JetBlue founder David Neeleman aims to build awareness for Breeze’s ‘attainable luxury’ positioning

When Walrus co-founder and CEO Frances Webster was on one of her frequent trips to her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, she began to notice Breeze Airways and its disruptive positioning as a premium experience with an affordable fare. Since then, she has followed its trajectory—four-year-old Breeze’s revenue exceeded $680 million last year—and decided the time was right to proactively seek the account.

“If you look at the fact that Breeze became profitable at the end of last year, when the rest of the industry was down … there’s this word-of-mouth buzz that’s going on right now,” Webster said. After reaching out and securing several informal meetings with Breeze, Walrus was named the airline’s first lead creative agency without a review.

The task for Walrus now will be to raise awareness of Breeze’s “attainable luxury” positioning and spread the word about Breeze, which added 29 destinations last year and plans to expand again this year, Angela Vargo, Breeze Airways’ VP of marketing and communications, told Ad Age.

Nice, Nicer, Nicest

Founder and CEO David Neeleman has positioned Breeze as offering premium service to secondary markets. Neeleman had success earlier in his career building and leading other airlines, most notably JetBlue. Breeze, which began flying in 2021, recently announced plans to begin flights to Rochester and Albany, New York and Memphis, Tennessee, this spring.

Breeze was launched on the idea of being a “premium leisure low-cost” carrier, Vargo said in an interview.

Not to be confused with a discount carrier, Breeze is focused on balancing affordability with a premium experience. Its tiers—Nice, Nicer and Nicest—offer perks such as complimentary family seating and no cancellation or change fees. The Utah-based airline also offers direct flights to underserved and regional airports.

An extra legroom seat, high-speed Wi-Fi and great snacks on board, that is the definition of premium to a lot of people,” Vargo said. “It’s not necessarily sitting in first class and having the full experience that is unattainable.”

Breeze has also used technology to keep its costs down. For example, Breeze doesn’t have a call center. Instead, passengers can engage with Breeze through text and manage their flights through Breeze’s app and website. “We built technology that allows you to do 95% of what you need through the app,” Vargo said.

Raising awareness

The airline has already seen success with consumers once they experience a Breeze flight. Its rebooking rates are higher than 40%, according to a statement by Breeze Airways.

The challenge for Walrus will be getting more first-time Breeze travelers to understand the carrier’s point of difference before booking a flight.

Currently, the airline has around 70 travel destinations, Vargo said. More than a third of them are “mature markets,” where Breeze has been flying for more than two years, such as Providence, Rhode Island. One major goal will be advertising in those markets.

“Being able to focus on these really big, mature markets where we have a good foothold and want to become the hometown carrier is really the opportunity for us this year,” Vargo said.

Before hiring Walrus, the airline handled all of its marketing in-house. As it continues to expand and target existing markets, driving awareness will require a bigger marketing approach. This will include expanding beyond mostly digital work and some connected TV, which it has recently started implementing.

There aren’t any plans to add more agencies to its roster, Vargo said.

In deciding to work with Walrus, Vargo said one thing that stood out about the agency was its previous work with Northwest Arkansas, which is an important region for the airline, Vargo said.

Walrus also has experience in the air travel business, having previously worked on the Jet Edge business, which specializes in private jet management.

Over the past year, Walrus has also picked up business with Walmart (a major Northwest Arkansas employer), Amazon and Colgate-Palmolive. 

A ‘Seriously Nice’ tone

Walrus’s first work for Breeze, set to launch in May, will maintain the light and easy tone set by its “Seriously Nice” mantra, Webster said.

“There’s a huge opportunity to have a real personality and build a world right now, we don’t see a lot of people doing that,” she said. “One of the most important parts of marketing is that you have a product or service that’s worthy of marketing, and Breeze has that.”

Beyond a new agency partner, Breeze will be looking to add its first international destination soon and grow its loyalty program.

See it in AdAge here.