Challenge:Tourism Queensland required an innovative and truly global campaign to raise the awareness of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef and reflect the brand’s positioning concept – ‘Life Above’.

Objectives: We had to reach ‘Global Experience Seekers’ on a mass scale, drive them to a branded website and expose them to the unique beauty and experiences available on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

Strategy and Execution: We tapped into a universal desire and created ‘the best job in the world’. The position was advertised in small-space classifieds and we used a comprehensive PR strategy to drive the recruitment campaign and expose Global Experience Seekers to the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. An international media launch was followed by additional planned stages throughout the recruitment process.

Outcome: No single tourism campaign (and potentially no single campaign) has ever had such a significant global reach across the spectrum of media and generated such a high volume and highly impassioned response from consumers. Global news coverage included CNN stories, BBC documentaries, TIME magazine articles and everything in between. Media coverage has been estimated at over $US100M from a campaign budget of $US1.2M.

Awareness objectives would be measured by achieving global news coverage, web traffic, and reaching a goal of 14,000 video applications across 8 key international markets. The target audience was defined as ‘Global Experience Seekers’. These people were primarily targeted across key markets that have a higher propensity to travel to Australia – UK, USA, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, India, China, Korea. Existing research from Tourism Queensland and Tourism Australia, plus learnings from key international markets, informed the definition of our target audience and the strategy of how to reach them.

Recruitment (10-12 January 2009):The campaign was launched to 8 markets with a media launch on Hamilton Island, media releases sent out in key markets, and a media conference in Queensland.

Application: 12 January-22 February 2009Application video content and stories distributed in key markets, local and international interviews, photo and video content provided.Short-listing 2 AprilTop 50 applicants announced, local applicant interviews established with media in key markets.Interviewing 3 MayMedia conferences on Hamilton Island, media releases, video content of the applicant’s journeys to be supplied.

Announcement 6 MayMedia conference on Hamilton Island, media releases.

Employment 1 JulyMedia conferences on the employment start date and ongoing throughout the six-month work period, media releases.

The unprecedented response to the campaign has meant that the plan has expanded beyond the original scope, however, the structure of the strategy and communication plan are still being delivered.

No single tourism campaign (and potentially no single campaign) has ever had such a significant global reach across the spectrum of media and generated such a high volume and highly impassioned response from consumers.

- Global news coverage included CNN stories, BBC documentaries, TIME magazine articles and everything in between. Media coverage has been estimated at over $US100M* from a campaign budget of $US1.2M.- 34,684 applicants from 201** countries created 610 hours of video content which passionately promotes our product.- Over 450,000 votes for the Wild Card applicant.- In 56 days islandreefjob.com had 6,849,504 visits, 47,548,514 page views with an average of 8.62 minutes spent on the site.

- A Google search for “best job in the world island” achieves about 52,500,000 listings, 231,355 blogs and 43,60 news stories.

*Value of media coverage estimated by Tourism Queensland, as at 19/3/09.**Web-coded countries (only 195 countries are recognised by the UN).

The communications strategy was quite different from a traditional tourism campaign. We created ‘the Best Job in the World’ and opened applications to anyone anywhere around the world. The best thing about the generously-paid position was its location, the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef. Classified ads, job listings and small banner ads were strategically placed in key markets. Each market was provided with media releases, story lines, photography and access to core destination footage. Additionally, each market developed local ideas and media opportunities. The project scope incorporated set stages for further PR and media opportunities throughout the 12-month campaign. For example, the release of a short-list of 50 applicants provided the opportunity to drive greater awareness and exposure through targeted media releases. For each of these stages, content was planned and then adapted to suit each market and the actual project outcomes at the time.

The Best Job in the World’ campaign was created for Tourism Queensland, a government industry body designed to promote Queensland as a tourist destination throughout the world.

When tourists plan an island holiday, destinations such as Hawaii, the Maldives and the Caribbean Islands immediately spring to mind. Although the Great Barrier Reef is a world-heritage listed natural wonder, the islands of the region are relatively unknown. With a budget of $US1.2M to execute a global marketing campaign, we would need to create something newsworthy around the brand and rely on free mass-media coverage and social media to achieve our goals.