SapientNitro’s Best in Show and Four Gold Awards at MIXX Cap an Unprecedented Awards Run for “The Best Job in the World” Campaign

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SapientNitro, a division of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), announced today that its “The Best Job in the World” campaign for Tourism Queensland earned the highest honor, the Best in Show, as well as four Gold Awards at the fifth annual MIXX Awards held September 22, in New York City by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). The campaign, which leveraged social marketing and traditional print advertising to drive worldwide awareness of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef as a tourism destination, illustrates the enormous global impact that an integrated interactive advertising strategy can deliver when deployed intelligently across multiple platforms. Since the campaign went live in January 2009, it has garnered more than 25 awards, including the Cyber Lion Grand Prix at Cannes and Best in Show at the One Show Awards.

“The massive success of this campaign underscores the historic shift that is revolutionizing the advertising industry and its leaders – where technology plays a central role through enabling multichannel brand experiences,” said SapientNitro Chief Executive Officer Chris Clarke. “In fact, we’re seeing more and more clients wanting to tap into our distinctive offering that combines brand strategy and creative excellence with digital innovation as a way to create more powerful and lucrative customer experiences.”

In creating "The Best Job in the World" campaign for Tourism Queensland, SapientNitro began by developing a strategic, insightful idea that would capture the imagination of people all over the world, generate mainstream media interest and produce new content for social media dissemination. The campaign kicked off with a series of traditional classified job postings and banner ads strategically placed in target markets advertising “the best job in the world” – a live-in caretaker for an island on the Great Barrier Reef. The central component of the global integrated campaign was an innovative social media initiative that engaged consumers by leveraging their zeal for generating their own content. Interested candidates were invited to create a one-minute video application and then post it to a central site, from which a caretaker would be selected.

At the end of the campaign, almost 35,000 individual videos from 197 countries were uploaded. On an estimated advertising budget of $1.2 million, the campaign garnered media attention worldwide valued at $165 million. Coverage of the campaign spanned Germany, Japan, the UK, the United States and included CNN news broadcasts, Time Magazine articles and a BBC documentary. What began as a few strategically placed job postings transformed into one of the most innovative, viral and highly awarded campaigns in history. In 2009, “The Best Job in the World” Campaign has already received the following awards:

2009 MIXX Awards
Best in Show
Social Marketing – Gold
Direct Response and Lead Generation - Gold
International - Gold
Cross Media Integration - Gold

2009 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
Cyber Lion Grand Prix – Interactive Campaigns
PR Lion Grand Prix – Best international PR Campaign
Direct Lion Grand Prix – Best Integrated Campaign led by Direct Marketing
PR Lion – Travel, Tourism & Leisure
PR Lion – Best use of the Internet, Digital Media & Social Media
Direct Lion Gold – Traffic Building
Direct Lion Gold – Travel, Entertainment & Leisure
Media Lion Gold – Travel, Entertainment & Leisure

2009 New York Festivals
Grand Trophy - Digital and Interactive
Avant-Garde Gold World Medal – Word of Mouth/Buzz
Mixed Media Gold World Medal - Transportation/Travel/Tourism
Interactive Gold World Medal – Transportation/Travel/Tourism

2009 One Show
‘Best in Show’
Integrated Branding Campaign Gold
Interactive Digital Media Campaign Silver

2009 Clio Awards
Innovative Media Gold – Travel/Tourism

IAB Australia Awards
‘Best in Show’
Winner Brand Awareness & Positioning

Advertising Federation of Australia EFFIE Awards
3 Gold Awards
1 Silver Award

The IAB MIXX Awards are the only advertising awards that honor innovation and impact, and are selected by a panel of senior executives from brands, agencies and media companies.

About SapientNitro

SapientNitro is the first brand-driven, technology-enabled global communications network dedicated to helping brands compete and thrive in today’s digitally centric world. Through a results-oriented approach that combines communications with business strategy, digital innovation and branded entertainment – delivered on a tightly integrated global platform – SapientNitro produces award-winning, engaging multi-channel experiences for industry leading clients including Mars, Volvo, Nike, Footlocker and ConAgra. SapientNitro has been recognised by respected industry observers such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and CNN as one of the most innovative and forward-thinking agencies in the world. SapientNitro’s “Best Job in the World” campaign for the Queensland Tourist Commission won three Grand Prix awards at Cannes Lions 2009 and Best of Show at The One Show. Headquartered in New York, SapientNitro operates across North America, Europe, Australia and China. For more information, please visit www.sapientnitro.com.

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