No one knows what makes a certain place special better than the people who live, work, and play there. Recognizing this simple fact, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper will tap not just agency professionals for the creation of the state’s new tourism campaign, but local residents as well.

This week Hickenlooper’s government called upon centennial state dwellers to share their ideas, photos, illustrations, etc. about what “makes Colorado, Colorado” via the official website Makingcolorado.gov and the hashtag #makingcolorado. The public will also be able to vote on ideas for a new state identity created by professionals like Made Movement, Sterling Rice Group and Karsh/Hagan.

The promotional video/call for submissions begins, “Colorado has always rocked…but…there’s been a renaissance in the Rockies.” It goes on to ask, “who better to help make the new brand, the new look and feel of the state of Colorado” than the state’s innovative, creative, and passionate residents. “We’re asking you, the people who have made Colorado so much more, to show us what makes Colorado Colorado.” Quite stirring, even to those of us who live on the other side of the country.

We look forward to seeing the outcome of this professional/public partnership, and we can’t help but wonder whether the team will seriously consider all the inevitable weed-themed submissions…

Southwest Airlines enjoys a strong brand identity associated with being a less expensive and reliable alternative to juggernauts like American Airlines that only deal with major hubs while charging exorbitant baggage fees.

Though Southwest Airlines is the largest domestic airline in America, the public still views it as a renegade and underdog brand in an industry vilified for being unconcerned and out of touch with customers. So industry experts and PR professionals were understandably confused by a new ad campaign launched by Southwest during the NCAA basketball tournament that is surprisingly, well, off-message and even serious.

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American Airlines and FutureBrand didn’t just wing it with their rebranding campaign: the new logo and airplane design, revealed publicly this year, was a two-year undertaking. Company and branding agency executives shared behind-the-scenes details of their rebranding strategy, research and rationale at a recent AMA New York event.

Jill Surdek, American’s managing director of brand and customer experience strategy, called the process a “saga”, reminding the audience that the campaign began prior to major unforeseen events (namely the airline’s late 2011 bankruptcy and recent merger with U.S. Airways). She then laid out, piece by piece, a plan that was that much harder given industry, financial and self-inflicted PR problems (with our comments in italics):

Multilayered rationale. “It was a slow, methodical process to build the case for change, but there wasn’t much pushback from senior management”, Surdek said. She explained the reasoning:

• AA’s competitors all refreshed their brands within the past decade, but American hadn’t done so since 1967.
• While many fans identified with American’s iconic look, it had undeniably lost its luster.
• American ordered several new aircraft a few years ago, so the time was right to change customer perceptions.
• Marketing priorities include expanding international business and attracting younger customers.
• The airline needed to streamline its vast array of different logos across business units.

Business reasons for rebranding were compelling. American competes with branding stars Jet Blue and Virgin (America and Atlantic) and with legacy carriers. Appealing to a younger base is essential moving forward.

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Here’s a basic fact: Mexico is America’s number one tourist destination (and its formal name is The United Mexican States). At the same time, the country’s tourism board believes that many Americans don’t see the whole picture when it comes to our southern neighbor. In short, Mexico isn’t just about stereotypical Spring Break trips to Cancun and the requisite tanning sessions and tequila shots.

The country’s representatives want to change all that with an extensive rebranding campaign designed to focus on the more exclusive and luxurious elements of the Mexican tourism experience with the tagline “Mexico: the place you thought you knew.”

The campaign and tagline aren’t new, but we recently had the opportunity to speak to Gerado Llanes, CMO of the Mexico Tourism Board, about the latest elements of this countrywide shift in marketing and public relations strategies.

What is the primary goal of this campaign?

We want to convey the fact that Mexico is a lot more than beaches, margaritas and mariachis. Of course we are a spring break destination, but we want to more aggressively push the message about our luxury offerings.

For example: if you put all the hotels in North and South America together, you still wouldn’t have as many five-diamond locations as Mexico. We also have three of the world’s top 100 golf courses and the number one and two ranked spas in the world. Mexico also has many four-star restaurants that some people may not know about.

From business standpoint, we want to increase the average US spend in Mexico. We’re aiming for high-level consumers by saying “look and see what Mexico has to offer.”

How have you changed your marketing and PR strategies?

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We almost hate to pile on Carnival Cruise Lines at this point, but 2013 is turning out to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for one of the biggest names in leisure travel. Almost exactly a month after the Carnival Triumph disaster, a second ship lost power while docked in the Caribbean yesterday and left passengers stuck on board with no electricity, no working toilets and no ability to leave despite the fact that the boat was resting next to land.

To its credit, Carnival is getting creative with its problem-solving strategy this time around: the team plans to fly all passengers back to Florida after keeping them on the boat in order to ensure that no one gets left behind. A sensible move, but passengers aren’t happy, and more email quotes about “human waste all over the floor in some of the bathrooms” and elevators turning “on and off, on and off” obviously amount to very, very bad PR.

