When Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) launched the new American Airlines Landline service, it introduced travelers to a different kind of airport connection: a seamless, ground-based transportation experience that links passengers from RFD to Chicago O’Hare and the American Airlines network. To make that new model easy to understand and act on, digital marketing played a critical role in building awareness, educating travelers, and driving booking intent.
CWA Economic Development Marketing partnered with the airport to support the launch through targeted SEM, social media advertising, and email marketing designed to increase visibility, reduce confusion, and move travelers directly to informational and booking resources.
Because Landline introduced an unfamiliar travel model for many regional passengers, the airport needed a campaign that could quickly build trust, explain how the service worked, and show the convenience of connecting to the American Airlines network through RFD. The airport needed to:
Because the service relied heavily on passenger understanding and confidence, digital communications needed to balance education, simplicity, and strong calls-to-action.
Chartwell developed and executed a multi-channel six-month digital campaign built to educate travelers, simplify the value proposition, and convert interest into measurable action across SEM, social advertising, email outreach, and landing page engagement.
The campaign used visual storytelling, educational messaging, and audience targeting to build awareness, communicate convenience, and guide travelers toward the information and booking paths needed to take the next step.
To introduce the new service and turn curiosity into action, Chartwell:
The strategy centered on making the new service easy to understand, reducing uncertainty, and maintaining consistent visibility across digital channels so interest could turn into measurable traveler action.
The digital campaign generated strong engagement, website traffic, and audience interaction across SEM, paid social, and targeted email efforts.
Key campaign results included:
The campaign successfully moved audiences from awareness to action. By combining educational messaging with targeted digital execution, Chartwell helped Chicago Rockford International Airport introduce a new travel option, generate strong landing page engagement, and drive measurable booking intent for the American Airlines Landline service.
