Best Job’s (very long) glory list

Good for them – that’s great!

That’s a long list! Definitely deserved though, and like mentioned it highlights the brilliance of one idea can capture people from all walks of life.

Once the campaign was over though, does anyone go back to the website and see how the ‘winner’ does his job day to day? I would say the drop off would be huge in traffic, and a follow-up campaign needs to be equally as engaging to sustain such an interest in one place. The hard work has been done now, with The Great Barrier Reef being brought to the top of mind for many travellers, national and international.

Ha! After a little investigation I found out the campaign was actually for the Whitsundays! Clearly I forgot the ‘brand message’ of this campaign! Does this mean they didn’t differentiate themselves enough?

Yep, won heaps of awards. Great idea, well executed. But what has the result been for tourism numbers in QLD?

Just another example of an award winning campaign not necessarily improving business for the client.

Perhaps it is the case that the campaign has protected the Qld tourism industry from a much worse time in a year when key tourism markets were in a serious recession. The strong dollar has hardly been a helpful calling card either.

Hopefully the board will invest in finding out exactly how the campaign did perform in business terms rather than relying on weak or woolly indicators as it is important the financial benefit of such ideas is clearly understood.

THANK-YOU BEAUDACIOUS.

Does anyone in Adland have even the vaguest idea of what businesses need? Because this campaign has won millions of puffed-up awards. I have scoured them for a single mention of a business outcome. Not one.

1. What were the objectives for the campaign?
2. Has the campaign met or exceeded them?

Don’t know. Nobody ever mentions that. But it got lots of publicity…for astro-turfing….

More tourists? More tourists intending to come here? Increased visitor numbers to the Whitsundays? Who knows?

It is also cute that it won a “PR” award [as awarded by Adland] when it included an attempt by the agency to fake an entry to the competition, i.e., the exact opposite of what PR stands for. Oh dear.

# Beaudacious , # Rex D

You have hit the nail on the head.

Isn’t a campaign succesful when it equals or exceeds the objectives?

I couldn’t find the objectives of the ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign on the Tourism QLD website, however, I did find comments from the pollies that seem to be the goal of the campaign:

12 Jan 2009 – Acting Premier Mr Lucas, “Best Job in the World” campaign was a $1.7 million global marketing strategy that will increase the profile of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef islands.”

13 Jan 2009 – QLD Tourism Minister Ms Desly Boyle, “The Best Job in the World was an innovative campaign which aimed to position the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as a stand-alone destination and instil the desire for travellers from around the world to visit Queensland.”

I do not believe this has been achieved for anywhere else in QLD, besides Hamilton Island, owned by the Oatley Family.

No matter how many awards or slaps on the back this campaign gets, it hasn’t achieved the objectives

@Jordy – Twitter recounts 3,000+ individuals currently following Ben’s escapades in Queensland. In addition, it is important to remember that this campaign was actually to improve Queensland tourism, not the Whitsundays/Hamilton Island. If you look at the structuring of how the “ambassador” spends his days, you’ll notice a significant cross section of activities both in the rainforests of the Daintree, outback regional Queensland and various parts of the Great Barrier Reef. Read below for the follow up measures the campaign is taking now.

@Beaudacious – Tourism numbers for Queensland are down, there is no doubt about it. However, in saying this, global figures are substantially down across every single market. This has been the worst downturn in tourism that the world has seen in recent years. Estimates place a decrease in foreign tourism to Qld to 8%, though it is in line with several factors: the increase in the worth of the Aussie dollar, the GFC, cheap flights to other locales, and relative uncertainty of financial prospects. (Who takes trips if you might loose your job tomorrow?) It could be argued that the campaign did nothing, however, it could also be that this was a cushion to provide interest and media coverage worth 350 million for a measly 2.5 million invested. Tourism Queensland is following up the success/failure with other campaigns like “Best Adventure in the World” which pairs up the documentary team that did “Long Way Round” with a lucky traveller. In addition, other campaign knock-offs are to follow shortly.

@Rex D – Note that the objectives of the campaign and the “job” were pretty clear, at least to me, 1) Score interest and media coverage, 2) Provide a centralised figure for identification 3) Brand Queensland with a face and a slogan 4) Differentiate Queensland from the rest of the world. 5) Increase tourism from foreign individuals through social media and word of mouth. I think it was successful on all counts but number 5, but I think it’s crazy to expect that any tourism would be successful during an economic downturn. I’ll even vote a mixed response to #4, as I don’t believe that Queensland rates a mention anywhere in the phrase “Best ________ in the World”.

Lastly, I don’t believe that any successful/unsuccessful marketing campaign goes in to win awards, they just simply happen along the way. Any campaign that actively seeks to win awards is doomed for failure.

I’d say that there are only 2 groups who know what the objectives of this campaign are: The client & the agency! The client isn’t about to divulge (why would they), and the agency will respect the client enough to also stay quiet.

Its always easy for us to comment from the sidelines, with no skin in the game, but at the end of the day, that is a shit load of awards to win, and surely that is worth something.

(PS… not really a fan of cummins, but gotta take off your hat sometimes)

SMH reported at the weekend that visitor numbers to Queensland were down despite the supposed success of the campaign. Of course, the figures might have been much worse without it.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/t.....-i2sy.html

If you fancy some interesting web stats on this whole thing then have a look see here.

http://whitsundaysonline.blogs.....-fail.html

Not 100% on their conclusions, could do with some focus on QLD, but it’s nice to have some numbers to add to the debate.

I think the best job (short term sale or medium term marketing?) campaign will be one of the more innovative, but limited by those mediating marketing in between, and good old impatience.

We have just come out of summer in the northern hemisphere, effects of recession shall linger, high Australian dollar (esp for USA) and there still needs to be analysis of the campaign in 6-8 months, not direct linkage bewween campaign and immediate sales.

From Central Europe we market Australia and education, plus tourism, while suggesting to our education partners and regional study groupings to use their students and word of mouth to market internationally, with the internet carrying the message (in cooperation with tourism and other on/offshore bodies).

Even if an institution or grouping uses students to blog, video etc. in different languages, there is an absolute dependence upon related websites being internationally search engine optimised, especially weblinks to offshore partners and agents, but many still refuse to?

Further, thereis also the excellent free ATDW online marketing ekit http://www.atdw.com.au/tourism_e_kit.asp and still defer to physical channels i.e. travelling to offshore fairs and events to distribute brochures…. and expect immediate results.

One should take into account the Australian impatience where short term sales are expected from any marketing activity and limiting the impact through inadequately SEO’d websites.

If you enter QLD Holidays website you can click through to the Whitsundays website but there are no offshore contacts, no other languages and anothe4r click presents an onshore package holiday website, in English? Agents or like TA uses “Aussie Specialists” ensures that most countries have local contact in local language whose website links to http://www.australia.com drives traffic to it organically, but state and other tourism bodies only link onshore?

The online pathway to local offshore contacts could be improved?

In education we often find it is one administrative officer can cause obstruction in virtual marketing because of their personal preference for offshore physical events….and mediate marketing physically…… not the internet.

Further, be patient……for QLD give it at least one summer, and remember Australia is an expensive place to visit…..and has had bad press in past year regarding international students, racially motivated attacks, attituide toward boat people and foreigners…..