How "The Best Job in the World" Went Global

To this day, The Best Job in the World remains one of the most iconic viral campaigns in modern tourism marketing. Tourism Queensland’s campaign to find a caretaker for a tropical island captured the attention of global audiences, generating over $200 million in earned media on a paid media budget of just $1.2 million.  But its virality wasn’t accidental—it was seeded strategically, and Criterion Global played a key role in the year of the firm’s founding.

Despite its reputation as a viral success, this campaign didn’t go viral by chance—it was strategically seeded through targeted, international paid media placements. This case study explores Criterion Global’s role as the ペイドメディアエージェンシー for this effort, and how strategic media buying helped ignite a global cultural moment.

Tourism Queensland, in collaboration with Australian creative agency CumminsNitro, developed the concept: a real job, advertised globally, for a paid island caretaker on Hamilton Island. The twist? The job would involve blogging, snorkeling, and showcasing Queensland’s natural beauty to the world.

Criterion Global’s task was executional—but essential: placing literal Help Wanted ads in high-profile international outlets to launch the campaign. These media placements—featured prominently in award reels from Cannes Lions to Clio—acted as the campaign’s ignition point.

Developed by creative agency Nitro Group, the concept was as unexpected as it was compelling: post a real job opening for an Island Caretaker オン Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef. Responsibilities included:

• Feeding fish
• Writing blog posts
• Snorkeling and exploring the reef
• Sharing content via photos and video

The position paid AUD $150,000 for six months, included luxury accommodations, and required no formal experience—just charisma, creativity, and a willingness to share the experience with the world. 

It was a masterstroke: a real job opening presented in a way that felt like fantasy, with enough legitimacy to make it newsworthy. 

While many marketers talk about “going viral,” what’s often overlooked is the mechanism of controlled seeding. Criterion Global’s paid media strategy ensured:

• Print ad placements in Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The New York Timesそして South China Morning Post, designed to legitimize and globalize the campaign: These placements—shown in Cannes Lions and Clio award reels—were the controlled ignition mechanism that made virality possible
• Cross-border visibility in top-performing tourism source markets like the UK, Germany, US, and Japan
• Early interest from international press, prompted by the legitimacy of paid placements in real classifieds and travel sections
• Algorithm-proof distribution, ensuring coverage at scale before news and social media amplification took over.

The campaign ultimately drove:

• 34,000+ video applications from 197 countries
• 8.6 million website visits in 8 weeks
• Over $200 million in earned media value
• Invitations for marketing leadership to speak at global tourism events and unmatched brand awareness for Queensland

But these results were not the product of luck or virality alone. They were the result of:

• Strategic paid execution (by Criterion Global)
• Well-timed placement across trusted media environments
• A world-class, brilliant creative idea from Nitro Group, which earned three Grand Prix awards at the Cannes Lions ad festival and a $50M acquisition by Sapient (now Publicis Sapient). 

In a world governed by algorithms, ペイドメディア – in service to a brilliant idea – is the only real source control over when, where, and how a campaign begins to scale.

The idea was naturally sticky—but in a fragmented media landscape, it needed visibility. The paid media seeding plan gave the campaign control over launch timing, message integrity, and geographic reach.

While many brands aspire to virality, few appreciate what it takes to get there. “The Best Job in the World” wasn’t just a PR stunt—it was a campaign designed to be discovered, and strategically launched through targeted paid media execution. 

Criterion Global’s work exemplifies the value of paid media as a seeding mechanism—a reliable, controllable way to kick-start a story and ensure it reaches the right audiences before social platforms (and earned attention) take over.

Paid media doesn’t guarantee virality. But without it, virality rarely happens.

More than a decade later, The Best Job in the World is still taught in marketing courses and cited in award submissions as a pinnacle of campaign craft. It set off a wave of similar tourism stunts, including Tourism Australia’s national “Best Jobs” spin-off.

But few have replicated its success—because few understand what made it work: a smart idea, yes, but also the right paid media at the right moment.