Brian May, the president and creative director of Maycreate was hired Monday to run the airport's $100,000 annual advertising budget.
Brian May, the president and creative director of Maycreate was hired Monday to run the airport's $100,000 annual advertising budget.Direct, nonstop flights from Chattanooga to the New York City area start in September, and the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport will soon offer flights to six major "hub" airports from which passengers can go anywhere in the world.
Getting the word out about that will now fall on the shoulders of Brian May, president and creative director of Maycreate, whose firm was chosen Monday by the airport's board to be paid $40,000 annually to run the airport's $100,000-a-year advertising budget for the next two years.
"We really, really, really wanted this account," May said as he introduced himself to board members and told them he's worked in markets from New York to Florida - but chose Chattanooga as the place to work and live because he loves it here.
The airport could do a better job of letting people know about the daily, nonstop flights that United Airlines will start on Sept. 7 to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, said board member Farzana Mitchell, who's the chief financial officer for Chattanooga-based shopping mall owner CBL & Associates Properties.
"Nobody's talking about it," Mitchell said at the outset of Monday's airport board meeting. "If we don't advertise, we are going to lose this."
Airport President Terry Hart said that the airport does advertise, but he also told Mitchell, "I'll take your point."
The airport previously used Two by Four, a Chicago-based advertising firm. But airport officials decided this spring to find a new firm because Two by Four closed its Chattanooga office, Hart said.
Ten firms applied to the airport's request for advertising services, Hart said, but only two were local: Maycreate and a firm that Hart didn't name.
Hiring Maycreate was the final item on the board's agenda, so May responded to comments made earlier about the airport's advertising with what he called some quick Google comparisons of advertising budgets.
"Everyone knows who Apple is," May said, citing the $3.8 million the technology company spends each day on advertising. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport spends $7,117 a day on advertising, he said, while the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport spends about $274 a day, or $100,000 divided by 365 days.
But May said his firm knows how to stretch an advertising dollar.
"We understand local budgets," he said, adding that Maycreate may pitch some "kooky ideas that maybe don't cost so much."
Also on Monday, the airport board renewed its annual $50,000 contract with Chattanooga-based Waterhouse Public Relations and hired Dayton, Tenn.,-based Dillard Construction to build its new 232-space satellite parking lot on Airport Road across from the Greyhound station. The airport hopes to have the $1.1 million parking lot project finished before the nonstop United Flights to New York and Chicago start.
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.