Arguably the World’s most successful Social Media Marketing Campaign
Posted by Gavin Smith on Monday, May 18th, 2009 in Blogging, Digital Marketing, SEO, Social Media Optimisation
So what happens when a tourist board uses the power of dreams, the internet and social media…..?
Last year Queensland tourist board proposed an audacious publicity stunt involving one person inhabiting Hamilton Island for 6 months, implementing social media to record their experience by blogging, taking photos and producing videos of their experience, whilst being paid $150,000!
A micro site of tourism Queensland was launched in July 2008 sending the social media world into frenzy, creating such a buzz that by the 22nd of February 2009 – the application closing date – over 35,000 applications had been submitted.
Twitter went crazy with tags such as #islandreefjob and #bestjob, whilst Facebook saw people setting up groups thousands strong creating mass publicity around the campaign. Websites, blogs and social media profiles were created specifically for the competition, all providing links back to the micro site and the tourism Queensland site, which we all know is great for SEO!
Applicants had to submit a 60 second video clip, from which judges would short list 50 candidates. The final 11 were decided by public vote, and these applicants were then flown out to Queensland for the final set of interviews.
Many events raised the competition’s publicity; one that springs to mind is the application of Christopher Grima, a 25 year old student who jumped off the south causeway bridge in Florida to make his video stand out from the rest. The only thing he gained was a fine and ear ache.
The campaign received immense press coverage to the extent that the BBC has run over 40 stories covering it, as has CNN, Reuters, The Guardian, USA Today and many more global news agencies.
It is estimated to have cost Queensland tourism board no more than $1 million but, with the excellent leverage of social media, experts estimate that the board has received more than $80 million worth of publicity from the competition.
With experts predicting the amount of success that this media campaign has seen, who really is the winner?? Is it Ben Southall, the 34 year old charity fund raiser from Hampshire who won the competition; or is it Queensland tourism board – the organisation responsible for one of the most successful social media marketing campaigns ever??…….
June 5th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Ha..I definately agree. I was actually thinking the same thing about my video application. All I paid for was a 30$ cam corder(court fees) and a bridge to jump off of! The media took care of the rest of the advertising for me! Too bad I wasn’t chosen…Next time, I will aproach the media from an alternative route!haha