In 2005, Patrick Ahler came to Hawai‘i to catch some waves, but it wasn’t long before the avid surfer was making waves of his own as a digital marketing expert and entrepreneur.
Fresh out of Tennessee’s Southern Adventist University, Ahler was determined to put down roots in Hawai‘i. The islands had called to him ever since his early days of learning to surf with his father, who had lived here. With his computer systems administration degree in hand and an ambition to succeed, he was able to land a job within 24 hours of arriving in the islands.
This early opportunity to work at a web design agency and later a web hosting company proved to be an important stepping stone in his career. Over the next few years, Ahler worked as a systems administrator, project manager, developer and designer for more than 600 websites. This extensive experience allowed him to hone his skills and develop the expertise needed to succeed in the fast-paced and highly competitive web hosting industry. It was during this time that he met experienced revenue manager and his future Lights On Digital co-founder Will Song.
Capitalizing on his experience in one of the online world’s most competitive industries, Ahler went on to spearhead the development of a digital marketing and online strategy for Hawai‘i’s fastest-growing—and now largest—hotel chain.
After witnessing firsthand the impact that cutting-edge digital marketing and revenue management strategies could have for distressed hotels, Ahler and his co-founder knew what they needed to do.
“We saw a huge opportunity to reach an underserved but very important segment of the hospitality market,” says Ahler, now 35. “Many independent hotels, resorts and micro-chains don’t have their own revenue management or digital strategy team. We seamlessly provide that support. No one else in Hawai‘i was doing what we were doing with an all-inclusive approach to these services.”
It was this idea that inspired the ambitious duo to found Lights On Digital in 2014. By bundling revenue management and digital strategy, they would be able to provide the support those hotels needed in a way that no one else could offer.
In the few years since its founding, Ahler and Song’s company has become one of the state’s leading digital marketing agencies serving the hospitality industry. “Business took off quickly,” says Ahler, who now works with a team of 15 contractors, including revenue managers, data analysts, search engine marketers, designers, developers, content managers and copywriters. The company has doubled its client base in the past year and serves more than two dozen properties across Hawai‘i, the Western and Northeastern United States and the Caribbean.
The results have been a game changer for clients of Lights On Digital. One of the company’s original clients, Hotel Wailea on Maui, sought to regain traction in an increasingly competitive Wailea resort market following a $15 million renovation to the property in 2013. Lights On Digital worked with Hotel Wailea to implement strategies that helped the business surpass key benchmarks and reach historic levels of revenue.
Hotel Wailea is now the top traveler-rated hotel on Maui, and this success isn’t an anomaly. Lights On Digital has consistently provided support and delivered strategies that create measurable results for its clients. Whether they’re tracking revenue, average daily rate or revenue per available room, Ahler’s unique approach has an undeniable impact on his clients’ business. “It boils down to building close relationships with clients,” Patrick says. “That and pairing an in-depth understanding of the hospitality industry with technological innovation, particularly in analytics and digital marketing.”
Lights On Digital’s growing list of awards, achievements and recognition is a testament to just how effective that approach has been. Several of the company’s website redesigns have won awards, including the prestigious Adrian Awards from the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International in 2016, a Pele Award from the Hawai‘i chapter of the American Advertising Federation in 2017 and two Horizon Interactive Website Awards in 2016.
Where will Lights On Digital go from here after seeing so much success right out of the gate? Ahler has big plans to expand further in Hawai‘i as well as the mainland United States.
But they aren’t stopping there. “While Lights On Digital is grounded in the hospitality industry, we see potential for the growth of this model in other industries as well,” Ahler says, hinting at some exciting new plans in the works. The recent signing of new clients, such as ABC Stores’ Dukes Lane Market & Eatery and the Napa River Inn in California, continues to open doors in this direction.
As for the man driving the company’s growth, he will continue to make Hawai‘i his home. During Ahler’s 12 years in the islands, he has fallen in love with the lifestyle. “There is this incredible network of people that makes Hawai‘i an ideal place to innovate and do business,” Ahler says.
Patrick came to Hawai‘i with little more than a dream and a gut feeling that it was where he needed to be. In just over a decade, he’s started a family and grown a successful company—who knows what he’ll accomplish during the next.
