Message From the President

Aloha!

The world of marketing continues to evolve and we continually evaluate and modify our communications programs to remain competitive.

Of increasing focus at HVCB is “brand integration,” the effort to incorporate the essence of Hawaii into the content of national television shows. The strategy is not completely new, but is rapidly becoming more relevant in the burgeoning era of TiVo and ad-avoidance.

The first step in successful brand integration is to identify TV programs that target the profile of our desired future visitor. To fish where the fish are is paramount. It also means identifying shows where there is a natural fit for Hawaii and our story lines.

As such, we have intensified efforts to develop and nurture relations with shows and production houses that provide programming for cable channels and networks. Our contacts run the gamut from travelogues and documentaries, to reality and talk shows.

Two examples of the success of our TV brand integration program bore fruit in the past month: the Golf Channel’s Aloha Swing and Bravo Network’s Top Chef.

HVCB’s initiative to partner with the Golf Channel has enabled us to present the Aloha Swing in January for the last three years. It’s a month-long promotion surrounding the six PGA, Champions, and LPGA tour events in Hawaii that showcase some of the best things to see and do in the islands, on and off the course.

This year, we enlisted local pro golfer Dean Wilson to take viewers on a tour of the islands through a series of vignettes while he competed in the Mercedez-Benz Championship and Sony Open in Hawaii. We captured Dean golfing and surfing on the north shore with Kelly Slater, interviewing local golfers at Ala Wai Golf Course, visiting chefs Alan Wong and Sam Choy, and hitting the Big Island for a tour of the Kohala Coast and whale watching.

By the time Aloha Swing ends in February, Hawaii will have received more than 100 hours of coverage, dozens of destination vignettes, and exposure to more than 70 million viewers across the country. It’s great targeted coverage for the state.

The icing on the cake is Bravo Network’s popular culinary reality show Top Chef, which aired a two-part season finale on January 24 and 31. We were attracted by the show’s focus on cuisine and its 2.6 million viewers that profiled well against our desirable avid traveler category. We pitched the producers back in May 2006 and sold them on filming a Hawaii-themed season-ending finale on the Big Island this past November.

The two one-hour Top Chef segments highlighted Hawaii’s history, culture, beautiful scenery and an amazing array of local produce. Chefs Alan Wong and Roy Yamaguchi, recruited as guest judges, were eloquent ambassadors for the islands and gracious in their critiques. No Simon Cowells here.

No offence to Mr. Cowell and his mega hit show. Two years ago HVCB brought American Idol and its 30-million-plus prime time audience to Waikiki. The show did a wonderful job of highlighting the islands, not to mention the opportunities it created for Jasmine Trias and Camile Velasco.

Achieving brand exposure as part of the program content that millions of loyal viewers tune into see, helps make Hawaii’s commercial messages impossible to skip.

Mahalo,

John Monahan
President and CEO