PR story #1

So, I thought as well as picking up news stories as they emerge on this blog, I would also pick up on the most interesting story (in my own opinion) from the PR Week magazine I get every Friday in the post and write about the topic in question. This week is the first week I've decided to do this.

The story I have picked up on this week is "UK airlines back Dreamliner." The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has faced problems with safety issues found in Japan and the US. Issues involve fuel leaks, brake problems, a crack in a window in the cockpit and a fire in an aircraft when stationary. Despite these problems and an investigation by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), Japan's travel authority and Boring itself, TUI Thomson airways are confident they are still going ahead with the PR plan for the launch of these planes in association with Hill+Knowlton. TUI Thomson are the first UK airline to be granted exclusive access to these planes, that will become available for use in the UK in May 2013, shortly followed a few months later by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic next year.

This story grabbed my attention, as a regular customer for TUI Thomson every year (as I use sister company First Choice) it was a concern for me that these planes will be available despite still having some quite serious teething problems. I can't imagine how a normally nervous passenger would feel taking off in on of those in the near future.

Hill+Knowlton and TUI Thomson have developed a campaign to help keep up excitement about Thomson being the only brand to have these planes, although this unique selling point at the moment appears to have it's downsides. The campaign so far has involved a press campaign and television advertisement. They have also set up a twitter campaign allowing the British public to name the first aircraft using a hash tag competition; #nameourplane.

I'm excited to see what strategy Hill+Knowlton use in order to reassure the public especially during the couple of months before the plane launches in the UK. From what I've learnt so far Thomson backing the PR plans still is a good sign that they are confident and may know things that we don't about what may be actually happening and implies that the story is very much hyped up as they appear not to be panicking at this potential crisis issue. However, I do think that TUI Thomson need to address the issue in a way that shows the potential customer that issues have been solved and they were just teething problems, not serious issues.

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UPDATE: I have recently discovered that the winning name for the first aircraft through the twitter campaign will be called... 'Living the Dream.'

I have also decided that TUI Travel who owns Thomson, First Choice and many other global travel brands will be the brand I decide to work upon for a brand book as one of my next assignments!