InterContinental Broadens Video Campaign with TurnHere

Pleased with the original batch of online videos Web video player TurnHere created for it two years ago, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts has turned to the company to help it launch a broader, video-based Web marketing initiative.

The new effort involves delivering videos to lifestyle and travel blogs and to various Web sites and search engines including YouTube, Veoh, Yahoo, Google, MSN and AOL.

The campaign will include distribution of the original videos created for InterContinental’s Web site by TurnHere — which show InterContinental concierges discussing the hotels at which they work and their surrounding cities — along with new, shorter-but-similar video clips.

“We’re using TurnHere’s expertise to syndicate short videos out across the Web and to channels that aren’t all travel related,” said InterContinental Global Director of Tactical Marketing Vanessa Healey. “TurnHere describes their content as being small films about cool places. Our brand has been very much about bringing to life the local knowledge so it seemed like a really good fit.”

As it does with most projects, TurnHere is using local videographers to film the clips with minimal scripting and direction. Central to all the videos will be an InterContinental concierge who will give his views and recommendations.

Both TurnHere CEO and Founder Brad Inman and Healy said the use of locals as both the subjects and creators of the videos bring a sense of honesty and genuine flavor. The target audience is prospective InterContinental customers who are searching the Web for travel ideas and information.

“There are people who are going somewhere and want to know more about their destination and there are people who are trying to decide where to go,” said Inman.

While the original InterContinental videos made by TurnHere were about 6 minutes, many of those being scattered across the Web in the new campaign are three minutes long or shorter. Often, they were created by taking “snapshots” out of the original videos.

Inman said it took a bit of work to get some of InterContinental’s more conservative executives to go along with the initial video idea’s free-wheeling, indie template. “We really pleaded with them, `Hey, relax a little,'” said Inman. “We need to make them Internet-like and not like over-produced television� It’s really about using that local filmmaker who has a local tongue. These are not overproduced. What does a guy from New York know about Berlin? Or some guy from L.A.?”

Healy agreed that going the local videographer/concierge route turned out to be “much more cost-effective” than using the typical big-budget, agency-driven video productions. Added Inman: “This is about small audience. So, instead of television dollars chasing Internet pennies, this is about really relevant, high-quality — but relatively inexpensive — media.”

Atlanta-based media and marketing consultancy MediaWhere negotiated and manages the TurnHere/InterContinental relationship.