Island girl key in
snagging big opportunity
for small airline

ABC-TV is promoting its upcoming fall season with a prize drawing to win travel to Disneyland and Hawaii, and Aloha Airlines is the signature sponsor.

"After 58 years of interisland service, Aloha is well-established as a brand name in Hawaii, but we're still a newcomer on the mainland," said Stephanie Ackerman, senior vice president of marketing and external affairs.

"This promotion is a fabulous opportunity for Aloha to associate our brand with two of the most-recognized mega-brands in entertainment -- ABC and Disney," she said.

The ABC Primetime Preview Weekend event will be at Disney's California Adventure Park Sept. 10-12.

The grand prize of an event contest includes a vacation for four to attend the red-carpet roll-out of the network's prime time lineup, suite accommodations at the Disneyland Resort and Disneyland passes.

Hawaii viewers can enter to win the Hollywood flyaway via local ABC affiliate KITV at www.thehawaiichannel.com.

For mainland viewers in some of the two dozen other participating ABC markets, the grand prize also includes a round trip to Hawaii for four on Aloha Airlines and a five-night stay at the Halekulani in Waikiki.

Mainland companies give away trips to Hawaii all the time, but there's not always an island girl behind the scenes.

Maryknoll grad Jan Sage is not as high-profile as Dennis Franz, Katey Sagal, David Spade or other ABC-TV stars who may appear at the weekend event, but she is a crucial New York City hookup for Hawaii in this scenario. Sage is a vice president for promotion and sales for ABC.

In addition to Sage's professionalism, she also "brings her heart to everything that she brings to us from the standpoint of selling the destination. It's her passion and her love and it's very refreshing to be able to work with someone like that," said Lori Kimura, media director for Milici Valenti Ng Pack Advertising, Aloha's ad agency.

Kimura said the Sage connection has put Aloha Airlines on rarefied earth as the first non-national sponsor to be able to market itself within the famed theme park.

"They're in there with Coca Cola, American Express and AT&T," Sage said.

Beyond banners and signage in the park, Aloha is included in features on the Jumbotron, in TV commercials and in online promotions in key gateway cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, Kimura said.

The Hawaii air carrier is likely to wind up getting national exposure, as the entertainment press will be there to cover the launches of new shows and stars including three cast members of the shot-in-Hawaii show "Lost," as well as the swan-song-season of "NYPD Blue."

Preparing for Hawaii promotions like this, or those revolving around "Lilo and Stitch," puts Sage in a more tropical zone, at least mentally, though she's thousands of miles away in her New York City office.

Editing pictures of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, or Maui or cliff divers "makes the winters more tolerable."

Sage is currently home for a bit of R&R before heading back to the Big Apple.