Look For The Quirky Angle!

You’ve got to take your hat off to the Aussie tourist people, when it comes to PR.

Last year 34,000 people applied for the ‘Best Job in The World’ – as caretaker of Hamilton Island, Australia. And now the South Australian government is tempting bored Brits with a wild range of jobs.

If you fancy being a ‘roo poo’ harvester, Koala catcher, beer taster or shark personality profiler then South Australia’s the place for you it seems.

The gap year market is big business, with destinations around the globe competing for the traveller dollar. And while Australia has its fair share of ‘must sees’ and ‘must dos’, what sets it apart from most countries is that it’s possible to get a work permit while you’re there.

Now, the reality is that most ‘gappers’ will probably look for work in bars, restaurants, offices etc, but what the tourism PR people realise is that travelling is ultimately about adventure.

So, armed with research highlighting that 60% of Brits are bored with their jobs, they’ve come up with a quirky campaign to sell Australia’s ‘uniqueness’. As they say: “take the usual trail, do the usual jobs or go for something that you can’t get anywhere else in the world…an experience you’ll be dining out on for years, the sort of experience you’ll be telling your grand-kids about.”

You could dismiss it all as a silly PR stunt but I think it’s a real winner – not only is South Australia highlighting the fact that you can actually earn some money while you’re there, but it’s offering travellers a bit of real Aussie adventure at the same time - and grabbing world headlines in the process.

Remember, a great PR campaign doesn’t necessarily mean doing anything new –sometimes it’s just about positioning things in a new light...