From One End of the Social Media Spectrum to the Other

By Olivier / May 14, 2010

In 2009, two international campaigns developed by national tourism boards and that relied on the influence of social media and viral marketing made headlines—one for its staggering success, the other for its . . . well, incongruity.

THE GOOD

If you’ve never heard of the first campaign, you either spent the last two years orbiting the planet aboard the international space station or deep in a coma. It was, of course, Australia Queensland’s Best Job in the World.

Let me jog your memory: in fall 2008, a modest ad appeared in various newspapers around the world, inviting people to apply online for the “best job in the world.” The message quickly circled the globe and tens of thousands of applications poured in. It bears mentioning that this was indeed a dream job. To recap the campaign, the ad agency Nitro (since purchased by the Sapient group) produced the following short video (which I think says it all).

This microsite explains and summarizes the campaign’s strategy and results. Check it out!

The campaign had more than a few people salivating and has since inspired countless copycat initiatives. Unfortunately for them, they will always pale in comparison with the original.

THE BAD

The other viral campaign we’re referring to is Danish. For reasons you’ll understand in a moment, there remain very few official campaign documents online. We had to rely on comments found here and there. Here’s what we were able to find out about the campaign’s “official intentions.”

To promote the friendliness and hospitality of young Danes (particularly the females!) to other young Europeans, the local branch of Grey Group created a video clip in which a young woman introduces herself and tells her story. She supposedly had a tryst a year and a half prior with a young foreign traveler (whose name and nationality she can’t remember) which resulted in a baby boy named August, whom she is holding in her arms.

The value of such an advertisement is definitely questionable. It makes you wonder who could have possibly been so naive as to think such an ad could be profitable, or what marketing exec could have the gall to put forth such an idea. But no one really had time to think it over: a mere few weeks after the video was released, the actress hired to play the single mother came forward and unveiled the truth. The result: the campaign fell completely flat and Denmark suffered a boatload of virtual shame.

The official video was removed, but it can still be found on YouTube. Here’s a copy: