Virgin Australia reins in agency budgets and adds in-house creative

Virgin Australia is cutting its ad agency budgets and has brought the bulk of creative in-house as part of a major cost cutting exercise, Mumbrella can reveal.

With former Telstra marketer Inese Kingsmill starting as the new head of marketing and customer engagement on December 12, Mumbrella has learned the airline has appointed an in-house executive creative director on a contract basis.

The airline has launched a drive to find $300m in savings by 2019, with marketing agencies understood to have already seen a radical reduction in spending in recent months.