INCHON CITY, SOUTH KOREA: The Inchon International Airport Authority has awarded a dollars 5 million-plus PR account - believed to be one of the biggest ever awarded in Asia - to Burson-Marsteller. The agency triumphed over finalists Hill & Knowlton, Edelman and Fleishman-Hillard.
INCHON CITY, SOUTH KOREA: The Inchon International Airport
Authority has awarded a dollars 5 million-plus PR account - believed to
be one of the biggest ever awarded in Asia - to Burson-Marsteller. The
agency triumphed over finalists Hill & Knowlton, Edelman and
Fleishman-Hillard.
Burson’s selection was a surprise, given an insider’s tip that H&K was
the heavy favorite to win the business. Yet having already carved out a
substantial presence for itself in the region with the acquisition of
its Korean affiliate Merit Communications in September, Burson is said
to have pressed very hard for the account. With the combined firepower
of Merit and a win of this magnitude, Burson’s supremacy in the region
is not likely to be challenged any time soon.
’It was the most comprehensive and complex RFP we have ever received,’
said Merit/Burson-Marsteller representative director Bryan Matthews.
’Our proposal included everything from international media relations to
speaking at airline conventions to direct appeals to airlines.’
Burson’s task will be to position the airport as the top regional hub in
Northeast Asia, ahead of Seoul’s Kimpo airport and Shanghai’s Pudong
airport. The PR campaign will likely aim to attract investors,
franchisees and major airlines to the airport before it opens in early
2001. Several international airlines dropped unprofitable Korean routes
during the recent Asian recession, and few have since resumed service.
But serving as the hub airport for the 2002 soccer World Cup, the future
is more promising.
The PR-led bid for the airport business also included ad agencies and
airport consultancies, with Burson teaming up with sister ad firm DY&R
and Washington, DC-based airport analysts GKMG.
The new airport, built on reclaimed land approximately 25 miles west of
Seoul, is slated to be one of the most modern facilities in the region,
complete with its own internal train and road network.
