Aloha

Like so many things in life, I'm a latecomer to the party. When my kids found out I listen to Pandora Radio there were aghast with Gen X shame. Or Gen Z. Or Gen Y, as is why do we apply these meaningless labels to generations. 

I'm old, so anyone not as old as me is Gen Younger than Shit.

"Dad, you can subscribe to music for $12 bucks a month and get all the music you want."

"Or I can get all the music I want with Pandora and sink those monthly payments into a nice T-bill account with an ROI of over 7%."

Alas, I don't really know what a T bill account is, nor anything about a 7% ROI. Despite my Hebraic Seasonings and our semi-mythical ability to turn a dime into a dollar. Maybe I should start attending the Tuesday Night World Domination meetings again.

We've discussed what I don't know, here's what I do know -- advertising.

And if you listen to Pandora Radio, the free version, you hear a lot of radio ads. 

My friend Claudia will back me on this but radio used to be where copywriters could play. I'll spare you the war/glory stories. But let's just say that today's radio spots -- and it might be because I hear the Tide Lady and that "intercom thingie" spot ALL THE TIME -- really do suck.

But not Hawaiian Airlines!

They catch me every time. And I'll tell you why. 

When I put on Pandora I select Shuffle Stations. There was a time I would listen to Mark Knopfler or Genesis or even Max Richter (even if you ever find yourself in need of sad but beautiful music, Max is your guy) all day. But now I prefer a more eclectic mix before I go all nihilist on myself.

So what did the genii at Hawaiian Airlines do? 

They start every one of their spots with music. It takes me 13-17 seconds before I even realize that I've been listening to a commercial. That's how you blur the lines between "content" and "paid content."

I know I'm a little biased because I happen to love Hawaii. When the kids were young we went almost every year. Maui, the Big Isle and of course, Kauai. They were the perfect place to decompress from the hectic and nonstop hair-on-fire world of Chiat/Day.

And a major part of that Hawaii zeitgeist is the music. The slow, lazy guitars. The unmistakable twang. The easy going nature of melody. These folks had invented soft yacht rock long before Señor Buffet.

As the music comes to the end in the commercial a VoiceOver comes on and with a brevity that speaks of confidence, "Hawaiian Airlines, Hawaii flies with us."

Again, genius. 

This is the equivalent of Adidas' "Impossible is Nothing."

99.9% of the marketing middle managers I have come across, and there were so many at PayPal, would have Tweaked the line to : "Fly with us to Hawaii." 

Or, as one of my former PP bosses, a woman with the creativity of a worn out doorstop, would say to me, "we want to make things clear to our customers. We don't want to confuse them. Let's be straightforward with all our email blasts, banners and referral cards."

Cut to Me, looking over my paycheck stub deposited in my account every two weeks...

"You got it DB."

This is the same woman who raked me over the coals during Covid Times for submitting an email Subject Line that read: 

This sale is even bigger that Nicki Minaj's cousin's swollen testicles.

Come on, who wouldn't open an email with that kind of tease?

Alas, genius is in the details. By transposing the object/subject, the line conveys so much more. It tells the traveler, eager to get off the mainland and breathe in the tropical air warmed by southern hemispheric trade winds, that the Hawaii experience starts long before the wheels go up.

That's marketing. That's knowing what the customer is feeling and acting accordingly.

You got that DB?