Success in a Flash (Mob)

The challenge? Build awareness of annual two-day hula festival with a few hundred dollars.

The inspiration? Gilbert and Associates put a cultural spin on topical phenomenon, organizing the world’s first Tahitian dance flash mob. For this ambient event, our team leveraged existing relationships with production partners and performers to arrange low-cost and in-kind participation. Ka‘anapali Beach was selected as the performance locale for its high concentration of visitors, central Westside location and role as Ka‘anapali Resort’s main pedestrian artery.

On July 22, 2011, a typically placid morning on Ka‘anapali Beach became a swirl of song and dance in a flash as visitors, hospitality workers and other onlookers watched more than 20 youth rise and sway to the sound of Polynesian percussion. The performance was captured on video and posted on Lahaina Cannery Mall’s branded YouTube page.

The return?

• More than 1,300 attendees at the weekend event
• Official flash mob video by Lahaina Cannery Mall received more than 15,000 views in the first 14 days of being posted, and a massive traffic spike to Lahaina Cannery Mall’s official YouTube page
• Tens of thousands of impressions garnered via social sharing (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Video was shared on Facebook via the HawaiiNewsNow.com posting alone by more than 1,000 individual
• Story made statewide new cycle of every major news network in Hawaii, including KGMB (CBS), KHNL (NBC), KHON (FOX) and KITV4 (ABC), for almost 24 hours (evening, late and morning news broadcasts)
• Video featured very prominently on Maui-based TV/internet newscasts, including MauiNow.com and MauiTVNews.com (full-length video included)
• Mentions in various offline recourses including the Honolulu Star-Advertiser
• Single-month record for visits to official website LahainaCanneryMall.com set in July and again in August
• Spike in YouTube subscribers and Twitter followers
• Recognition from industry publications, including being lead story for Shopping Center Weekly

And, yeah, we got to spend the afternoon at the beach, so there’s that, too.

As the official video has a permanent home online, we can surmise the future will hold thousands of additional impressions promoting the Lahaina Cannery Mall brand to new audiences and reinforcing the center’s reputation as industry thought leaders and culturally aware community members, and, ultimately, promoting the Lahaina Cannery Mall brand indefinitely.

Much credit goes to our client, Lahaina Cannery Mall and CBRE, for allowing us stray from the box a bit, and to our partners at Silver Shark Media for their wiliness to work on a shoestring budget. Not to forget, of course, a big mahalo goes out to the kids and kumu from Te Tiare Patitifa, who embraced this idea passionately.

Thanks for the support.