STA Travel

STA Travel, the largest student travel company worldwide, sought to drive business growth, despite industry declines. As Vice President of Marketing for STA Travel North America, Linda led a team of 8 in developing marketing strategies to build consumer demand and sales.

Linda led her team in developing grassroots promotions that created a buzz and fostered consumer loyalty. Her efforts increased company-wide focus on higher margin products. Linda enhanced cross-departmental collaboration to build and implement fully-integrated plans that worked. She forged strong alliances with travel partners such as Virgin, Qantas and Eurostar, to increase the size and impact of promotions.

One of the largest initiatives Linda directed was the relaunch of STA Travel’s Blue Ticket, a unique product upon which the company was founded over 25 years ago. Unfortunately, this product had virtually lost its identity and awareness, and therefore no longer acted as a competitive advantage or prominent source of business. Linda designed this product relaunch to create substantial awareness and demand for the Blue Ticket. She led the company in creating “Bluesday,” a landmark promotion and comprehensive product relaunch that reinstated the Blue Ticket as a fundamental revenue driver.