Santa Barbara Airport
Proving the demand that got new routes on the map.
The Problem
SBA sits between two much larger draws, the Bay Area and Los Angeles. For airlines, the question was whether enough demand existed to justify adding a route. For travelers, the question was whether flying from SBA was worth choosing over driving to one of the giants.
My Role
Built demand-generation campaigns for SBA grounded in catchment data, leakage studies, and visitor profiles, aimed at specific carriers and specific routes: Delta, United, Southwest, Alaska. Named and led creative for the airport's Terminal Improvement Program, and directed production on the airport's flagship campaign, shot lists through final cut.
The Move
"Yeah, It's Like That" wasn't built to sell the airport in the abstract. It was built and validated at every position in the funnel, awareness through conversion, so the same campaign could do the work of convincing a traveler and reassuring an airline the demand was real.
The approach flexed by partner instead of running one generic pitch. A campaign built around Delta's Atlanta–Salt Lake connection had to make a different case than one built around Southwest's run to Sacramento or Alaska's route to San Diego, each with its own competitive set and its own reason a traveler would choose SBA over driving to LAX or flying out of the Bay Area.
What Happened
Passenger volume increased 7%, and the campaign delivered a video completion rate of nearly 80%.
The creative also performed consistently across the funnel, giving SBA a campaign that could support both traveler acquisition and airline route-development efforts.
