Selling is new PR chief's specialty
By Gordon Y.K. Pang
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
Lenny Klompus, a man described as the "consummate entrepreneur," now has Hawai'i's ultimate marketing job: senior advisor in charge of communications for Gov. Linda Lingle.
Advertiser library photo • Nov. 24, 1998
As one of the governor's small circle of close political advisors, Klompus will head a seven-person team charged with ensuring that Lingle's message of "a new beginning" gets out in Hawai'i and beyond.
Lenny Klompus and his wife, Marcia, stunned the sports world in 1997 by moving the Hula Bowl from O'ahu to Maui. The couple has been hired by Gov. Linda Lingle, he to oversee communications, she for appointments.
The message is not about Lingle herself, however. "It's about Hawai'i," Klompus said. "Hawai'i is open for business," he said, using another quote from the Lingle campaign playbook. "And that vision is... what a great place it is to come and live and work — and I emphasize the work part."
As a result, Klompus said, "we see this communications office as being the marketing, advertising and public relations firm for the people of Hawai'i."
Lingle and Klompus see that point as critical, so one of the seven positions in the communications division will be a deputy for media relations assigned to handle national and international press.
The division won't duplicate the efforts of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism or the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, Klompus said, but augment what they and other entities do. "It's all interconnected," he said.
Klompus said he would not need to "spin" news coverage to his boss' advantage.
"I've got a governor that states the facts, and what we're going to do is put the information out factually," he said. "What resonates is honesty. You can't 'PR' something, can't market something that isn't truthful, because ultimately, at the end of the day, people won't buy it."
Lenny and Marcia Klompus had been juggling three post-season collegiate football games through the Bowl Games of Hawai'i organization when they stunned the sports world in 1997 by announcing they had a deal to move the venerable Hula Bowl from O'ahu to Maui.
It wasn't their first bold move. Lenny Klompus, according to those who have worked with him, is a driven marketing expert who believes nearly anything can be overcome.
Associated Press library photo
"He's the consummate entrepreneur," said former City Councilman Mufi Hannemann, who worked with Klompus as DBEDT director in the early 1990s. "He's a go-getter."
Hula Bowl chief executive Lenny Klompus, left, shook hands with Jim Steeg, NFL Vice President for Special Events, as they announced a deal last year between the Hula Bowl and Pro Bowl. Klompus has been called the consummate entrepreneur.
When Eastman Kodak and the University of Hawai'i Foundation pulled their support from the Hula Bowl, "he singlehandedly saved that game," said long-time government administrator Bob Fishman, former manager of Aloha Stadium.
The game and the Klompuses took some flak for signing the national restaurant chain Hooters as a Hula Bowl sponsor. Lenny Klompus said he had no regrets about the move, which brought the bowl multi-year financial backing.
"They did everything they were supposed to do; they paid on time; they ran promotions to promote the state of Hawai'i," he said. "I think the NFL cheerleaders dress worse than the Hooter girls."
Through the nonprofit Aloha Bowl Charities, Klompus also took over the Aloha State Games when it was in financial straits, becoming its lead sponsor for six years. The marketing expert also put together the Aloha and Oahu bowls doubleheader, which lasted two years, and has attempted to bring other events to Hawai'i, from professional baseball and football exhibitions to the Army-Navy game.
From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the couple owned and operated Metro Sports, a sports marketing firm that represented interests from the Baltimore Orioles to the University of Notre Dame. In the 1980s, Lenny Klompus met up with Hula Bowl honcho Mackay Yanagisawa to discuss his dream of creating a second bowl game.
The first Aloha Bowl, owned and operated by the Klompuses, was played in 1982. Later, Bowl Games of Hawai'i picked up the Hula Bowl and then the O'ahu Bowl.
Klompus said the Hula Bowl's path to the Valley Isle was made easier by theniMaui Mayor Lingle, who spearheaded a renovation and expansion of the Maui War Memorial Stadium to 20,000 seats from 6,700. "We never got a no," he said of Maui County officials. "That's the kind of attitude that (Lingle) instills in people."
Klompus was on the fringes of the Lingle political apparatus in 1998, when it nearly wrested the governor's seat away from 36 years of Democratic rule.
This year, Lingle asked the Klompuses to take a leave from the sports world and help out her campaign, naming Lenny her communications director.
Klompus said he was stunned, and flattered after the election when Lingle asked him to stay on. He had minored in history and was intrigued by politics, but had never worked in government.
His wife, meanwhile, has taken an office near the governor in her new position as appointments administrator.
