• by Fern Siegel , May 10, 2022

Discover Puerto Rico, a new, nonprofit marketing organization, has kicked off “Live Boricua,” a brand campaign to enjoy things the Boricua (Puerto Rican) way, with spirit and verve.

"Live Boricua" spot, created by Discover Puerto working with its creative agency, R&R Partners, spotlight #LiveBoricua moments shared by Puerto Ricans in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, as well as destination lovers.

The campaign is an omnichannel paid media approach that includes TV, streaming TV, online video, social, content partnerships and digital banners. The work will continue to evolve and grow over at least two years.

Leah Chandler, Chief Marketing Officer of Discover Puerto Rico, told Agency Daily: "This is the continuation of a long-term strategy to position Puerto Rico as a uniquely desirable global destination for leisure and business travel. The goal of the campaign is to build brand equity, drive demand, differentiate from competitors, change travel consideration, and establish category leadership.

“This campaign has a layered approach — a combination of markets that have been seeing Discover Puerto Rico advertising in recent years, but also new markets that have not historically been exposed to advertising," she adds.

The creative is expanding Puerto Rico’s footprint to a national level and heavy in emerging markets.

"The essence of Live Boricua means to 'live like us,' and promises a deeper and more meaningful experience for travelers," says Jean Paul Polo, director of creative strategy for Discover Puerto Rico.

The 'Live Boricua' video was made by two women, Cinetrix director Mariem Pérez Riera and Young Collective photographer Steph Segarra.

In addition, Puerto Rican influencers and local tastemakers support the rollout by sharing personal anecdotes of their favorite #LiveBoricua moments and inviting others to do the same. The tagline serves as inspiration for local artists to design a 'Live Boricua' merchandise line, which will launch later this year.

Discover Puerto Rico promotes the work on its social channels, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and its web site.

The island took a huge tourism hit during the pandemic, but in 2021, lodging in Puerto Rico surpassed the $1 billion mark for the first time, and at years-end, it had increased to $1.3billion.

Also, AerostarAirport Holdings report that in 2021 4.84 million passengers arrived at Luis Muñoz Marín airport. This is 2.6% higher than 2019, the year with the most passengers in the past decade — and of those passengers were visitors. Airline Data, Inc. reports that through September, 62.3% of the arrivals were visitors rather than residents, up from 59% in 2019.

The duration of the visitors' stays was higher, too. The firm Arrivalist estimated that in 2021 visitors stayed in Puerto Rico, on average, 4.6 days. This is 5% more than what was experienced in 2019.