In Hawaii, an Ad Campaign Sells Each Island as Unique But potential visitors interested in learning more about Hawaii need not head to a movie theater or wait for "The Descendants" to turn up on DVD or pay-per-view. Instead, they can check out Hawaii through a campaign that is now being introduced by the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau, which offers a look at the state, island by island. The ads all refer to Hawaii as "the Hawaiian Islands," and use that phrase as a theme. The campaign sells each island - Hawaii, Kauai, Lanai, Maui, Molokai and Oahu - one by one, rather than as a six-pack. That approach is consistent across all media: television, print, online, social media like Facebook and the bureau's Web site, gohawaii.com. The goal is "to develop the brand personality for each of the islands and communicate that in a way we haven't in the past," said Jay Talwar, senior vice president for marketing at the bureau in Honolulu. The change is in response to "a bit of a mess we've made for ourselves," he added, in terms of confusing tourists trying to distinguish among Hawaii's attractions and choose which to visit. "Someone on an island gets a new wedding chapel and declares, "We're the romance island," or gets a new golf course and says, "We're the golf island," " Mr. Talwar said. "We need to create a sense of difference about each island and convey that each delivers a different experience," he added. The media spending for the new campaign is estimated at around $7 million, which is "significantly more than we've put behind a campaign for a bunch of years," Mr. Talwar said. It's usually more in the $4 million range. The additional spending is being spurred by an improving outlook for tourism after a downturn that began with the financial crisis in 2008. People who like to travel "were pounded by the waves," Mr. Talwar said, and "really hunkered down; those with jobs were not taking vacations." So the bureau adopted a short-term tack for 2009 and 2010 with a message he described this way: "Eventually, you're going to need a break. Come to Hawaii to recharge, rejuvenate, refresh. And the ad placements had "a heavy West Coast skew," Mr. Talwar said, reflecting how it costs less - and takes less time - to visit Hawaii for someone who lives in California than in Connecticut. Now, with metrics like the number of seats on aircraft flying to Hawaii approaching 2007 levels, the time has arrived for a longer-term perspective, Mr. Talwar said, and also to be "more national." The ads offer shorthand descriptions for each island. For instance, Kauai is "Hawaii's island of discovery," Maui is "the magic isle" and Oahu is "the heart of Hawaii." Vignettes of each island's attractions are presented under a common rubric, "Living in the moment on the island of (name of island)," which is followed more specific information like "The adventure continues at gohawaii.com/ (name of island)." Hawaii is, of course, not the only destination sensing an opportunity to recover from the pounding cited by Mr. Talwar. Others that are stepping up their sales pitches include Mexico, which is seeking to change perceptions about conditions that tourists find there; the Bahamas, which is running commercials that declare, "Once you're in the Bahamas, the rest of the world fades away"; and the Paradise Coast area of Florida, including Naples and Marco Island, which began a campaign last week that carries the theme "That's why they call it Paradise." To stand out amid the clamor, "the challenge was to dive deeper and show something unexpected" about Hawaii to potential visitors, said Tammy Uy, creative director at MVNP in Honolulu, the agency - formerly known as Milici Valenti Ng Pack, and part of the DDB Worldwide unit of the Omnicom Group - that is creating the campaign. That was complicated by the fact that "everyone knows Hawaii, even if they haven't been here," she added, because they have seen it in movies like "The Descendants" and "Blue Hawaii" or television series like "The Bachelor," "Hawaii Five-O" (the original), "Hawaii Five-0" (the new version), "Hawaiian Eye" and "Lost." (Mr. Talwar conceded that "the HD footage" on the current version of "Hawaii Five-0" may help attract visitors. It is "actually pretty tasty," he said, "away from the crime scenes.") The commercials are running on cable networks like HGTV and Travel Channel. The print ads are appearing in magazines like Real Simple and Travel & Leisure. Another Omnicom agency, the Los Angeles office of OMD, is handling the media services for the campaign. There is also a public relations component, under the aegis of McNeil Wilson Communications in Honolulu, part of the Anthology Marketing Group.