At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an eerie silence fell over Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Takeoffs and landings plummeted by nearly 70%, threatening not just vacation plans but the economic heartbeat of North Carolina’s Triangle region. E&V, longtime partners of the RDU Airport Authority, faced a daunting challenge: prepare to rapidly restore public confidence in air travel when restrictions lifted — with virtually no budget amid the airport’s severe financial strain.
Rather than waiting for pandemic conditions to improve before taking action, the team recognized a critical truth: RDU wasn’t just a departure point for vacations but a vital economic engine for the entire region’s major employers.
The solution emerged through a bold strategy — turning to those very businesses that depended on the airport’s success. Thus, the Triangle Takeoff Coalition was born, bringing together economic powerhouses including Duke University, PNC, Lenovo, Syngenta, and United Therapeutics to fund and strategically support a campaign ready to launch the moment travel restrictions eased.
“We realized that by uniting the region’s largest stakeholders, we could create something far more powerful than what the airport could accomplish alone during this financial strain,” noted the team as they crafted a campaign centered on one simple, powerful message: Carry On.
The campaign leveraged the Triangle’s most recognizable faces, featuring legendary Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, Carolina Hurricanes hockey coach Rod Brind’Amour and team president Don Waddell, alongside executives from Lenovo, Novo Nordisk, and Holt Brothers.
This all-star cast delivered an inspiring message through carefully crafted visuals that celebrated the airport’s role in business success and personal connection. The multi-channel approach ensured the campaign would be impossible to miss — appearing across social media, online publications, radio stations, and premium television placements including local Super Bowl advertising.
Every element reinforced that supporting RDU meant supporting the entire region’s recovery.
The campaign’s impact was immediate and substantial. Social media elements alone generated more than 1 million impressions in just the first month. Industry recognition followed, with the Carry On campaign winning a silver Addy at the American Advertising Awards and the 2022 TCREW Champion Award for Most Creative Local Marketing Campaign.
Most importantly, travelers returned. Takeoffs and landings dramatically increased, breathing life back into the terminal halls. Perhaps the most significant outcome was the transformation of business relationships — what began as a crisis response evolved into a powerful ongoing coalition that continues to meet regularly, charting both the campaign’s future and the airport’s role as a regional economic driver.
The Carry On campaign proved that sometimes the most powerful recovery strategies aren’t built on massive budgets, but on recognizing shared interests and transforming traditional business relationships into true strategic alliances that benefit an entire region.
