Hawai‘i Tourism

New Yorkers don’t know Hawaii, and frankly don’t care. They're more inclined to visit Florida, the Caribbean or Europe due to misperceptions around Hawai‘i. We were challenged to show New Yorkers Hawai‘i like they’ve never seen it – from a New York state of mind. We set out to be the first destination with a take on the fashion collab trend: introducing Hawaii, by New York. HI X NY.

HixNY reintroduced Hawaii to NYC through partnerships with six leading tastemaker brands, The Governors Ball, Barry’s Bootcamp, Best Made Co., The Infatuation, Saturdays NYC and Four Seasons, to curate vacation experiences as unique as the islands themselves. But we didn’t just tell New Yorkers what they could do in Hawaii – we invited them to enter for a chance to win the experience for themselves.  

We launched this integrated campaign with an earned creative stunt in partnership with the MTA that turned a lucky New Yorker’s ticket to the city into a ticket to Hawaii. We flooded the subways with Hawaii branded MetroCards in a first-of-its-kind activation for MTA using a MetroCard serial number for entry in a giveaway.

In its launch week alone, HIxNY surpassed Work From Hawaii, in earned coverage, with 54 hits and a total audience reach (including social extensions) at 3.2B impressions. We secured national placements in Travel & Leisure, AFAR, Thrillist, Travel Pulse and The Points Guy, along with regional broadcast coverage on Good Day NY, NY1 & Fox and more. I even flew to New York to be interviewed on TV as a spokesperson to represent Hawai‘i Tourism.

One of my favorite elements was our campaign site, Hawaii.nyc that won FWA and AWWWARDS site of the day.