Queensland Tourism's Best Job in the World promotion attracted 34,000 video applicants from 197 countries.
Tourism Queensland and Blendtec have used social and viral marketing effectively on modest marketing budgets.
Social Media Safari Question #5: Are there leisure brands that have successfully used social/viral marketing on a tight budget?
Great question. Here are two leisure brands doing social/viral marketing with great success.
1. Tourism Queensland (Australia)
The tourism board's Facebook page directed 375,000 visitors to the campaign website.
The Tourism Queensland “Best Job In The World” campaign started as a simple, but integrated social media/advertising and PR campaign.
It was designed to raise global awareness of the islands on a budget of $1.7 million, paltry compared to most global campaigns.
Visitors to a special website were invited to post a 1-minute video on their website explaining why that person should become the next caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef.
Their reward: a $100,000 salary, 6 months free rent in a fabulous Island home, and the job of traveling from island to island and documenting their travels with a video cam and daily blog posts.
The campaign launched with recruitment ads in the employment sections of major newspapers in 15 countries.
Applicants who responded to the ads were encouraged to upload their videos to Islandreefjob.com and the videos were simultaneously placed on You Tube.
In addition, a Facebook page and Twitter feed were set up to monitor sentiment and engage with applicants and observers.
Campaign Results:
- The story was picked up by news organizations around the world, including CNN, BBC and Time.
- Islandreefjob.com received 34,684 video applicants from 197 countries.
- Almost 8.5 million people visited the website and tallied a total of 55 million page views.
- The island’s Facebook page referred 378,000 visitors to the campaign website.
- Web searches for Queensland rose 40% to 95,500 click-throughs.
- A total of 9,000 passengers booked trips to the Island from the actual online campaign just from the U.K. Ireland and the Nordic countries.
- In all, visits to the islands were up 20% at a time when all of Australia saw a decline in travel. And in the first year after the contest, 50% of all trips to Australia included a visit to Queensland.
2. Blendtec’s “Will It Blend” campaign
Blendtec videos have been viewed more than 140 million times.
One of my favorite social media success stories is Blendtec.
Since 2006 the company has relied almost exclusively on viral marketing to promote its $349-$799 Blendtec commercial-grade blenders to consumers.
The down and dirty videos show Blendtec founder Tom Dickson using a Blendtec Total blender to grind down everything from iPhones to Wii remotes to Nike shoes.
The videos go over the top to prove the point that Blendtec blenders are powerful enough to blend anything.
Campaign Results:
- The company’s You Tube channel has 330,000 subscribers.
- The Blendtec videos have been viewed more than 140 million times.
- Dickson has been invited to appear on dozens of TV talk shows.
- Major brands have provided paid sponsorships of the brand’s You Tube channel.
- Sales of Blendtec blenders have risen 700% since the campaign started.
Looking for more answers to your social media questions? Check out these other posts in our 10-part Social Media Safari Series:
- Does social media really work for marketing leisure brands?
- How much should I budget for social media?
- 10 social media campaigns that produced real results.
- 2 social media success stories utilizing limited budgets.
- What Coca Cola, Starbucks and Oreo can teach you about leisure marketing on Facebook.
- The Top 10 social media thought leaders.
- 11 ways businesses are using Twitter to promote their brands.
- If Twitter can save Conan, it can certainly revive your leisure brand.
- 15 valuable resources for social media novices.
- 20 ways to make sure your leisure marketing campaign goes viral.
Posted by 5to9branding 
