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FXproductions has got Hawaii
By Nadine Kam
covered on the international
magazine scene
Star-BulletinHUGH O'Reilly doesn't pass out many business cards. It takes too much time to explain his title, "Glue."
Ditto those of his staffers Lloyd Yonenaka, "director of stuff," and Ian Gillespie, "king of the world."
From this odd assortment of dreamers and creative souls have come one simple, yet novel idea: instead of waiting for New York and European magazine editors to decide to come to Hawaii, go out and get 'em.
In the past few years, Hawaii has been popping up with increasing frequency in major lifestyle magazines from Vogue to GQ. Models wearing Gucci and Chanel have turned up in Marie Claire in unlikely places such as the Polynesian Cultural Center and LaMariana Restaurant & Bar, the kitschy eatery hidden away at Sand Island.
It's doubtful New York editors would have found LaMariana without the help of O'Reilly's company, FXproductions."I wanted to go straight to the source and make Hawaii hot again," he said. "When you get an editorial feature, it's sort of an endorsement from the harbingers of style that Hawaii's cool."
The features deliver free publicity for the state. Editorial coverage beats buying ads, which can cost $30,000 to $80,000 per page at a national level. More importantly, the features bring instant cachet.
"It's magazines that are deciding what color car I'm going to be driving 10 years from now," O'Reilly said. "They influence everything. Readers look at them as bibles."
At some time, those millions of readers will have to decide where to go on vacation.
"We've taken a proactive approach to showing people what we have," O'Reilly said. "Too many people make excuses -- we're out in the middle of nowhere, it's too expensive to get here; those are not barriers today."
FXproductions is particularly focused on creating awareness of Hawaii in the European market.
O'Reilly said that 10 million Europeans visit America annually and Hawaii gets about 200,000 of them. With five to six weeks of vacation annually, Europeans tend to stay longer, spend more money and are more travel-prone than any other demographic, he said.
"California gets 3 million visitors from Europe, and if they're in California, they're a third of the way here."The main thing is you have to believe in the product."
O'Reilly is a believer, having grown up in Ewa. He and his wife returned to his hometown 10 years ago to raise their son after 10 years of living in Europe and working in the fashion and advertising industries.
"I always knew that when it was time to have a kid, I had to come back here. It's the best place in the world to raise a family. I wanted my kid to be exposed to all the wonderful things I experienced growing up. So career wise, this had to be it."
What he found upon returning, however, was low-paying industries, a continued dependence on tourism and an image that has not changed in 50 years to compete with newer destinations.
"My feeling is that Hawaii's mystique was built in the '50s and '60s, created around steamships, music and Elvis. It's a wonderful, romantic, fun image, but to tell you the truth, it's a little old. There is so much more of the heart and soul of Hawaii that is not shown. It was time to refresh, revitalize."
He was just trying to create a niche for himself when he started calling on old friends, suggesting that they come for a visit. The rest was plain old synergy.
"The people I knew who had started as stylists, way down the food chain, over time became editors in chief. I conduct all my meetings face to face, because these are people I would have seen anyway. I'll get on a plane to Milan or Paris, and say, 'Hey, let's have lunch.'
"That's how it happens. I think if it were strictly business, it wouldn't have worked."
For one thing, in a business that prizes the integrity of editorial copy, it is almost unheard of for an outsider to have much input in creating packages. FXproductions is often involved to the point where they are regularly credited for concepts and packages.
"We will sit down with editors and discuss, before they come out, how the photos are gonna be done. I don't want a bikini on the beach. I want to show diversity, but at the same time have it be real.
"A lot of (public relations) people just want to show sunshine, but I believe in the reality of things."
He is proud of one write-up that called attention to the high cost associated with travel here. Ultimately, the writer said that Hawaii is worth visiting "even if it means working overtime from now until Christmas."
"Jaded travel writers who have been all over the world fall in love with this place because our enthusiasm is catching," O'Reilly said."The thing I find constantly is that aloha's not dead. We can be on location shooting photos and a big pack of locals will come up. Before you know it, they're helping you move equipment and bringing beer over.
"People can do all they want to destroy this place in the name of progress, but they can't destroy Hawaii's people."
Like any local, O'Reilly has mixed feelings about tourism, deeming it a necessary evil.
"To me, the best tourists are like ghosts. They're here and they're gone and they don't leave footprints."
The magazines can play a role in educating the public about Hawaii's fragile ecosystem, and FXproductions works with experts from Bishop Museum and other organizations to get facts right.
"We don't claim to know everything and you know how it is when publications get facts wrong. Everyone's going to have egg on their faces if information is not correct."
On the creative end, FXproduction aims to go beyond the stock image of the bikini-clad model on the beach.
In one photo, models in couture gowns mimic old beach boy photos of surfers standing beside their long boards.
O'Reilly said he was amused when a crowd of guys gathered to watch the session, commenting, "Check out those boards!"
Although organization is not O'Reilly's strong suit, he is nevertheless the glue that holds the operation together and maintains a fanatic devotion to Hawaii.
FXproductions worked with Bess Press two years ago to publish "Ultimate Shopper," a guide to shopping on Oahu, in support of local businesses.
These days, O'Reilly says, "We've been courted by destinations outside Hawaii to do this. Occasionally we'll do something like go to Fiji 'cause I like to surf there, but I don't want to water down our focus, which is Hawaii.
"There's a lot of opportunity in Hawaii. I get upset when people say there isn't. It's a question of recognizing our place in the world."
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