Company: Delta Airlines
Agency: Ketchum
Timeframe: 2006-2007
It couldn't have come at a worse time for Delta Air Lines. The company was about to file its reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, when, on Nov. 15, 2006, US
Airways made a bid to take over the beleaguered airline.
Despite its financial woes, Delta Air Lines wanted to remain an independent entity and emerge from its bankruptcy as a brand with renewed viability. To achieve this, the
carrier had to appeal to its creditors to reject US Airways' proposal.
"At that critical point, it was important for us to execute our business plan," says Kent Landers, external communications director for Delta Air Lines. "The hostile takeover
did not fit into that plan. We were very near the finish line of a very difficult financial structuring, and it was critical that we succeed on our own."
The Silence Before The Storm
Before Delta could publicly voice its opposition to the takeover, its board needed to approve the decision to mount this campaign against US Airways. This meant that Delta had
to remain silent for several weeks while US Airways garnered media attention. But Delta was far from inert during this period. As it waited for the official green light to proceed
with the campaign, the team prepared itself by conducting primary and secondary research.
The first element that was examined was the impact a US Airways/Delta merger would have on the airline industry. Would it violate antitrust laws? Delta knew this would be a
pressing concern for Washington, D.C., policy makers.
To strengthen its position, Delta commissioned a state-specific analysis of the negative impact the US Airways proposal would have on customers and communities across the
country. The results supported Delta's stance that the merger would be anti-competitive, meaning that it would increase fares, reduce choices for consumers and limit service; it
would also most likely not be cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The findings revealed to the team which states and congressional districts upon which they should focus their outreach. In rallying support against the US Airways bid, this
would be a critical element of the campaign.
Additionally, the team compared US Airways' and Delta's domestic itineraries and identified significant overlap. The map of the routes would later be used as a visual at
hearings and office visits in Washington, D.C.
Delta also did a qualitative analysis of its key audiences, comprised of Delta employees, retirees, pilots and frequent fliers. They in turn discovered that most of these
audiences supported Delta's efforts to remain independent. In fact, Delta's employees and pilots had already begun to organize their own opposition to US Airways, and were willing
to coordinate their efforts for maximum effect.
Preparing For Take Off
Once the board gave the team the go-ahead to take its campaign public, the Delta team hired Ketchum Public Affairs in late November 2006 to help orchestrate a nationwide,
multifaceted communications campaign that would convince Capitol Hill and the U.S. Departments of Justice and Transportation--and, ultimately, Delta's creditors--that a US
Airways/Delta merger would be anticompetitive and lead to higher fares.
"Delta had reached the point where they knew they needed additional public affairs help in Washington, D.C., knowing that their efforts were going to end up being scrutinized,"
says Kathy Jeavons, Ketchum's senior vice president for public affairs in the D.C. office.
The agency's responsibilities on the campaign ranged from overall campaign coordination to media relations and online advocacy.
To work toward their goal of thwarting US Airways' proposal, Delta and Ketchum came up with the following campaign objectives:
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Convince policy makers that US Airways' proposal was structurally flawed, with significant negative consequences for Delta employees and retirees, frequent fliers,
consumers and communities nationwide; and,
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Create substantial doubt in the eyes of Delta's creditors about the feasibility of a US Airways/Delta merger and likelihood of it gaining regulatory approval.
However, while Delta's creditors committee was the ultimate decision maker, it was not the direct campaign target. Ketchum determined the best target audience would be
influential people who could shift the discussion of the US Airways proposal from a business-page story about mergers and acquisitions to a front-page story about the survival of
an airline. The agency identified the target audience to be comprised of:
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Delta employees, retirees and frequent fliers. This group was eager to help, and as constituents of federal elected officials in key committees, could voice their
opposition through e-petition signatures and letters;
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State and local elected officials and community leaders. The officials and leaders in states that would be most impacted by the merger had a stake in keeping Delta
independent and were key to the team's efforts to broaden and deepen local support and generate local media attention; and
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Washington policy makers (with a particular focus on the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees and the Justice Department and Transportation Department). This audience
is influenced by its constituents; the louder the protests, the more likely they would be to publicly oppose the US Airways bid.
Reaching Cruising Altitude
Aside from taking ownership of the merger debate, the team's implementation strategies included focusing communications and lobbying efforts on significant members of the U.S.