A commenter on a previous story made a great point: companies like Carnival often hire “party planner” PR teams that excel at event promotion but aren’t quite as experienced when it comes to dealing with disasters like this one. We’re not sure who’s handling crisis communications for the company right now, but they are about to earn their pay.

Oh, and Carnival might want to move ahead with that “comprehensive review” of the entire fleet. Just a friendly suggestion.

Whenever we write about public relations and airlines, it’s typically a frustrating analysis exploring how passengers are being nickel-and-dimed to death by dubious fees and practices while the companies themselves only earn 21 cents per passenger and struggle to stay in business.

Airlines and their customers have a tense and often combative relationship, making the airline industry a fertile category for PR experts—sort of like how geologists go to volcanoes to study the components of earth!

That said, it’s nice to encounter a story that involves the public and the airlines getting along. Kerry Drake needed to catch a connecting United Airlines flight in order to make it home in time to say a final goodbye to his beloved mother, whose death was imminent. His first flight was delayed, making it seemingly impossible for the San Francisco resident to arrive in Lubbock, Texas, in time to say a proper farewell. However, while desperately running to his connecting flight in Houston, he heard a United Airline gate agent announce, “Mr. Drake we’ve been expecting you.”

They waited for him. The plane. The captain. The crew. The passengers. The airline. The entire flight schedule.

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The public has had a love/hate relationship with air travel for decades now. We love the excitement of going somewhere new or visiting people we love, but we hate having our flights cancelled, being frisked in our socks by strangers, getting hit with hidden fees and waiting in line for the infamous full body scanner.

Yet most of us accept these inconveniences as part of the reality of flying. You can’t blame an airline for the weather. Hurricanes happen. So does snow. Most airline passengers sense that we’re all going through this crazy experience together. But at United Airlines, $9 is about to change that dynamic. That is how much United is charging for “Premier Access” to fast-track security lines that offer customers reduced hassle and shorter waits.

How will the public react? This is a tough one. Sure, the airline industry has always offered special treatment to business flyers and the high rollers in first class–but this new “Premier Access” stunt has yet to pass the public’s sniff test. Read more

And now for an update on what is simultaneously one of the most important and least interesting PR debacles of the year to date: the Boeing Dreamliner controversy. Earlier in the week Japan’s Transport Ministry appeared to give the company an “out” by blaming the new 787′s various technical problems (overheating, smoking engines, flickering lights, emergency landings, yadda yadda) on a “miswired” battery.

Excuse us for being skeptical, but that’s just too easy.

Boeing seems to agree: today officials went to Washington to propose changes in the battery to the Federal Aviation Administration in the interest of creating a more fire-resistant aircraft. Any changes would be subject to FAA approval and the company’s technicians would first have to demonstrate that these changes “ensure safety.”

We can’t see that happening anytime soon, so the Dreamliner will remain a massive liability for Boeing and, arguably, the airline industry in general. It’s all bad news for Boeing and its investors–but does the public really care?

Here at PRNewser, we’re always thinking of ways to turn even the sourest lemons into sweet lemonade. As we watched the Carnival Triumph disaster play out over the long weekend, we came up with a few ways other brands could use use this foul-smelling story to their advantage:

• Competitors could simply use this scandal as an opportunity to hype their own offerings by cutting through the negative news with humor. Just as Audi used the Super Bowl blackout to lightly mock rival Mercedes (sponsor of the Superdome), other travel brands could make references to the Triumph debacle or Carnival’s new discount service–and everyone would get the joke.
• Rival cruise operators could create campaigns highlighting their own tech prowess with taglines like “No Triumphs in This Fleet”. Of course, there’s always the potential for backlash if these companies experience technical disasters on later cruises–but the possibly of failure rarely stops a lucrative promo campaign.
• Another idea: travel and tourism brands could position themselves as alternatives to a troubled cruise industry. Timeshare and vacation condo companies, for example, could create a campaign called “Keep Your Feet on the Ground” emphasizing the safety of trips that don’t require travelers to leave the comfort of the land.

What do we think? The public loves humor as long as it isn’t blatantly mean-spirited, right?

Should other brands make light of the Triumph in promo campaigns or social media efforts? Have any already jumped on this opportunity?

Last week’s Triumph fiasco was one of the larger customer service failures in recent memory and the biggest corporate PR challenge of the year to date–the photos released last Thursday and Friday only show us how big the problem really is. Now it’s PR’s time to shine as the Carnival Cruise Lines damage control campaign begins!

First, despite what seemed to be radio silence on the Carnival side, the company’s social media team was active throughout the incident, issuing updates and countering rumors–but we think you’ll agree that tweets like these probably didn’t improve public perceptions of the scandal:

Of course the bathrobes for the Carnival Triumph are complimentary.

— Carnival Cruise Line (@CarnivalCruise) February 15, 2013

The rumor about guests having to sign waivers is completely false.

— Carnival Cruise Line (@CarnivalCruise) February 15, 2013

We’re not sure whether the first one was a joke–and we’re surprised that it hasn’t been deleted.

Now let’s review the steps in Carnival’s damage control process and see where the company might go from here:

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