National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine Seeks Marketing Firm 

The objective of this research is to develop a guidebook to help airport industry practitioners use innovative marketing techniques to maximize revenue. The guidance should reflect the needs of non-, small-, medium-, and large-hub commercial airports; general aviation airports; and corporate aviation airports. The guidance should also enable practitioners to develop techniques to meet their unique situation and requirements, and should address, the following topics:

                Strategic Partnerships

• Mechanisms for enhancing and structuring strategic partnerships (e.g., contract requirement, financial incentives),
• Identifying suitable partners that align with an airport’s brand strategy, and
• Identifying and maximizing existing and new revenue sources;

                Data Sources, Collection, and Analysis

• Selecting technologies and methods to collect, analyze, and implement data-based marketing (e.g., CRM systems),
• Identifying sources of “big data,” and
• Identifying target audiences for marketing

                -Business-to-business vs. business-to-consumer

                -Business travel vs. non-business travel, and

                -Originating passengers vs. connecting passengers;

                Integrated Marketing

• Developing a brand strategy,
• Identifying targeted advertising opportunities within partner channels (e.g., airline, concessions, visitor bureaus, parking, general aviation partners), and
• Proposing an integrated approach to owned, earned, and paid marketing channels;

                Execution/Implementation

• Resourcing (e.g., staff, skill sets, cost, technology),
• Compliance with FAA revenue use policy,
• Overview of trends from airport industry and other industries,
• Case study examples (both airport and non-airport) demonstrating successful implementation of the strategies that could apply to airports of various sizes and types,
• Strategies for promoting techniques to various stakeholders (e.g., airport board, management, community),
• Using marketing technologies and applications (e.g., HubSpot, retargeting and basket abandonment apps),
• Decision-making tools (e.g., decision trees, matrices, flow charts) for quickly identifying potential opportunities, and
• Checklist(s) for developing and implementing a revenue generation plan.

Background:

Airports have relied on traditional revenue streams such as terminal rent, landing fees, parking, and concessions to operate and maintain their facilities. As operating costs continue to rise, many airports face increasing difficulty in meeting funding needs solely by these traditional revenue sources. New digital tools, such as big data (high-volume, high-velocity, and high-variety information assets) and targeted advertising (which provides contextually relevant information to passengers in real time) are already being used by airlines and other companies, and may provide new opportunities for airports. In addition, airports may be able to take advantage of their existing relationships with various stakeholders (e.g., airlines, concessionaires, corporate partners) to increase revenue. However, there is little research and guidance for identifying and applying these new synergistic revenue-generating opportunities at airports.

Scope of Work:

The ACRP is seeking the insights of proposers on how best to achieve the research objective. Proposers are expected to describe research plans that can realistically be accomplished within the constraints of available funds and contract time. Proposals must present the proposers’ current thinking in sufficient detail to demonstrate their understanding of the issues and the soundness of their approach to meeting the research objective. The work proposed must be divided into tasks, and proposers must describe the work proposed in each task in detail.

The research plan should include, at a minimum, the following interim deliverables and checkpoints with the ACRP project panel:

• Kickoff panel/contractor web meeting to be held 1 month after contract execution;
• Memo describing proposed case studies with rationale (see Special Note A);
• Web meeting to review and approve case studies;
• Interim report that documents results and key findings to date, including an annotated outline of the guidebook; and

In-person interim meeting to review the results of the interim report.

Note: Following receipt of the interim report, there should be 2 months for ACRP review and comments and for the interim meeting.

The final deliverables shall be the guidebook and a stand-alone technical memorandum titled, “Implementation of Research Findings and Products.”

• The required technical memorandum titled “Implementation of Research Findings and Products” should (a) provide recommendations on how to best put the research findings/products into practice; (b) identify possible institutions that might take leadership in applying the research findings/products; (c) identify issues affecting potential implementation of the findings/products and recommend possible actions to address these issues; and (d) recommend methods of identifying and measuring the impacts associated with implementation of the findings/products. Implementation of these recommendations is not part of the research project and, if warranted, details of these actions will be developed and implemented in future efforts.

Due Date:

April 16^th, 2019.

Address:

PROPOSAL-ACRP

ATTN: Christopher J. Hedges

Director, Cooperative Research Programs

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Edelman PR and Zeno Group are agencies with relevant experience.