2004 Silver Award “Excellence in Overall Marketing” American Marketing Association

After a selection process in 2003, Gotham Graphix was chosen as the primary design agency for the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Authority. The main objective was to create, through advertising, an awareness of the commercial air service at the airport. A secondary objective was to get people to think of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport when they have travel plans rather than automatically assuming that they must go to Richmond or Washington to reach their desired destination.

For the initial 2003/04 campaign, Gotham Graphix decided to focus not on the airport’s equipment and facilities but rather on the reasons WHY people travel. Different ad concepts were timed to correspond with the time of year. The emphasis was on the end benefit of travel, not the flight itself. The main categories were: Business, Vacation, Holiday, Technology, University of Virginia Sports, and University of Virginia Alumni. The backbone of the graphic identity was the three letter airport code for Charlottesville, CHO. This code was used both visually and also in the text headlines, for example: The Travelers CHOice, CHOice Business Fares, CHOice Vacation Fares, and CHOice Fan Fares (for the UVa athletic event programs). The photography used in the ads was also customized to fit the ad headline, for example: family and relatives are shown in the holiday ad, recreational activities are shown in the vacation ad, and business meetings and cityscapes are shown in the business ad.

Utilizing the results of the 2002 passenger survey conducted by the Airport Authority, a diverse advertising plan was developed including media buys in Albemarle Magazine, Virginia Living Magazine, University of Virginia Alumni magazine, University of Virginia Football and Men’s Basketball Gameday magazine, The Hook newspaper, C-Ville Weekly newspaper, and the Charlottesville Business Journal newspaper supplement as well as advertising and promotions in UVa's John Paul Jones Arena and Scott Football Stadium.

For the 2006/07 ad campaign, the emphasis shifted to the added value provided by CHO in contrast to some of the larger airports that focus on budget carriers. Using humorous photographs and taglines, Gotham Graphix illustrated that "you get what you pay for." The ads stressed what an easy and comfortable experience it was to fly from CHO.