airline is his

energy.

He is an intense character who relies on instinct. The flipside, one

suspects, is sometimes an impatience with those who he feels are not

performing.

One Go employee says: ’David personally presents what he sees as Go’s

brand values to every new member of staff. His enthusiasm can be very

motivational.’

Magliano believes his biggest strength is spotting an opportunity. So

will he soon get bored? ’It’s anything but dull at the moment,’ he

laughs, ’but as we get bigger I need to employ like-minded people.’

Despite his obvious drive and ambition, Magliano doesn’t want his boss’s

job.

’I’ve no ambition to run an airline and wouldn’t have the experience

anyway. I’m a sales and marketing man at heart.’

That said, Magliano is a key player in one of the few fast-growing

sectors of the UK economy. Eight million people flew on low-cost

European airlines last year and this is set to reach 36 million by

2003.

This,combined with speculation that BA will eventually move all its

lower end short-haul operations to Stansted, could create a new raft of

career opportunities. And if Go hits its targets, the sky could be far

from the limit for Magliano.

Biography

1990

Account director, Hall Advertising

1990-1992

Consultant, Imagination

1992-1997

Business director, Ogilvy & Mather

1997-1998

Partner, HHCL & Partners

1998-present

Sales and marketing director, Go

This article was first published on Marketing