Innovative advocacy campaign an Australian first
Australian Capital Tourism’s innovative 500 Humans campaign has captured the interest of Australians with 31,406 people applying to visit their nation’s capital.
The advocacy campaign using social media channels has resulted in applications from every state and territory in Australia, with the majority from New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. The estimated unpaid/earned media reach alone of the recruitment phase of the campaign through PR and social media is 3.375 million people (Twitter, Facebook, column inch media coverage).
Australian Capital Tourism’s director Ian Hill was thrilled with the number of applications and said it showed Australians were keen to bust some misconceptions of Canberra on the eve of the year-long Centenary of Canberra program.
“Inviting people to come along and experience some of the many great things there are to see and do in their capital and then share their experience through their social media networks is a great way of building greater advocacy,” he said. “We’re proud of our city’s attractions and tourism experiences look forward to welcoming the 500 Australians who will help us create the world’s first Human Brochure – online content produced and shared by visitors for all to see.”
The campaign has resulted in the Visitcanberra Facebook page increasing by 380% and has also engaged the tourism industry in one of the largest tourism projects undertaken in Canberra. More than 30 operators are directly involved but all industry members can engage by posting content via social media channels and following the journey of our 500 humans.
The project is building industry capacity and learnings in the digital space, with 80 local industry participants recently attending a social media workshop and learning new ways to share their own tourism experience to a global audience.
The 500 successful applicants were advised on 1 October, with half the group visiting on the weekend of 26 to 28 October. The second 250 will visit on 15-17 February 2013
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