Briton Wins ‘Best Job In The World’

Published by djmick on May 6th, 2009

southall

British charity fundraiser Ben Southall won the “best job in the world” on Wednesday — caretaker of an Australia tropical island — after an innovative marketing campaign that highlighted the power of social media.

Southall, 34, was picked from 16 final contestants in a highly publicised contest by Tourism Queensland which attracted 34,684 video entries from almost 200 countries and surpassed all expectations in promoting tourism in the Australian state.

The job description? Explore the islands of the Great Barrier Reef for six months and report back to Tourism Queensland and the world via blogs, a photo diary, video updates and interviews.

Also, if you feel like it, feed the fish, collect the mail and clean the pool — and collect a wage of A$150,000 ($110,000).

ben southall

While the job itself attracted global attention so did the campaign by the government body Tourism Queensland as it highlighted how companies can tap the power of online social media such as YouTube and Facebook, for marketing.

The “Best Job in the World” campaign began in January with Tourism Queensland launching a tourism advertising campaign centered around the lure of “the best job in the world.”

Within days the campaign went viral as applicants from all over the world sent in 60-second video applications and news of the contest spread on social networking sites such as Facebook and the video sharing site YouTube.

Southall starts “work” on July 1.

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