Kelli Dugan ALABAMA
Mobile Airport Authority Rebrand Embraces Core Values of Flight, Coastal Identity
February 14, 2014
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  • The Mobile Airport Authority unveiled recently its new brand, and the message is clear: Let’s fly.

    The comprehensive new look, vision and mission is purposefully simplistic and the culmination of more than one year collaborating with Birmingham-based Big Communications, a full-service creative marketing firm with a penchant for promoting the southeast and a growing expertise in the aviation market.

    The airport authority – the quasi-governmental body that oversees Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley, Mobile Regional Airport and Mobile Downtown Airport – sought a cohesive strategy for communicating the increased economic impact, convenience and community involvement the trio provides under the broader umbrella.

    With Airbus’ $600 million A320 final assembly line slated to come online in 2015, the Mobile Airport Authority has been thrust onto a global stage as interest in the Port City’s economic development opportunities and available infrastructure climbs almost in tandem with the state-of-the-art aircraft assembly facility’s frame.

    But with more than 70 companies employing about 3,500 already calling Mobile Aeroplex home, the airport authority sought a rebranding package that focused as much on the area’s existing aviation prowess as the promise of successes to come.

    “We are literally welcoming the world to Mobile right now, so we knew everything we did needed to be anchored with Mobile, but it also had to be about telling the story of who we are and what we do,” said Roger Wehner, the authority’s executive director.

    In turn, the new color-coded logos depict a modern seagull that embodies both the birth of flight to which Mobile lays claim and a distinctively coastal feel. The Mobile Aeroplex seagull is red, invoking its Brookley roots; the Mobile Downtown Airport seagull is blue; Mobile Regional Airport’s seagull is green; and the authority’s seagull combines all three colors.

    “Our new tagline, ‘Let’s Fly,’ really brings to the core what we do, and it does it with a sense of urgency, speed and passion,” Wehner said.

    The airport authority also rolled out its new identity recently for employees during its first-ever employee rally, where all in attendance were asked to identify what the group needs to do in 2014 to be successful and then helped collectively draft the organization’s guiding principles:

    • Trust

    • Performance

    • Commitment

    “What we want more than anything as we get ready to tackle just a storm of activity is a new sense of transparency with our employees, and that’s what this rally was about,” Wehner said, noting a long-vacant warehouse on the Mobile Aeroplex property was rehabilitated and trans formed into a flight-themed “cool space” to host the event. (More on that later.)

    “We need our employees to know that they’re part of the solution to any challenges we face as we hit our stride this year and the growth just explodes, and we really wanted to communicate clearly to them that this is all about embracing that idea of constant, relentless improvement,” he said.

    http://www.al.com/business/index.ssf/2014/02/mobile_airport_authority_rebra.html