AirTran Airways And CKPR Receive PRWeek Award for Best Use of Internet Media

ORLANDO, Fla., March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. NYSE: AAI, and top integrated public relations firm in America, CKPR, announced today their program "AirTran Ewe" has been named Best Use of Internet/New Media by the PRWeek Awards. The awards are the public relations industry publication's premier event honoring the industry's best campaigns, companies and individuals.

In January 2007, AirTran Airways re-launched AirTran U, a low-cost flight program tailored specifically for college students. CKPR was charged with increasing awareness and enrollment in the program within the 18-22 year-old college audience through a comprehensive marketing and communications program.

"Changing the AirTran Airways standby program to keep up with the times, without losing the equity we had built up with our previous X-Fares program, was the easy part," said Tad Hutcheson, vice president of marketing and sales at AirTran Airways. "Reaching the advertising-adverse college student was not an easy task, but AirTran U succeeded by breaking through the communication barrier in nontraditional ways."

By working closely with Cramer-Krasselt and leveraging the agencies' integrated capabilities, such as extensive market research and brand planning, CKPR developed a 360-degree program. The driving component: a YouTube contest called "EweTube." Students were asked to make videos of themselves wearing a mask of AirTran U's mascot Ewe, a female sheep, while leading a cheer for AirTran U. Students then uploaded their videos to YouTube.com where fellow classmates and friends voted on their favorite video. The winner received a set of two free round-trip flights, plus three flights for friends or family. Parading street teams of cheerleaders and the Ewe toured campuses in major markets as well as Daytona Beach during Spring Break to hand out thousands of Ewe masks, temporary tattoos and t-shirts, and directed students to www.airtranu.com.

CKPR executed integrated traditional and non-traditional methods to encourage students to visit the site and interact with the AirTran Airways brand including: creating Friendster, MySpace and Facebook Ewe mascot pages where Ewe received over 600 friend requests; blog and media outreach; a cameo appearance on the TODAY Show; emails to the airline's subscribers; podcasts; a Wikipedia entry; and C-K-created online ads.

"AirTran's EweTube is a perfect example of how public relations is evolving into a much broader world of traditional and non-traditional communications," said Joel Curran, managing director of CKPR. "The program, literally, changed the conversation between AirTran Airways and this growing generation of consumers by bringing our brand messages into a medium so relevant in their world."

The program yielded spectacular results: AirTran Airways' number of standby flights increased by an average of 30 percent, the EweTube contest attracted 24,000 unique visitors and media impressions totaled more than 19 million.

AirTran Airways, a Fortune 1000 company, offers more than 700 affordable, daily flights to 58 U.S. destinations. With 8,900 friendly Crew Members and America's youngest all-Boeing fleet, AirTran Airways provides XM Satellite Radio and Business Class seating on every flight. For more information and free online booking, visit http://www.airtran.com.

CKPR is ranked among the largest independent PR firms in the country by leading industry trade publication PRWeek, which also named CKPR as one of its "Agencies to Watch" in 2007. The agency, a multi-PRSA Silver Anvil winner, was also named the 2007 Holmes Report Consumer Agency of the Year. With fully integrated teams in Chicago, New York, Milwaukee and Phoenix, CKPR is best known for offering 360-degree communications programs. CKPR's client roster includes: AirTran Airways, Appleton Paper, Briggs & Stratton, Cellular South, Colorlab Cosmetics, H.J. Heinz, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, InSinkErator, Johnson Controls, Kimberly-Clark, Kohl's, MeadWestvaco, Party City, Sealy, Whirlpool, University of Phoenix, the United Service Organization (USO) and Uno Chicago Grill. CKPR is the public relations arm of Cramer-Krasselt, the country's third largest independent advertising agency. www.ckpr.biz

    Media Contacts:  AirTran Airways
                     Tad Hutcheson
                     Judy Graham-Weaver
                     Cynthia Tinsley-Douglas
                     Quinnie Jenkins
                     678.254.7442