The Heart Recovery Marketing Campaign

SUMMARY Crisis communication plans and marketing recovery campaigns are a key component of destination recovery after crises or disasters. Despite increasing researcher and practitioner interest in crisis and disaster management, further analysis of these components of recovery is warranted. This article contributes to this growing body of research by analysing the advertising components of a recovery marketing campaign developed and implemented immediately after bushfires in the Australian Capital Territory in 2003. The findings are drawn from relevant documents, marketing collateral and in-depth interviews with government agencies, professional associations and businesses. Despite a lack of relevant plans, the marketing campaign was an effective exercise in crisis communication under temporal and resource constraints and demonstrated application of research, rapid response, financial support, consistency of messages, honest and open communication and evaluation. Planning, training and further analytical case study research is recommended.