House and Senate and Justice and Transportation Department officials, who had the ability to influence the outcome of the US Airways proposal; and mobilizing an army of supporters
to oppose the merger publicly, making sure that policy makers heard Delta's side of the story.
Then, team created an interactive Web site (http://www.KeepDeltaMyDelta.org)
that would serve as the centerpiece and virtual home of the campaign. Here visitors
could register to receive e-mail updates and sign an e-petition saying "no"
to US Airways. The Web site went live on December 13, 2006, the day Delta's
pilots union and other employees staged a 5,000-person rally at the Georgia
International Convention Center in opposition to the US Airways bid to take
over Delta.
Other pro-Delta rallies that featured Delta employees and retirees, local business and community leaders and elected officials were staged in Delta's Atlanta's headquarters and
eight airports that stood to lose flights if a merger went through. At the rallies, participants spoke about why the bid would hurt them, their jobs and their cities. Video
footage of the rallies was soon posted on YouTube.
Also, to give the campaign a theme, Ketchum developed an employee-created tagline, "Keep Delta My Delta." On December 19, 2006, the "Keep Delta My Delta" campaign was
officially launched nationwide--the same day Delta filed its reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and officially rejected US Airways' unsolicited merger
proposal.
During this period, Jeavons and her colleagues had been working closely together in Atlanta, burrowed deep in the implementation phase of the campaign. Trying to get as much
done as quickly as possible before the campaign's official launch was imperative to their effort's success.
"We knew we had only so much time to win public support for the opposition to the bid," she says.
On the day before a hearing on the merger by the Senate Commerce Committee, Delta pilots, employees and retirees, armed with research, called on 68 Senate officials to discuss
how the merger could adversely affect various states. On the same day, an employee rally (or "fly-in") was organized on Capitol Hill.
"The good thing about Delta is that we have a base of employees that are enthusiastic about our brand," says Landers. "Tapping into that passion for Delta and our business plan
was a real rallying point that really benefited us as we emerged from bankruptcy."
Beginning The Initial Descent
Ultimately, the campaign attracted more than 100,000 supporters via the Keep Delta My Delta Web site. It generated more than 150,000 letters sent to Washington policy makers
and garnered more than 220 million media impressions. Also, a coalition of hundreds of national, state and local consumer groups, elected officials and community leaders issued
proclamations and public statements opposing the deal.
On Jan. 31, 2007, US Airways dropped its bid to merge with Delta after learning that Delta's creditors were going to reject its offer. Covering the failed merger attempt, the
Washington Post wrote, "Analysts said that resistance in Congress, potential trouble in obtaining antitrust approval and difficulties in combining antagonistic workforces
probably led creditors to side with Delta's management."
For Jeavons, the experience of working on the campaign was a highlight in her professional life. Everything worked and came into place beautifully and smoothly.
"This was a wonderful happenstance," she confesses. "There wasn't a distinction between agency and client. Delta is a wonderful company with great management from the top down.
This was a client that said, 'Whatever it takes. You tell us what to do and we'll do it. We were all in this together.'" PRN
CONTACTS:
Kathy Jeavons, [email protected]; Kent Lander, [email protected]
Impossible? No Such Thing
For Kathy Jeavons, Ketchum's SVP of public affairs, the "Keep Delta My Delta" campaign presented its fair share of challenges. For example:
"When US Airways announced its intentions [to take over Delta], Wall Street thought the deal was a good one," she says. "Financially, it would have made all sorts of sense. It
would have helped Delta get out of bankruptcy. But in the long term this deal would have been one of the most damaging transactions to affect the airline industry."
However, the outcome of the campaign proved that nothing is impossible--even when the odds are stacked against you.
"When we started out, it was like pushing a huge rock up a hill," Jeavons says. "The chances of Delta being able to fight this off [were low]. If you were a betting person, you
would bet against them. What this campaign shows is that with a well-run, speedy, integrated campaign which uses every PR tool in the toolbox, you can succeed."
Customize Thy Message
If you're involved in a grassroots campaign in which rallying public support against a proposal is the main goal, it's important to tailor your message to the various
communities you're targeting, says Kathy Jeavons, Ketchum's SVP of public affairs.
"The power of reaching communities to our advantage was key to the success of the 'Keep Delta My Delta' campaign," she says. "Hillary Clinton's former campaign chief [and
Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn] used to talk about 'micro-targeting' (a strategy that focuses on small minorities of voters). We did that by customizing information within the
key messages of the campaign every time we went into a different community."