Tourism Queensland in Australia has named the fifty finalists in their “Best Job in the World” campaign, shortlisting from a pool of nearly 35,000 applicants for a $150,000 AUD contract to relax on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef from July 1 to December 31, 2009.
The job of blogging caretaker will go to an applicant chosen from the winner of the most wildcard votes between now and March 24, and ten other applicants chosen by Tourism Queensland. The name of the winning job applicant will be announced on May 6.
Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle said staffers had a tough time sifting through the 34,684 entries and selecting the best of the best.
“I understand it was a robust discussion, but what it boiled down to was the motivation and professionalism of the applicants and their fit with the job and Tourism Queensland,” Boyle said.
The job is part of a AU$1.7 million campaign to publicize the charms of northeastern Queensland state, and tourism officials say it has already generated more than AU$70 million worth of publicity for the region.
The Island Reef Job YouTube channel is currently hosting 761 videos, including the initial advertising promotions.
Click on the image below to play the case study video.
The Top Fifty Shortlist
Mark Ashby, Sherman Oaks, California, United States
Chris Bray Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Anny Chih, Burnaby, British Columbia Canada
Sandra Crane, Bethlehem, Connecticut, United States
Rafaelito DeAusen, Barrigada, Guam
Achim Dold, Emmendingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
Christine Estima, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Clarke Gayford, Auckland, New Zealand
Ben Henry, Lyon, Rhone-Aples, France
Magali Heuberger, Amsterdam, Netherlands
James Hill, Shute Harbour, Queensland, Australia
Linda Hoang, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Kim Jagtiani, Mumbai, India
Kiran Jethwa, Nairobi, Kenya
Hamish Johnston, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
George Karellas, Bettystown, County Meath, Ireland
Juweon Kim, Seoul, Korea
Mieko Kobayashi, Tokyo, Japan
Cali Lewis, Geek Brief TV, Dallas, Texas, United States
Sarah Louise Lane Angel, London, United Kingdom
Gina Maeng, Seochogu, Seoul, Korea
Sheree Marris, Elwood, Victoria ,Australia
Felippe Mela, Stockholm, Sweden
Sam Miyano Pitt, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan
Jackie Miao, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
Kat Mitsopoulos, Athens, Greece
Mitchell Moffit, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Marcella Moser, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Mirjam Novak, Nueremburg, Bavaria, Germany
Angelene (Angie) Orth, New York, United States
Greg Reynen, Singapore, Singapore
Anjaan RJ, Bangalore, India
Steven Rogers, Tyler, Texas, United States
Erik Rolfsen, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Melissa Schenk, Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Manon Schmidin, Mundolsheim, Alsace France
Holly Smale, Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Ben Southall, Petersfield, Hampshire, United Kingdom
Adeline St. Romain, Los Angeles, California, United States
Douglas Stidolph, Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom
Nila Tanzil, Jakarta, Indonesia
Hailey Turner, Brisbane, Queensland Australia
Iris van Nispen, Utrecht, Netherlands
Clare Wang, Banciao, Taipei, Taiwan
Karyna Wallace, Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan
David Whitehill, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
Jimmy Wong, Singapore, Singapore
Julia Yalovitsyna, Pertozavodsk, Karelia, Russia
Yi Yao, Guangzhou, Guandong, China
Ying Yu, Beijing, China
Credits
The Best Job in the World campaign was developed at CumminsNitro Brisbane by creative directors Nancy Hartley and James Burchill, copywriter Merrin McCormack, art directors Cristian Staal and Ralph Barnett, agency producer Adam Ford, senior digital producer Jason Kibsgaard, general manager Darren McColl, senior account director Edwina Gilmour, and account director Anne-Maree Wilson.
Rhiannon Craig, new on the staff at CumminsNitro, appeared in a fake video designed to drum up applications. After the video was revealed to be fake, including a fake tattoo, the YouTube video was taken offline by Tourism Queensland.
While the 50 applicants shortlisted for the Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” deserve to be congratulated, those chosen continue to highlight the failings present in this rather cynical marketing campaign. Interestingly, 35 of these shortlisted videos are longer than 60 seconds when in the closing days of the competition as many as 5000 videos were rejected for exceeding 60 seconds. Many were actually shorter than 60 seconds or were between 60 and 61 seconds, but Tourism Queensland simply passed it off as a glitch in their content management system.
People with videos under 61 seconds who were rejected are invited to post their video.
Thanks for linking the the blogs! I’ve been having a tough time tracking down more info on the Top 50… how can we vote on someone to be a blogger if they have no internet presense?!
There are several Top 50 who are members of the Island Reef Forum and have blogs that you don’t have listed, I’ve got those collected here:http://mywildheart.wordpress.com/2009/03/04/congrats-to-my-top-50-friends/
@ Zellie … quit following me around the Internet, will ya? :p
Wow you even have my link to my MySpace.
Impressive. Haha.
Vote for the Guammie?
Thanks for the exposure this is actually really getting fun.
I love it when individuals come together and share views. Great blog, continue the good work!