Viral Marketing + Online Video + Classifed Ads = Best Job in the World Campaign
You probably heard about this – and may have even secretly applied for the job: it’s Tourism Queensland’s multiplatform ad campaign for “The Best Job in the World.” Basically, the campaign used classified job and display ads to kick off web traffic to a site advertising a dream job – hanging out on your own tropical island near Australia, and blogging about the experience. The ad campaign disguised as a reality-TV and multimedia contest has won Golden Lions at Cannes, as well as 3 Grand Prixs (Cyber, PR and Direct) for its innovative way of building an international sensation and enlisting User-Generated Content to further its message.
What’s new here is the YouTube video that shows how they conceived and executed the campaign – check it out here. The video shows how they blended elements from several different media platforms – branded Twitter, branded Facebook, and its own YouTube channel - to do what so many advertisers dream about: ignite a viral marketing campaign, where your users become your evangelists. Obviously, the internet is littered with notable failures to leverage the social media and sharing power of the web. The video tracks how the campaign built to the point that it attracted 35,000 video applications from more than 200 countries, as well as countless hours of “earned media” publicity in virtually every language on earth.
If you really want to feel envious, check out the blog of the lucky winner of the contest.
The larger point is that print classified ads still retain a great deal of power – and that when they are employed correctly, they can kick-start a revolution even in the newest of “New Media.” Of course, the strategies needed to successfully execute these kinds of campaigns are still more of an art than a science, and obey a totally different set of rules than ad campaigns in traditional media.
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New SNA report on user-submitted newspaper site content
More than 3,000 randomly-chosen newspaper Web site users and 200+ community newspaper editors and publishers were surveyed by SNA Foundation about whether newspaper Web sites should accept user-generated content, what types of user submissions would be acceptable, how newspapers should manage and regulate these contributions, whether the newspaper’s credibility or integrity is compromised by the acceptance of this material, and more. The resulting report is entitled Striking a Balance Between Community Journalism and Citizen Participation: A Study About User-Generated Content on Newspaper Web Sites.
Since it’s an AIM-Group given that newspapers must include two-way conversations with their readers, and probably an SNA-given as well, we would surmise that this survey was more about convincing relucant community publishers and editors to get on board the user-generated bandwagon. From the results, it might well have done its job.
Users clearly indicated an interest in participating on newspaper sites, particularly in commenting on stories published by newspaper staff, being part of online forum discussions and in giving reviews. The ability to comment on staff stories topped the importance scale. The value of UGC most often stated in the survey was the publication of differing points of view. Almost half of respondents have posted content on a newspaper Web site; three of every four have posted to non-newspaper sites.
An important caution voiced by 86 percent of those surveyed was that the papers’ sites must clearly identify stories that are community contributed and those written by newspaper staff. A curious note: 59 percent said that user-generated content was important for community newspapers, though only 44 percent thought it was vital for major metro papers.
Since two thirds of respondents were either somewhat or very likely to use a newspaper Web site when given the opportunity to comment or post stories themselves, the SNA conclusion was that allowing user contributions would increase a newspaper’s online traffic and reach. That makes sense.
Nor are online visitors patient. Half of respondents expect that local breaking news such as crimes, fires and accidents, will be on the site within 30 minutes of the occurrence. Another 25 percent will wait only one hour for the news to appear.
The fear of some publishers and editors – that their publication’s journalistic integrity and credibility could be compromised by UGC – was contradicted by the survey results. While respondents didn’t believe such a compromise would or was occurring, most agreed the newspapers are responsible for the content on their sites no matter who submits it. Almost half said the public expects higher journalistic standards from newspaper sites than from other Internet information sources.
Of the participating editors and publishers, 76 percent allowed users to post opinions of news stories, 67 percent allowed comments on staff stories, 42 percent published community-written stories, and 35 percent permitted blog-posting by users. Of those who don’t allow comments, the top reason was a shortage of monitoring staff. Other reasons: they had allowed comments but too many were inappropriate or hurtful; they’re going to enable comments but haven’t done so as yet.
For a copy of the complete report, complete this short SNA request form. There is no charge and you need not be an SNA member. You’ll immediately receive a link to the PDF.