Even the 'Best Idea in the World' can fail

Whitsundays Online

Great ideas have come and gone over history - some have gone on to improve mankind; others to make life simpler or more complicated; and others we thought were sure to succeed, but just didn't live up to expectations.

The current Queensland Tourism campaign, 'The World's Best Job' (WBJ), has won almost every award for Marketing and Advertising, in Australia and Overseas. The other big winner has been Hamilton Island, owned by the Oatley Family. However, the results have yet to bear fruit for the rest of 'The Big Island' (the Whitsundays and Queensland).

Media reports out today are calling the WBJ campaign '... a Tourism Lemon' (Brisbane Times), and 'Best Job Campaign Fails ...' (Sydney Morning Herald). Google have an excellent statistics service that lets you see how people around the world have searched in the past, so I thought a bit more research into the 'old media' claims was required.

The WBJ campaign has been running for 1 month shy of a year, and while it has been successful in raising awareness of an island in the middle of the Whitsundays, that awareness seems to have 'missed the boat' to the mainland and other islands.

The following graph shows people around the world looking for News Articles' about Hamilton Island, Whitsunday & Whitsundays for 2008-2009 - note the spike when the World's Best Job (WBJ) was announced:
The most well known spot on the mainland in the Whitsundays is Airlie Beach. The following graph compares 'Searches for News Articles' about Hamilton Island & Airlie Beach for 2008-2009:
It is quite obvious from the above 2 graphs, that while interest in Hamilton Island has soared, there has been no noticeable increase in interest in Airlie Beach or the rest of the Whitsundays.

The above results looked 'way over the top', so I thought I should check how many people were looking for information (rather than news). The following graph shows people around the world looking for information about Hamilton Island, Whitsunday & Whitsundays for 2009:


The following graph compares people around the world looking for information about Hamilton Island & Airlie Beach for 2009:The above graphs again show interest in Hamilton Island because of WBJ, but no apparent increase in interest in the rest of the Whitsundays.

The above graphs show a trend that tourism numbers in the Whitsundays (except Hamilton Island) are probably not going to improve for the next 12 months. This can be corroborated by the following graph:
The Whitsundays experienced a drop in tourism numbers of 33% from July 2007 to July 2009. The above graph shows people searching for information about Whitsunday and Whitsundays over the past 5 years - it seems to closely predict tourism numbers to the Whitsundays about 1 year in advance.

It is quite obvious that from mid 2006 that we were about to experience a prolonged downturn in visitor numbers. The WBJ campaign, while not increasing interest in our region, appears to have at least stopped the slide downwards'.

Note - the bottom of the last graph also shows 'News Volume' - this is how many news agencies reported an event. You may notice the largest spike in May 2008 - this was when 2 UK divers were left out at the Reef. 3 times more news agencies picked up on that event than have covered the WBJ. If the publicity surrounding the WBJ is worth around $380 million, then theoretically, OzSail leaving 2 divers out at the reef cost us over $1 Billion dollars in bad publicity (they were fined $30,000).

So, why did the 'Best Job in the World' campaign win all those awards, when there appears to be no benefit for the rest of the Whitsundays, and probably Queensland?

Great campaigns and commercials have won awards in the past and failed to produce results, and once again the marketing people will surely come back tomorrow and say the WBJ Campaign has won 'so many of these' awards.

Sure, a unique marketing idea or campaign can be great, but isn't it also supposed to be successful?

MORE INFO & UPDATES
13 Nov 2009 - How has the awareness for the rest of QLD been raised by the Campaign?
Oct 14, 2005 - Cummins & Partners picks up Whitsundays business
14 Nov 2009 - Update
Related Story - The writing was on the wall in April 2009
More at Sydney Morning Herald - 'I wish you were here'
Brisbane Times - 'Best job campaign a tourism lemon'
Whitsundays Online - Tourism Trends and Comparisons
CDNN - Tourism QLD's Best Job in the World campaign flops
mUMBRELLA - Best Job's (very long) glory list
Is Queensland 'Best Job in the World' Really the Worst - Jaunted