Entered by The Puerto Rico Tourism Company & Ketchum

In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico just days after Hurricane Irma had also struck the Island. That changed everything for the Puerto Rico Tourism Company. Their summer 2017 marketing campaign leveraging Latin singer Luis Fonsi’s hit song ‘Despacito’ was completely derailed, replaced by round-the-clock efforts to guide the destination through a humanitarian crisis. 

The team were challenged to develop and execute a plan for bringing tourists back to the Island while being sensitive to the larger issues at stake. Puerto Rico remained resilient, and the spirit and strength of its people proved unbreakable. But there was nothing around the natural disaster people had watched unfold on their television screens. The idea was to let tourists be part of an inspirational story: the recovery of Puerto Rico. Not only was the island open for business, but travelling to Puerto Rico came with a profound sense of purpose. Puerto Rico had not experienced an event of this magnitude in its modern history.