GREEN MARKETING POSITIONING AND LEADERSHIP
"SHAKEN NOT STIRRED" - PROACTIVE MARKETING IN A CRISIS

SPECIAL EVENTS - The World's Largest Pumpkin

GLICKMAN’S GREEN MARKETING POSITIONING AND LEADERSHIP

Glickman made the strategic decision to develop the positioning for Mauna Lani that has helped to firmly entrench the property as one of the world’s leading ‘green’ luxury resorts.  Mauna Lani had installed more solar energy back in 1999 than any  luxury resort in the US.  But aside from recognition by the EPA at the time, there was no recognition in the travel industry or anywhere else for that matter.  

Mark leveraged Mauna Lani’s solar energy to strategically market and position the resort, which directly led to unprecedented recognition as one of the “World’s Top Earth-Friendly” resorts in North America by Conde Nast Traveler and on to National Geographic Traveler’s magazine “Stay List.”  Mark highlighted those accolades on the home page of the resort’s website and continued to build on that recognition by sending out a series of optimized releases over online PR distribution channels which extended Mauna Lani’s green recognition over numerous blogs and online channels. This then led to Mauna Lani’s selection as one of only 10 environmentally friendly golf resorts for Golf magazine’s first-ever “Green Golf” award. 

Mauna Lani’ was also featured as one of only 10 resorts in a story on green-friendly golf resorts in USA Today.  As a result of Mark’s efforts, Mauna Lani was featured on The Travel Channel’s new program “Extreme Green” and the resort was recently contacted by the program Access Hollywood for a story on their green initiatives.    Mark reinforces  and cross-promotes the resort’s green positioning in all initiatives from newsletters to eblasts.

Mark then requested to speak to Mauna Lani’s over 600 associates in order to first congratulate them for their efforts in helping to garner all of this positive recognition but also to strongly convey to them the message that as a result of this recognition, all eyes in the industry were now on Mauna Lani and it was the resort’s responsibility to be a role model and leader for the hospitality industry and lead by further enhancing its own green efforts. 

Mark initiated and led a volunteer Green Team at the resort that transcended all departments from housekeeping to food and beverage to human resources to the bell desk and developed a policy that a green initiative needed to be discussed at every department’s weekly meetings and also every week as part of the resort’s Operations meeting.   Mark also led a Green meeting once a month at the resort to get reports and updates from various committees to ensure the resort is creating synergy and moving forward in the right direction. 

Mark continues to raise the bar and has most recently developed a unique, new partnership for Mauna Lani with “True Offsets”, the sole United Nations sanctioned carbon offset project working with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and  a company that is becoming the standard for the entire carbon offset industry.  

As a result of Mark’s partnership efforts, Mauna Lani will offer its guests the opportunity to offset the carbon footprint of their trip, and will also provide them with  hands on ecological enhancement experiences.   Mauna Lani’s resort guests are invited to plant their own tree on the Hamakua Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii on 660 acres located outside of Waimea, 45 minutes from the resort

To kick off this initiative, Mark created a media event and photo opportunity that generated major national coverage over Associated Press that featured the resort’s Green Team and their families planting 135 trees in an area where resort guests can plant their own family trees.  Glickman was featured and quoted in news outlets from MSNBC to Forbes to the San Francisco Chronicle.  The trees that the resort’s guests plant will be bar coded and guests can view their trees on the resort’s webcam.

"SHAKEN NOT STIRRED" - PROACTIVE MARKETING IN A CRISIS

Mauna Lani Resort was 12 miles from the epicenter of a devastating, major 6.7 earthquake that struck The Big Island and Hawaii in October 2006 causing major damage across the Island. Though Mauna Lani had to evacuate its guests, the resort was fortunate in that it did not suffer major damage.  However, the resort’s neighboring property, Mauna Kea did suffer extensive damage and in fact, had to shut down. 

While most resort’s and businesses on the Island kept a low profile, Glickman sprung into action with a multi-tiered marketing campaign in the media, travel industry and with future resort guests.  He immediately created a package following the earthquake called “Shaken Not Stirred” (right before the opening of the most recent James Bond movie) and sent an eblast to 30,000 past guests and travel industry partners with a link to the resort’s live webcam showing the resort was fully operational. He also conducted numerous media interviews and as a result, the resort’s “Shaken Not Stirred” package received PR coverage in over 50 publications as well as national TV and radio including the LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Travel & Leisure, Travel Weekly, Andrew Harper and much more.

Mark’s proactive response to this crisis not only helped to protect Mauna Lani’s future business on the books from cancellations but the “Shaken Not Stirred” package produced over 50 room nights. 

SPECIAL EVENTS - The World's Largest Pumpkin

THE CHALLENGE: To find a creative way to improve Tavern on the Green's Fall business revenues.

THE SOLUTION: Holidays present a unique opportunity to generate media attention. Glickman identified that the World Pumpkin Federation was holding a contest for "The World's Largest Pumpkin." He tracked down the winning pumpkin, which was grown by an unemployed salt miner in Nova Scotia. Glickman arranged to have the World's Largest Pumpkin displayed at Tavern on the Green for the months of October and November. A press conference was organized and school children were invited to a Halloween party at the restaurant with normal size pumpkins displayed next to the World's Largest Pumpkin.

THE RESULTS: The photo of the World's Largest Pumpkin was picked up by Associated Press and appeared in over 200 newspapers across the country including the New York Times and the front cover of USA Today. Also, all of the New York news networks and national morning shows including "Good Morning America", "Today" and CBS "This Morning" ran footage as well, The unemployed salt miner who grew the pumpkin insisted on driving the pumpkin to New York from Nova Scotia and got lost with the pumpkin on the back of his pick-up truck in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, Once Glickman helped get the pumpkin to the restaurant safely, he took advantage of that incident to get a story in the "About New York" column of the New York Times. After all, how often does an 800- pound pumpkin get lost in Harlem...or anywhere for that matter!

People came from all over the world to dine at Tavern on the Green and see the pumpkin. The pumpkin was getting so much attention and producing so much incremental business that Glickman realized there was an opportunity to maximize the pumpkin promotion even further by having someone carve the "World's Largest Jack-O-Lantern."

Glickman arranged for the "Regis and Kathie Lee" show on ABC-TV to film its Thanksgiving show "Live" from Tavern on the Green's Garden, where Glickman had lined up a knife thrower from Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus to carve the World's Largest Jack-O-Lantern. In addition to Tavern's chef bringing Regis and Kathie Lee turkey on air, he also was coached to say that as part of Tavern on the Green's special Thanksgiving menu, he would be serving pumpkin pie made from the World's Largest Pumpkin. That was also picked up by the New York Times and broke over Associated Press into hundreds of newspapers across the country. The pumpkin promotion helped Tavern on the Green produce the best Fall business in its over 20-year history.