My top 11 for the Best Job in the World.
March 9, 2009 by Caitlin
Filed under Travel Trends & Issues
My picks for who I would follow as caretaker / chief blogger on Hamilton Island.
I’ve now taken the time to watch all 50 short-listed videos on the site and I can confirm that my first impressions still largely hold. The candidates came from all over the world, there’s a mix of guys and girls, and the overwhelming majority of finalists are young and appear to be single.
I expected them to go for geographic diversity to maximise the effect of the campaign, but having now seen the videos I actually think this came at the expense of choosing the best videos. There are several videos from China that were passable but in all honesty not as good as videos from elsewhere that missed out. There’s no way I’d watch Julia from Russia – though since she’s currently coming in at number two on the popular vote, I think she’ll be able to live with that.
Most of the candidates were in their teens or twenties, though it looked like a few were in their thirties and Mark from California seemed to be quite a bit older (but his application didn’t appeal to me). It looked like Erik from Canada had children, but I didn’t see any other families.
I’ve compiled a list below of people that I would most like to follow as island caretaker. I have not tried to think as a marketer so there’s been no attempt to keep gender ratios or geographic spread, though I think that happened naturally. And these are not necessarily the best videos but rather the ones where the person convinced me that they have the skills to do the job and a personality that I would enjoy following and interacting with. It’s a top 11, since that’s how many will make it through to the next round – Tourism Queensland is to choose a top 10 and the 11th will be a ‘wildcard’ candidate chosen by public vote.
So, in no particular order and without further ado, here are my favourites:
- Clare from Taiwan, an interpreter.
- Mitchell from Ontario, Canada, who has a biology degree. (I love his video!)
- Iris from the Netherlands, studied leisure and tourism.
- Hailey from Queensland, Australia, lifeguard and fellow ‘ninger’ (member of the islandreefjob.ning.com social network).
- Mirjam from Bavaria, Germany, experience in sales, working with kids, film and theatre
- Anny from Vancouver, Canada, who has a degree in marketing and another fellow ‘ninger’. Great presentation skills (though you should never tap on a fish tank – apparently it’s really painful for the fish!).
- Gina from Seoul, Korea, student majoring in international studies and communications, recording artist and environmentalist. She went to primary school in Sydney.
- Achim from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, a student majoring in information and media.
- Magali from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I’m not sure what she does as she doesn’t really talk about it but I like her and like her video.
- Erik from Vancouver, Canada, a web editor for a newspaper and fellow ‘ninger’.
- Sam, Japan, an interpreter.
Runners-up (it was very hard to choose!): Adeline from Los Angeles, USA (cool video that also showed her personality); James from Queensland/London.
I also liked: Anjaan from India; Linda from Alberta; Canada; Cali from Texas, USA; Kiran from Kenya and Nila from Indonesia.
I thought the following videos were very cool as stand-alone pieces but I didn’t get enough sense of the person and what they’d be like to follow over six months to put them in the top 11: Marcella from British Columbia, Canada with her fantastic animated video; Karyna from Japan with a creative, quirky video; and Melissa from Ontario, Canada with her super hero / secret agent theme.
I was hugely impressed by Chris from NSW, Australia – a true adventurer – but I’d prefer to have someone a little more ordinary get the job. The way Chris says it, he was applying because something else fell through and the Tourism Queensland job would be preferable to taking an office job. I’d love for it to be something special for someone, rather than just yet another adventure in an already amazing life.
You get one vote per day so don’t forget to head over, check out the top 50 videos and have your say.
Who would you most like to watch as island caretaker? Do you agree with my choices? Who do you think will win the wildcard vote? Who is Tourism Queensland most likely to choose?
First runner-up. Not bad. I’ll take it. Thanks.
I did like your video a lot! It was hard to choose. – Caitlin.
At least I made your runners up… I really like the style of the blog, I commented on Ning, but just realised it’s the lifestyle theme, but still nice job in choosing it
Thanks, James. I’ve just finished merging my food and travel blogs and overhauling the the look and feel of the site. Yes, it’s the Lifestyle theme from Studiopress – I might fiddle with the colours at some point but otherwise I’m very happy with the functionality and layout.
You were very close to making my top 11 and I’d definitely follow you if you got the job. I enjoyed your voice (in both senses of the word – it’s very melodious!) but I guess I didn’t see enough of you talking to the camera, which might have created more of a personal connection.
(Then again, maybe I’m just jealous because I too am an Australian media professional in London but I didn’t make the top 50. http://www.roamingtales.com/2009/02/08/best-job-in-the-world/). – Caitlin.
haha.. if it makes you feel any better I only get to work on commercial photography commissions 50% of my time, the rest of the time I’ve got a day job
Best Hoax of 2009
Most of the English speaking world has heard about the “Island reef Job” or “The Best Job in the World” contest run by Tourism Queensland in Australia. The promotion has been heralded as one of the greatest marketing phenomenon ever and initially appeared so.
Well it is more than a well crafted promotion. It is a HOAX.
The winner was already determined before the contest even opened. David Whitehill and his agency Creative Representation are in league with Tourism Queensland and Cummins Nitro in designing this hoax. It was loosely based on the current crop of reality shows currently on TV. Sort of a survivor / big brother blend except the winner was already decided before Christmas in 2008!
Unfortunately for them the contest side of the promotion grew out of control when the world media ran with the initial story. Thousands of media outlets and tens of thousands unsuspecting applicants inundated the poorly designed TQ operation. Some folks have spent significant resources providing video (estimate $30 – 20 million in total) and media outlets have to this date (March 4, 2009) provided ($80 million) in free publicity! “For a $US1.8 million ($NZ3.6 million) campaign we have received nearly $US80 million in publicity,” said Ms Boyle (State of Queensland Minister of Tourism).
