RVCA continued its annual RVCALOHA activation in Hawaii this year with a few different twists.
Global VP of Marketing Brian Cassaro answered questions for us about how RVCA approached the week this time around.
How did RVCALOHA evolve this year? How do you keep it fresh?
Brian Cassaro: In past years, we focused on the North Shore for our events and activations.
This year, Pat wanted to give some love to the South Shore, so as a team, we came together to build out some great events in and around Waikiki.
We had a South Shore lifeguard breathing class, and a couple of advocate days at Sandy’s to bodysurf and in Waikiki for some surfing.
Generally, the crew outside of our surf team doesn’t surf but this year, everyone got an opportunity to.
Every year, our goal is to give to the local communities and offer classes, workshops and events that anyone can attend. By working with new groups and foundations, we can keep things fresh and leave a lasting, positive imprint on the island.
What were the key events?
Brian Cassaro: Over the course of seven days, we had 33 events ranging from group hikes and workouts to concerts on the North and South shores that had over 1,000 attendees at each.
ANP artist Sage Vaughn created one of our most inspiring events. Sage wanted to give back to the local school, Sunset Beach Elementary. So he created an art class for 1-6 grade and taught the local kids all day. The kids and the community were very appreciative and we plan to do more givebacks like that in the future.
At the RVCA house, we did a North Shore Lifeguard Association CPR seminar for our surfers and guests. We also had our annual Wave Warriors photo shoot with Herbie Fletcher and we had a gathering for Axel Irons’ birthday where RVCA advocate Matty Matheson cooked for RVCA and industry guests.
Another amazing event was at the Banzai Skatepark where Matty hosted “Matty’s Patties” and cooked free, gourmet burgers for the community and attendees.
In pouring rain, we went through over 300 patties and fed the community of Haleiwa. It was such a fun event for all ages.
How many people from RVCA were in Hawaii to work on the events?
Brian Cassaro There were nine of us but all the advocates and local friends chipped in to make things happen, traveling between the North and South shores.
Without our friends on the ground, none of this would have been possible.
Were they any changes to the social media strategy? Any new developments in this area?
Brian Cassaro: Our strategy this year was to be timely with content and distribute it to all of our advocates and partners, regularly, over the course of the week.
That way we were all sharing the experiences while we were on the ground so that our fans could be immersed in the events like we were.
Overall, we had our best RVCALOHA engagement to date.
Did you tie RVCALOHA into specific product releases? If so, how?
Brian Cassaro: Yes we did. We collaborated with Guns N’ Roses on the final stop of their tour – it was the first time the band has performed in Hawaii. We had two of our ANP artists, EWOK and AXIS, create a design and then built T-shirts with the designs.
The RVCA Waikiki store sold out of product twice. The T’s were also popular on RVCA.COM, coming in at No. 2 and No. 3 as far as best sellers last week.
Annually, we also make a RVCALOHA design that we pass out to our advocates during the week and then sell the T’s once the week is done, to draft off all of the content and social media. These are available now online and in RVCA stores.
Did RVCA Women’s take part in the Hawaii activation and if so, how?
Brian Cassaro: RVCA Women’s was there with events in town and on the North Shore. We brought out a few advocates to join Sage Erickson and Zoe McDougal who were in Hawaii surfing.
On the South Shore, we had a pre-concert influencer event at the Laylow hotel and then everyone went to watch Lily Meola, Makua Rothman and Landon McNamara play at the Republik.
There were multiple sport activation as well, including a group hike to Pillbox and a kickboxing class at The Boars Nest taught by North Shore Lifeguard, Kyle Foyle. And, at Kaiborg’s, the women were regulars at the morning workouts so they were on the go the entire time.
