The Flight of the Penguins: A New Orleans Homecoming

FedEx gets a boost in image for its part in bringing rescued penguins back for a New Orleans homecoming after Hurricane Katrina.

As part of its overall focus on reputation management, FedEx puts a great deal of focus on communicating its social responsibility efforts. Despite significant recognition from the media and governmental agencies for FedEx’s disaster relief work in the aftermath of Katrina, FedEx needed to do even more to ensure the effort was resonating with the larger public. In fact, in a fall 2005 Harris Interactive poll, only 39% perceived FedEx positively when it came to “supporting good causes.” FedEx needed to tell its social responsibility story in a way that would capture the public imagination.

FedEx saw just such an opportunity when the New Orleans Audubon Aquarium of the Americas sought help transporting its 19 penguins and 2 sea otters back home from their temporary shelter in California for the reopening of the aquarium in May 2006. The penguins had been the biggest draw before Katrina, and these “stars” had to be there to make the grand reopening complete.  

Working with Ketchum, FedEx created a plan to make the penguins’ journey a day-long homecoming that would spotlight FedEx’s citizenship while symbolizing the return of life to New Orleans. Capitalizing on the “flight” of these flightless birds, the team broke the journey into three distinct media moments – takeoff, landing and arrival – and surrounded the birds at each stage with the symbolism of traveling dignitaries.

The choreographed images of penguins waddling on and off planes and onto purple carpets proved irresistible, and generated stories and photos of the journey in hundreds of outlets from CNN to You Tube. Attendance at the aquarium’s grand reopening soared 150% above projected levels, and by the fall of 2006 the FedEx’s social responsibility numbers had jumped 6 percentage points to 45%.