There was an article in the New York Times about this that was largely overlooked by the marketing community. GoHawaii.com is not the sexiest name for a tourism site, granted. But the idea behind it is both simple and powerful: Film Hawaiians telling stories about what they do and about why their home is meaningful to them.

Listen to Willie K. sing about his hometown and how amazed he is at all the life around him. Meet the young ukulele virtuoso Taimane. See the whales: "Once in a while, you have this eruption where foot animal comes throwing itself out of the water, tail and all, and you can't even remember your name." Simple, honest narration like this, plus 14 high-quality video vignettes about all there is to discover on the archipelago makes me want to go. It might be a bit heavy on the sap, but it works.

No, it's not as funny as Midnight Rida and not as hot Coverse + Santogold, but it works. When you watch the videos, you'll see that even simple, unadorned stories can have tremendous power.