PRWeek recently spotlighted the unique skywriting campaign dreamed up by Harvest PR & Marketing, Inc., for long-time client General Mitchell International Airport (MKE), Milwaukee, Wis.

A bold venture into the social media and viral marketing realms, “the campaign was designed to spread the word through both traditional and new media, and connect the audience with the brand and lure visitors to flyMKE.com,” wrote PRWeek Washington bureau chief Ted McKenna.

Harvest PR hired a skywriter to freehand “skymailme.com” over Chicago’s Wrigley Field during the highly attended Cubs-White Sox game, at which MKE sponsored a rooftop media party. Visitors to the viral site could create their own virtual skywriting message to send to friends and incidentally promote flyMKE.com. Launched in June 2008, the campaign generated a combined 16,000 visits to both Web sites, and northern Illinois traffic at the airport is up 29.3 percent.

Mitchell Airport spokesperson Pat Rowe was quoted: “It was a campaign that really caught the imagination of our target audience and broke through the clutter.”