TheBuzz Erika Engle

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Hawaii visitors bureau gets help viralizing video

A national park ranger, celebrity chef, recording artists, a golfer, surfers, Chinatown entrepreneurs and other kamaaina star in videos that are going viral -- though not in the traditional, user-generated sense.

The seven GoHawaii videos are part of a very deliberate marketing push.

The local people are talking story about what makes Hawaii special to them, in videos professionally produced for the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau.

The videos are unscripted, according to Kara Imai, senior director of online marketing.

They are soon to be turned loose all over the Internet by California-based TurnHere Inc., an online video solutions company.

OK, so just about anybody can upload a video online, but "just to play it on YouTube isn't the effectiveness that we're looking for," said Jay Talwar, HVCB vice president of marketing.

"It's about driving the right eyeballs to our Web site and is ... part of a much larger initiative," which is why TurnHere was enlisted, he said.

Talwar did not release the value of the TurnHere deal, but said, "it's not a huge monetary investment." Additionally, the exposure comes without multiple media buys.

TurnHere is HVCB's GoHawaii video distribution partner, whose mission is "to get our content out to as many places as possible," Imai said.

That way, Web surfers who may dream of learning real surfing may be lured to the HVCB Web site where the dream can kick up a rooster tail as it advances toward reality.

TurnHere also created a travel blog on a page where all the videos can be viewed via flash player and viewers can talk story amongst themselves.

Its social-networking aspect is intended to increase interaction, further engage viewers and maybe just maybe get the videos embedded in more Web sites.

MasterCard has the videos tucked into the "More Hawaii" section of the promotions and offers page of its "Priceless" Web site, to name one taker.