Airport Route Launch With Three Partners and No Baseline
A regional airport handling 1.2 million passengers a year is launching a new daily direct route to a major business hub in nine months. The $250,000 marketing budget is funded jointly by the airport, the airline and a tourism board; each partner has a different priority. The airport's goals are to reach a 70% load factor within six months and increase business-traveler share by 15%, but it has no reliable baseline for route awareness and no agreed definition of 'business traveler.' The airline wants fare promotions, the tourism board wants leisure visitors, and the chamber of commerce wants local business retention. The CEO asks for a plan that can survive a partner audit and show whether the campaign worked. You lead communications planning.
1. Write three measurable objectives for the campaign and explain the baseline and assumptions behind each.
Read the worked answer
- Awareness: Increase aided awareness of the new route among business travelers in the metro area from the baseline measured in weeks 1-3 to at least 40% by month 6. Rationale: no baseline exists, so the first task is a benchmark survey (n≈400) before launch; 40% is a realistic mid-funnel target for a new route.
- Load factor: Reach a 70% average load factor on the route by month 6, measured by the airline's booking data. This is a business outcome shared with the airline; it depends on pricing and schedule, not communications alone, so the plan must state that assumption.
- Business travel: Increase the business-traveler share of bookings by 15% relative to the first 60 days, using a pre-agreed definition (business or flexible fare, or corporate booking code). A relative target avoids inventing a baseline and is auditable.
Each objective names an audience, a metric, a baseline or baseline method, a timeframe and a data owner. Avoid 'raise awareness' without a number. Also state what communications cannot control: fare levels, flight times and economic conditions. The objectives should be ambitious but not attributed solely to advertising.
2. Design an evaluation framework across outputs, outtakes, outcomes and business results, including data sources and a measurement budget.
Read the worked answer
Use a four-level framework, agreed with partners before launch:
- Outputs: impressions, placements, event attendance, landing-page sessions and partner co-branded assets. These show activity, not effect.
- Outtakes: aided awareness, message association ('direct,' 'business-friendly schedule'), consideration and intent. Source: benchmark and follow-up surveys with the same questions and sampling method.
- Outcomes: bookings, load factor, business-traveler share, route search volume and corporate inquiry volume. Source: airline data, website analytics and UTM codes.
- Business results: route sustainability, local business retention and tourism spend where measurable. These are longer-term and shared with partners.
Set a measurement budget of 8-10% of the $250,000 and name data owners in the partner agreement. Use leading indicators, such as search volume, fare-alert sign-ups and landing-page conversion, to adjust in weeks 4-8, and lagging indicators for the final report. Pre-register definitions and the evaluation question: 'Did communications contribute to route uptake among the target segments?' Do not claim that advertising alone filled the plane.
3. A partner wants 80% of the budget on billboards and no measurement. How do you respond?
Read the worked answer
A partner who wants 80% on billboards and no measurement is buying reach, not evidence. Billboards can build awareness in business districts, but they cannot show which audience booked or whether the business-traveler goal moved. Propose a compromise: cap out-of-home at 35-40% of media spend and concentrate it on commuter and airport corridors; use the rest for digital, search, LinkedIn and geofenced mobile and partner events that can be tracked with unique landing pages or codes. Protect at least 8% for measurement. Offer the partner a dashboard with their logo and a monthly readout. If the partner insists on 80%, ask them to fund a separate awareness study so the campaign is not flying blind. Frame the trade-off in their terms: without measurement, the partner cannot prove the route deserves continued investment.