Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau

OBJECTIVES:
The Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau (HVCB) engaged the Dana team to create an awareness campaign for its revamped Destination Specialist Program that would: 1) carry out a cohesive look/message with the organization’s consumer-facing brand campaign and 2) be delivered through a comprehensive co-op print and digital media plan that was also designed and executed by Dana. The primary objective for this campaign was to generate awareness, database growth and participation in the Destination Specialist Program. Achievement of this objective would fulfill a correlated end goal of driving consumer visitation and spending.

ACTIONS:
To convince travel agents to participate in the new Destination Specialist Program, the campaign first needed to sell the destination itself. Body copy emphasizes the uniqueness of the destination with six iconic islands offering six distinctive experiences. In an effort to maintain a cohesive vision and voice with the HVCB’s consumer-facing brand campaign, we adopted their “Let Hawaii Happen” headline and added what benefit it delivers to the travel agent—OPPORTUNITY. In becoming a Hawaiian Islands expert through the Destination Specialist Program, agents are able to deliver the rich experiences that add up to the vacations of their clients’ dreams which, in turn, leads to boundless opportunity through repeat sales and referrals. This awareness campaign was deployed through the Dana-designed Travel Trade Co-Op Marketing Program that boosted media purchasing power by an astounding 800%.

RESULTS:
In the first seven months of the campaign, the HVCB database was increased by 18.1% and a total of 5,611 new travel professionals registered for the Destination Specialist Program with average monthly registrants up a colossal 283%. These increases have already resulted in a positive, measurable impact on tourism. In July 2015, the Hawaii Tourism Authority reported an all-time record for monthly arrivals with a 9.5% increase from Canada, 7.2% increase from the Western U.S. and 4.9% increase from the Eastern U.S. Spending also jumped across the board—with a 5.8% gain from the U.S. and a 3.6% bump from Canada.