NEW ORLEANS—During the virtual 2020 Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) Excellence in Airport Marketing, Communications, and Customer Experience (MarComCX) Awards last week, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY) won awards for Overall Public Relations Programs for Medium Airports for its work surrounding the opening of the new terminal in November 2019 and for Best in Airport Partnerships for its partnership with 23 other airports for the virtual JetStream Music Festival hosted by Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in May. This work was led by MSY’s Communications and Marketing department, and they were also finalists in three other award categories including Print Communications, Video/Film Productions, and Websites.

The Overall Public Relations Programs award recognizes overall approaches to airport public relations and media relations. Through “The New MSY” public relations program, MSY set out to educate the community and its passengers about various aspects of the opening of its new terminal last year with a robust program that included paid ad placements, earned media, special events and messaging through owned channels. The campaign received a total online news audience of 31.6 million (15 times larger than the domestic market areas of New Orleans and Baton Rouge combined) and online news publicity the equivalent of $2.06 million over the course of one month.

The Best in Airport Partnerships award recognizes the value of partnerships between airports when undertaking marketing, public relations, and customer experience initiatives. MSY was delighted to represent New Orleans in the virtual JetStream Music Festival alongside our airport partners. Each airport featured a 10-minute set from a musician local to their city in support of the creative community during the COVID-19 pandemic. New Orleans songstress Robin Barnes represented MSY during the festival.

MSY was also a finalist in the categories of Print Communications for The New MSY open house brochures and signage, Video/Film Productions for the MSY Travel Ready videos featuring New Orleans culture bearers Big Freedia, Bryan Batt, Dancing Man 504, Funky Big Sam, and Robin Barnes, and Websites for the newly designed website, flyMSY.com.

Kevin Dolliole, Director of Aviation for Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, said, “It is an honor to have our communications and marketing team recognized alongside our peers in the airport industry—especially for their tremendous efforts surrounding the opening of our new terminal. I am proud of their work and the work of the entire MSY team.”

ACI-NA is an organization that represents airports and other aviation-related businesses in the United States and Canada. Airports across North America submitted entries in 20 categories in communications, marketing, and customer experience for this contest.