Consumer Product Campaign
Objective: Designed and implemented a year-long integrated media relations, marketing, and promotional plan to launch Chicago's newest destination restaurant.
Result: A high-impact campaign that led to industry honors, local and national media attention, and a singular marketplace positioning for the restaurant as the “entrance of the Millennium Park experience”.
JTA led a comprehensive year-long effort to launch Chicago's newest destination restaurant in the highly acclaimed Millennium Park. Our team positioned Park Grill by defining the brand for its unique mix of seasonal dining and entertainment in the nation's restaurant community and in the 21st Century's first “Cyber Age Park.” We rolled out a comprehensive promotional, media, travel and tourism, advertising, convention, concierge, and internet communications platform targeted at local, national and international consumers.
We initially faced strong challenges in raising the profile and awareness of Park Grill as a destination (the restaurant opened when Millennium Park was still a construction site) and creating foot traffic from the local, business, and leisure customers, who had no awareness of life east of Michigan Avenue. This year-long process continued to gain in momentum, resulting in a media campaign that reached millions of broadcast viewers each month, continuous print coverage, and prestigious industry honors (an invitation to cook at the James Beard House in New York, selection as best new restaurant from Chicago magazine and Zagat's, and sustained coverage as the city's #1 Hot Spot from Chicago magazine).
Crisis Communications, Media Relations, Public Affairs
Objective: A high-stakes
integrated crisis, media relations and public affairs campaign to support
appeal bond reform in Illinois for Altria Corporate Services, Inc. (parent company
of Philip Morris USA).
Result: “You
don’t have to solve the puzzle of 
to know there’s a place where numbers have no real meaning. It’s
in that place you can find the $12 billion bond that a Madison County
Circuit Court judge set for Philip Morris to appeal the $10.1 billion
in damages awarded last week to plaintiffs in a class-action smoking
case. In this never-never land, attorneys were awarded fees in the amount
of $1.8 billion – yes, billion.”
--Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board (March 27, 2003)
JTA was retained by Altria Corporate Services, Inc. to craft and manage an Illinois-focused
campaign to raise public awareness of the need for a legislative solution
to the state’s outmoded appeal bond rule in anticipation of a
multi-billion appeal bond set by a Madison County Judge on March 21,
2003. JTA created an integrated crisis and public relations campaign
including editorial board outreach, third-party advocacy, press conferences,
ongoing clip merchandising and rigorous press follow-up and support.
JTA focused its Illinois campaign on the potentially devastating impact
to state budgets in Illinois—and across 45 other states that receive
tobacco Master Settlement dollars, which this bonding requirement clearly
threatened—to great success. We helped generate more than a dozen
supportive editorials and obtained strong Illinois media coverage on
the issue, which fostered national and indeed international press attention
to our client’s plight. We also managed an educational awareness
campaign focused specifically on members of the Illinois General Assembly,
in which we showcased strong support from the business community for
appeal bond reform to prevent a potential chilling effect on the state’s
ability to attract economic development opportunities.
Crisis Planning
Objective: Engaged in
integrated crisis planning to position senior leadership for response
in any potential crisis situation.
Result: Senior JTA principal
met with the Chairman and CEO, President and COO, General Counsel, Chief
Financial Officer and senior national and international leadership of
Heller Financial Services –a highly respected Chicago-based financial
services company—to identify potential crisis scenarios, craft
appropriate messages for use in all identified crisis scenarios, and
to formulate the detailed internal corporate procedures and contact
information for a crisis situation, nationally and internationally.
Our key deliverable to Heller was a detailed, multi-functional crisis
plan that positioned the senior leadership effectively for any potential
corporate crisis.
Crisis Response
Objective: One of our
principals functioned as a select member of a 40-person crisis response
team for United Airlines during the 9/11 unprecedented act of terrorism
on American soil.
Result: "September
11, 2001, was one of those moments in which history splits, and we define
the world as ‘before’ and ‘after.’ "
–NYT Editorial Board (September 12, 2001).
United’s communications response to 9/11 managed the needs and
confidentiality requirements of a vast and interconnected set of stakeholders:
the FBI, the NTSB, the CIA, the FAA, White House, U.S. Congress, 9/11
victims and their families, United employees and their families who
died onboard UA 93 and UA 175, foreign embassies, media from every city
and every country across the globe, and 250,000 customers who were “stranded”
as the nation’s commercial air space was shut down for three entire
days. In the resulting hours and days following the attacks, United
had to manage the re-opening of 93 airports across North America while
aggressively communicating with its customers regarding new airport
security procedures and re-booking procedures for 250,000 customers
who had been stranded in the wake of the shutdown. United also managed
international media interest on issues such as skyrocketing war risk
insurance premiums, the immediate need for congressional action to stabilize
the industry, preserving vital air services, and the events’ devastating
impact to an industry sector that accounts for more than 10 percent
of the GDP. United, of course, immediately had to manage media speculation
that it was on the verge of Chapter 11 reorganization in the weeks following
the attacks.
Our principal participated in senior executive scenario media training,
represented corporate communications in quarterly mock company-wide
response drills, and participated in the development of an in-depth
communications crisis manual for use and implementation by United Airlines
public relations representatives and agencies throughout the globe.
Community
Relations, Media Relations, Consumer Public Relations
Objective: Secure selection
of client and approval of development plan for the most-valuable block
of commercial real estate in the Midwestern United States, which had
defied development for more than a decade. Create a global, consumer-driven
media launch campaign for the 108 North State Street development focused
on Mills Corporation’s vision to create a world-class lifestyle
destination in a world-class city.
Result: Virginia-based
Mills Corporation retained JTA to support their selection as 108 North
State Street’s master developer with local opinion leaders and
decision makers. Mills was selected by the City of Chicago in May 2002,
after a rigorous selection process. We crafted an integrated campaign
for the project’s key stakeholders (Chicago City Hall, downtown
business leaders, community groups, key retail/business reporters and
editorial boards, and regional consumers) to raise Mills’ profile
and gain support for its development vision. JTA has also crafted a
consumer media campaign that will position Mills Corporation to leverage
108 North State Street’s momentum on a local, regional, national
and international scale.
