Several Arkansas-based aviation organizations approached 4media group about creating news coverage surrounding the rebranding of the Bentonville Municipal Airport to Thaden Field. The project required the synthesis of several separate organizations to create a cohesive narrative, culminating in a media preview of a pop-up aviation center in Downtown Bentonville.
4media worked with the groups to gain a better understanding of the scope of the project, touring the Thaden Fieldhouse, and learning about Fly Oz, OZ 1, Louise and Summit Aviation.
Being a part of the Bentonville community is important to the organizations at Thaden Field, which meant it was key to craft a narrative that explained the rebranding, clearly expressed the value of Thaden Fieldhouse in connecting the community to aviation, and drew clear differences in the supporting organizations, their roles in the project, and their ultimate places as the standard bearers of aviation in Arkansas.
Finally, 4media needed to tie that information to a media preview and grand opening of a pop-up aviation center, securing strong media coverage over a course of hours in a single afternoon.
To address every aspect in play, 4media group began by working with Runway Group to draft a press release and background sheet on all the entities involved in the Thaden Fieldhouse and airport rebranding.
4media then built a media pitching list, which contained media members from around Northwest Arkansas in print, online and broadcast media.
To ensure the media preview of the pop-up aviation center was a success, 4media leveraged its contacts across NWA media channels to make personal introductions to the concept, as well as sending an email invitation to a wide range of media members.
The aviation pop-up center generated a great deal of interest—which had the benefit of translating to local news coverage.
Northwest Arkansas’ major broadcast outlets, 40/29, 5 News and KNWA, ran on-air pieces highlighting the center and showing interviews with key representatives. The broadcast pieces were also paired with written stories, which went on the stations’ websites where they could be viewed or read.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette also published a full-length article, which ran in the Saturday edition of the paper, and was also published online.