Australia isn’t a particularly Christmassy place. Where in the West we would enjoy certain customs and decorations, down under in Sydney the annual procedures are a little more subdued when it comes to celebrating the annual arrival of Santa Clause and Christmas crackers. The streets aren’t lined with many lights or decorations… but one thing they are lined with, are banners to advertise the city’s extensive new year’s celebrations.
But, as the world’s most socially engaged tourist board, this year they went a step further. Between roughly 6pm and midnight on the 31st of December, Tourism Australia asked Sydney residents to record up to 6 seconds of video footage on their smart phones and upload them, via the freely provided Sydney NYE App. At around 11am the following morning they released this short film capturing the night as it unfolded, following the stories of a few individuals as well as the individual clips of user generated content. Given that Sydney’s fireworks display was quickly named the best in the world this year by multiple news outlets – the focus of the campaign is pretty apt.
Australia passed the 2million mark on their Facebook page shortly before 2012 began, leading to the video being liked and shared over 14,000 times in the first few days, reaching an extended network in the tens of millions.
The small but dedicated social marketing team at Tourism Australia continue to prove that they are leading the way for international tourism online, which we’ll be covering in more detail very soon.
What do you think of the new year campaign? Have you seen any other destination marketing companies use any similar ideas successfully?
Post Revisions:
- 3 April, 2012 @ 5:53 [Current Revision] by John O'Nolan
- 3 January, 2012 @ 15:12 by John O'Nolan
Great Vid! oy oy oy!
Ah the memories of Sydney! Not a bad effort… seems a bit like taking the “life in a day” film idea over new years.
The fireworks in London were something special this year however.
I’d love Sydney to be my next NYE. Berlin was pretty spectacular in its own way – but to be almost the first to experience the turning of the New Year and see “the best in the world” in terms of fireworks seems like an opportunity that can’t be passed up.
Props to Australia for being so savvy with social media and tech.