MAHALO FOR YOUR INTEREST IN COVERT COMMUNICATION

We love to play. Our agency approach is much like your business model. We pick the games that we know will generate the most tickets. Those easy wins help us cash in for the best prizes at a lower cost.

QUESTION 1 FULL-SERVICE AGENCY

 Our team has over 100 years of online and traditional media experience in the state. From our nationally recognized results-driven approach to digital & social marketing to negotiating the best integrated local media solutions across TV, radio, print, direct mail, event, and out-of-home, we’re able to provide full-agency services in a way no others can.

Beginning of the Buying Funnel

Awareness

Broad-Based Consumer Lifestyle & Life-Stage Targeting.  

Consideration

Direct Response Real-Time Targeting.  

Intent

Competitive & Category Conquesting Targeting. 

Action

Turning Online Prospects Into Customers.   

QUESTION 2. PUBLIC RELATIONS.

Over the past 7 years, we’ve generated over 2 million in added-value media for clients & nonprofit partners. Our mission is to create opportunities for clients to generate massive exposure through what we call “breakout” PR. Our approach is to leave no stone unturned; when we have a story to tell, we make sure it gets pitched to the right reporters so it’s exclusive and newsworthy. We continually focus on ways for clients to get more coverage by creating our own POP-up PR stunts, shooting them, editing them, and submitting them to the news (local & national). We believe PR is much more than issuing a press release. Spotlight examples are below. Many more available upon request.

QUESTION 3. NATIONAL BRAND EXPERIENCE

Collectively, our team has worked with Burger King Hawaii, Jamba Juice, Wet’n’Wild, and KFC to penetrate the local market from account management to media buying. Hawaii is the most isolated landmass in the world, and as a result, the most critical tool for a national brand to achieve and maintain relevancy is through community partnerships. From sponsoring schools and clubs to creating music contests and scholarships, it’s important to reach out and support locals in alignment with your brand promise. Furthermore, brand creative including design, image selection, and voice, needs to be adjusted to speak to our more Asian / ethnic audiences while maintaining the correct use and respect to Hawaiian Cultural terms, i.e., locals should be referred to as kama’aina never Hawaiians. Cookie-cutter strategies that work in the mainland USA don’t work in Hawaii.

Covert Communication is currently working with Sylvan Learning Hawaii to increase students to their four locations on Oahu. What’s critical to understand, is that in order for us to be effective locally, corporate needs to support adjusted communication strategies. One of the biggest problems we’ve encountered with accounts like Sylvan is from corporate pushback. From not allowing locations to showcase local phone numbers on the website, featuring images of Caucasian kids in locations clearly not on the islands, to insisting on managing AdWords for the entire United States (which is hurting our client because no one, locally, is advertising on our name.) Since Sylvan corporate IS doing so, the paid listing is coming up above our organic listing. Our organic listing contains links to our Hawaii location pages and allows customers searching for us by name to find us faster — rather than getting pushed through a corporate squeeze page. The result is a high bounce rate and lower conversions, year-over-year. It’s ongoing struggles like this that prevent national brands from penetrating the local market.

Another example would be go! Airlines who was Mesa Airlines’ first consumer brand. From how they entered the marketplace (Deeply discounting fares was seen as the reason Aloha Airlines went out of business — which wasn’t the case, however it’s what locals believed.), tone of voice in ads to edgy partnerships, locals never welcomed the brand. After Principal Anna Covert took over marketing in 2011 under her previous company, Wind On Water Communications, the brand made significant strides in changing brand perceptions through nonprofit sponsorships, reaching out to the military market and changing the brand’s in-flight magazine and ads, to a focus on being a family brand. Unfortunately, the brand was not able to maintain market share after an operational overhaul forced them to exit the market. However, it’s a great example that the mainland brands that “make it” do so from the get-go by understanding Hawaii as unique, and supporting adjustments to the brand-strategies to meet local community needs.

QUESTION 4. THE ALOHA SPIRIT

As you’ll surely hear from everyone — Hawaii is unlike anywhere else in the world. People pay more, make less, and live longer. Why? It’s not just the rainbows, waterfalls, and 300+ days of sunshine a year. It’s the aloha spirit. It’s believing and supporting the communities we live in. Even when people leave Hawaii, the coconut wireless is working – from helping to secure Aloha Plate’s win in the Great American Food Truck Race to Bruno Mars’ Grammy’s sweep, locals support locals.

In Hawaii you don’t just have your blood relatives. Our children (keiki) grow up calling important family friends “auntie” and “uncle.” We’re all family — understanding that can help us resonate with locals in a way that can create champions of the brand for generations.

Mom kissing her daughter
Aloha written in the sand

QUESTION 5. Meet Your Team

Our integrated approach starts with bringing together the best team of experts in every facet of marketing. Covert Communication is designed like a production company. We have independent contractors that allow us to scale quickly and also recruit the best talent for each client. Currently, the team consists of:

Covert Communication logo

Meet The Team.

  • Anna Covert | Principal

  • David Earles | Chief Operating Officer

  • Pat Monick | Account Service Director

  • Christine Sullivan | Creative Director

  • Kim Bock | Media Maven

  • Christian Gehrke | Technology Director

  • Jonathan Roach | Senior Developer

  • Donjay Barit | IT Manager

  • Nitesh Thapa | Art Director

  • Christopher Gaspar | Social Media & Accounts

  • JJ Reynolds | Social Media & Online

  • Kiana Kanoa | Social Media & Creative

  • Elizabeth Werter | Executive Assistant

QUESTION 6. PARTNERSHIPS

Preliminary Considerations:

Sea turtle swimming in the ocean
  • Boys & Girls Club of Hawaii

  • Hawaii Marine Animal Response

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters Hawaii

  • Aloha United Way

  • Hoʻoulu ʻĀina

  • Ku Aloha Ola Mau

  • Helping Hands Hawai’i

  • Hawaii Meals On Wheels

  • Wounded Warrior Project

  • AAF / Ad2 Hawaii

QUESTION 7. COVERT CLIENTS

The agency has no clients that conflict with Dave & Busters. Covert Communication has previously worked with Tiki’s Family Fun Center and launched Rita’s Italian Ice but is no longer employed by these clients. Top local clients related to this assignment include:

Current:

  • Times Supermarket, Pharmacy & Fujioka’s Wine Times.
  • Hilo Hattie
  • Diamond Bakery
  • Honolulu Zoo Society
  • Ocean Vodka / Hawaii Sea Spirits
  • Hapalua & Honolulu Marathon
  • Locations Hawaii
  • Doctors On Call
  • Sylvan Learning Hawaii

Previous:

  • Nico’s Pier 38 / Nico’s Kailua
  • go! Airline
  • Mokulele Airlines
  • 75th Commemoration of Pearl Harbor
  • La Tour Bakehouse & La Tour Bakery’s

GETTING STARTED IS JUST A CLICK AWAY

Please call 808-351-3629 or fill out the form below to learn more about our services and innovative agency approach.