The applicants who put their heart and soul into this hoax are very angry about this revelation. The millions of viewers are disappointed. The media outlets have expressed disbelief as to their gullibility.
After viewing the top50 and looking up David Hill’s cult status in Queensland the hoax becomes obvious. David is miles ahead of the selected top50 applications. That and the obvious bias for less than 30 years of age crowd were also given away to the selection process plan. A few of the top50 videos were over the 60 second rule that caused some applicants so much grief. One top50 video from China didn’t even have any spoken English. The real big clue to the hoax was that the final winner is ultimately to be decided by Tourism Queensland. This will allow for David Hill to be given the work and use it as a launching pad for his acting career.
The Queensland people will accept this much better now that a local boy is keeping the cash in the area.
“There were rumours of a hoax from the beginning.” Michael Branagh, boss of Cummins Nitro’s Brisbane office said he was delighted with the success of the project which had generated huge amounts of worldwide publicity. He said the video was put on the site to “seed” it and AAP had only itself to blame for being fooled. He said: “Bad luck to them. They should have known better.”
I’m afraid that this doesn’t ring true to me. A hoax would bring zero upside for Tourism Queensland – it would risk an almighty backlash from around the world for no marketing gain whatsoever. Also, Australia has ‘truth in advertising’ laws and they would be legal toast if it turned out to all be a hoax. The campaign is working very well for them as it stands – they have no reason to jinx that.
If it were a hoax, the media would uncover it and it would be in the news – but newspapers in Australia and around the world are still reporting it as a genuine competition. This leads me to doubt the veracity of the quotes – yes, Cummins Nitro cites Tourism Queensland as a client on its website but all that proves is that TQ has a marketing agency, which is to be expected really.
Your ‘evidence’ is unconvincing. Everyone in the top 50 spoke English in their video, though fluency and accents varied. Also you are wrong about the video lengths. Some videos in the top 50 display as 1:01 because of the way YouTube compresses the videos, but they would have been 1:00 on the original file. My own submission was 59s but displayed as 1:00 for the same reason.
I must also disagree that David is ‘miles ahead’ of the other applicants. He didn’t even make my top 11 – I can see that he might appeal to some people, but I thought he was boring. And right now he’s only coming 27th in the popular vote, so I’m not the only one.
Although the contest was open to all applicants, I for one will be highly surprised if David or any of the other Aussies get the job. There are some good local candidates but I think they’ll ultimately choose someone from overseas to help target an international audience.
Maybe I’m wrong but based purely on the evidence and the logic of the situation, I really don’t think so. – Caitlin.
Nice Top 11 picks. What about the Russian babe? Granted she clearly paid big bucks for the videography. In any case, check out my site for more reviews of the island caretakers.
I’ve Got a Golden Ticket
Like I said, I have zero interest in watching the Russian girl. It’s not so much the videography I object to, even though that’s clearly unsustainable on the island, but she was so plastic! All that pouting and posing was so over the top – she was even glistening with baby oil for the bikini shots! (I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was some clever photoshoppery or post-production going on there because she looked bigger in the shots where she’s fully clothed). – Caitlin.
I don’t think it’s a hoax, otherwise there’d be other big hints, like David would have gotten heaps of preferred media attention etc. Or he’d be heavily advertised so they don’t have to fight to have him as winner.
I think it’s a genuine thing, as someone said, they can’t afford to have this as a hoax and the people in TQ all seem pretty genuine.
I think it’s a silly rumour but it’s certainly doing the rounds – though this is the first time I’ve heard the theory in quite so much detail. I used to work at The Australian and there’s no way the media would go along with a hoax and I’m sure by now they would’ve found out the secret if there was one. – Caitlin.
This claim of a hoax is a hoax. Either some disgruntled idiot, or someone just looking to stir up trouble for the fun of it. Lots of obvious flaws, the most glaring of which (at least to me) is the last paragraph:
“There were rumours of a hoax from the beginning.” Michael Branagh, boss of Cummins Nitro’s Brisbane office said he was delighted with the success of the project which had generated huge amounts of worldwide publicity. He said the video was put on the site to “seed” it and AAP had only itself to blame for being fooled. He said: “Bad luck to them. They should have known better.”
This is a deliberate fabrication created by mashing up two different situations. Yes, Cummins Nitro helped with the planning of the campaign. They also created at least one of the two “seed/sample” videos that were later removed from the site by TQ, accompanied by an apology. Branagh is talking about the videos, not the campaign as a whole. The fact that whomever wrote this took the quote so completely out of context is evidence of the author’s malevolent intent.
Thanks Caitlin!
I’d follow you any day! In fact, I already am on Twitter! lol
Thank you!
This is Gina from Seoul and I can’t believe you picked my video in your top 11- I’ve been getting a lot of blows b/c my video is not technically professional and it doesn’t involve a lot of fancy stuff.
I want to show that your ‘average girl’ can get the BEST JOB IN THE WORLD by being herself and thank you once again!
will be keeping up with your blog
Hi Gina! No worries – I thought you came across well on camera and seemed like a person I would enjoy following. Don’t listen to the knockers. There’s plenty of professional content in the world and the appeal with blogging is that it’s different because it’s fundamentally about a personal voice. Tourism Queensland themselves said that the videos didn’t need to be technically fancy and quite rightly too. Don’t forget, the winner will be producing written blogs and photographs, not just video reports. Plus some of those videos looked like they were produced by an expensive production company, which gives me zero insight into what those people could achieve on their own on the island. Good luck! – Caitlin.