Social Media Marketing: Tale Of Tiger's Big Adventure!

In 2015, a truly memorable act of kindness and creativity took place at Tampa International Airport:

      "The plush toy, which belongs to 6-year-old Owen Lake, was left behind in the Tampa airport as Owen and his family traveled to Houston recently for a family member's high school graduation. His mother, Amanda Lake, reached out to the airport when her son learned the toy was missing and became distraught." (Griffin, J 2015)

Source: 8th Annual Shorty Awards

     Tampa Bay's airport staff did an amazing job creating this "adventure" for the plush before being reunited with Owen. The story and photos used to tell the story were meant to grab the attention of families, especially parents who might be traveling with younger passengers. Traveling can often be a daunting task for families due to several factors. These factors could include number of children, their ages, whether or not their children have special needs, or simply because the children have a fear of flying with the anxiety of airport policies (ie. security checks). This story along with the photos that accompany it are extremely personable attracting the attention of curious children.  Rather than simply sending the doll back to its owner, the operations manager for the airport went above and beyond in more than one way. 

     The adventure that the tiger doll went on showed several things. First off it simply showed off the airport crew and their personalities often hidden behind the scenes of an airport. Travelers such as myself often wonder who the men and women are behind the scenes of all of the bustle of airport traffic. Seeing smiling faces in the documented adventure shows people enjoying their work. This is important to a consumer like myself as I would much rather support an operation that supports the happiness of its employees rather than an operation that dismisses employee satisfaction. A Shorty Awards article quoted the operations manager, "Our goal was to tell this story – unfiltered and exactly how it happened – and let it showcase our core value of customer service and to encourage brand loyalty from a local, national and international audience." (Tony D'Aiuto, Operations Manager) I believe that how this was handled and how it was portrayed to audiences was very successful because it was a genuine act that resulted in a positive customer experience. 
Although it is a bit difficult to track its performance on digital/social media, the story was shared with ABC and was featured in an article in which the Shorty Awards page linked. A large news network writing and publishing that story can do wonders when it comes to gaining attention through digital media. It was mentioned in the article that the story went viral which may have had a lot to do with that. Even though I was not aware of the story in 2015 (as my social media presence was limited at that time), I still read about the story a couple of years later. A story that is now five years old still has an impact on digital media proving its success as a digital media story. 

     If there was anything that would help the story to me more efficient, it would probably be mentioned that the articles do not have social media links to the actual posts. Granted that this is not the fault of the airport or operations manager, it would have just helped the network reach in which the story could have had a larger impact (even though it was a viral story). 

Sources:

Griffin, J. (2019, August 25). A boy's lost stuffed tiger goes on an airport adventure. Retrieved March 27, 2020, from https://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tourism/a-boys-lost-stuffed-tiger-goes-on-an-airport-adventure/2233803/

Tale of tiger's big adventure highlights airport's commitment to customer service - The Shorty Awards. (2016, April). Retrieved from https://shortyawards.com/8th/boy-leaves-stuffed-tiger-at-tpa-returns-to-a-tale-of-tigers-big-adventure-see-more-at-httpww