• by Amy Corr , Staff Writer @MediaPostOTL, June 30, 2008

Hawaii, the state I imagined as never having to advertise because who needs to be sold on visiting such a beautiful place, is advertising heavily during the summer travel season, a time when the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau rarely promoted the state before.

It's not cheap to visit Hawaii during its peak travel periods, summer and winter, and the cost of gas and airfares has driven consumers to take vacations closer to home, or none at all, making advertising during popular travel times a necessity.

The luxe destination spot launched a $3 million TV, radio, print and online campaign (considered by the HVCB as a limited budget) in an effort to encourage West Coast residents to take end of summer and fall vacations.

The HVCB also teamed up with American Airlines Vacations, American Express Vacations, Classic Vacations, Expedia, Orbitz, NWA WorldVacations, Pleasant Holidays, Travelocity and United Vacations to offer travelers $200 discounts off airfare.

Better still, the HVCB created a Web site that houses the bevy of discounts along with a calendar of events.

Print ads, running in daily and weekly papers in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose and San Diego, feature canoeing vacationers and the copy, "This summer, Hawaii has lots to offer. Save $200 off flights to the Islands right now."

TV ads highlight Hawaii's volcanoes, high waves for surfing, scuba diving, and authentic ukulele players. Sign me up.

Milici Valenti Ng Pack, FireFly and McNeil Wilson Communications created the campaign and Milici Valenti Ng Pack, OMD and Tribal DDB handled the media buy.