Golden seashore or muddy paths? Blue ocean made of sparkling breakwater or grey waterfalls made of gloomy raindrops? Warm sunbeams stroking your skin or cold wind biting your face? What would you choose?

If you ask me, I would definitely go for the first summer-like options of all these questions! But I’m afraid, that’s too good to be true! To be honest, I’m catched in the rainy present. I recently flow back to Germany for a short stay. Guess my state when I came here: soaked to the skin – as the wind teared my umbrella to pieces when I left the airport! Gone are the thoughts of summer (at the moment even the ones of spring).

£70,000 for blogging?

Nevertheless, the summer-like options that I’ve mentioned at the beginning of my post could become reality for a lucky blogger soon: Have you already heard about ‘The Best Job in the World, the ‘Island Reef Job’? I could imagine you have because it’s a current topic in the media (e.g. BBC, UK or Der Spiegel, Germany). For the ones how may have not I found this brief summary of what’s behind it on BBC. Or watch the YouTube video below. I think that moving pictures are worth a thousand words in this context (please, ignore the advertisement prior to the start of the footage. For the ones how prefer reading please check the following press releases published by Tourism Queensland: press release 1, press release 2).

£70,000 ($150,000) salary for weekly blogging about your experiences on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef/ Australia including a photo diary and video updates over six month? Additionally, living rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool on Hamilton Island, one of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef? It’s tempting, isn’t it? All interested candidates were required to create a video application among other things explaining why they are the best person for the job. Currently, the top-50-shortlist from over 34,000 applicants is announced on the website. Tourism Queensland will choose ten candidates for the final application-round. Additionally, a Wild Card candidate will be selected by the visitors of the website. Finally, the winner will be named on May 6^th 2009.

A striking campaign

I think the idea behind this campaign is striking: According to one of the press releases published by Tourism Queensland “The recruitment for the ‘Best Job in the World’ is part of Tourism Queensland’s Islands of the Great Barrier Reef Campaign (…) The cooperative marketing campaign aims to highlight the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef and showcase Australia’s own unique Island experience, to the global market.”

For me some remarkable PR and marketing decisions lay the foundation of the  ‘Best Job in the World’ campaign. I just want to name the three that impress me most:

1. The ‘independent blogger’:

To my mind, it’s quite a clever strategy to choose a person like you and me for the job who gets the sympathy of the audience right from the start through the entertaining application-video. Later on, the winner will begin to shape the conversations about the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef by writing the blog. I could imagine this person will then be seen as a independent, trustworthy and authentic blogger with passion instead of an employee of Tourism Queensland by most of the audience.

2. Activating the audience:

I’m sure, the fact that people can vote for the potential candidates for the job even increases the sympathy they have for the candidates and stresses the willingness to follow the blog of the later winner. Moreover, the visitors of the website take a closer look to the content provided about the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef’s tourism.

3. A content-rich website:

The website of the contest seems to be a first successful step to promote the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef’s tourism. Incidentally, the visitors get access to photos, videos and travelling suggestions. There is also a well-considered media-centre with additional information for journalists e.g. fact sheets, images and footage. Especially the story ideas in this section seem to be interesting. I could imagine that many journalists welcome stories like  “Some of the best island holiday ideas for backpackers”.

All in all, the campaign seems to trigger impressing viral-marketing-effects. If you want to learn more about the success of the campaign and it’s reasons it’s worth reading Chris Thomas’ blog post! What do you think about it?

Rain in front of the window but fun in front of the computer

In the end, I will remain blogging despite the rainy weather outside. Perhaps, it’s the same with you? Than we should at least have some fun and watch two of the top-50-application-videos. I’ve picket out one of a German and one of an UK applicant for you – but feel free to watch other application-videos, too! Let’s start enjoying our-selves!

Achim, Germany:

Sarah Louise, UK: