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Submitted by WE ARE KOMODO

South Australia Tourism: Working Holiday Visa Influencer Campaign

Komodo ran an influencer campaign for the South Australian Tourism Commission that paired two British TikTok creators with the state and delivered 16k Sign Ups.

16,000Working Holiday Visa sign-ups
1mengagements
4.2Mimpressions
16ksign ups

Case in 60 seconds

With Australia's borders reopened post-COVID, SATC needed young people overseas to take up work in South Australia's tourism and hospitality sectors, which asks for relocation and employment rather than a holiday booking.

The campaign appears to turn on the fact that a working holiday is judged on what daily life there actually looks like, so creators documenting their own time in the state carry more weight than official recruitment material.

Rather than advertise the visa scheme directly, Komodo put British TikTok creators inside South Australia and let their documented experience of the place stand as the argument for moving there to work.

Komodo partnered British TikTok stars Monty Keates and Max Balegde with SATC to showcase South Australia's offerings, and the creators documented their experiences across TikTok and Instagram, including a live stream.

Komodo reports 4.2M Impressions, 1m Engagements and 16k Sign Ups, and states the creators generated over 4 million views and 200,000 likes on their live stream while contributing to SATC's Working Holiday Visa sign-ups.

Strategy Breakdown

Young people from overseas who might work in South Australia's tourism and hospitality sectors, described on the page as working holidaymakers applying for a Working Holiday Visa.
Australia's borders had only just reopened after COVID, so the country was competing for a cohort of young travellers whose plans had been suspended for years and who had to be persuaded to choose one state over the rest.
Tourism marketing normally sells a visit, while this brief sold a job and a relocation, so the work had to make working life in South Australia legible rather than only making the state look appealing.
SATC sat behind the creators as the initiative owner and the destination of the sign-up, with the page positioning the state as a place to work rather than only a place to see.
Based on the available evidence, applying for a visa is a considered step, so the campaign appears to have used sustained documentary content and a live stream to move an audience from watching to signing up rather than relying on a single prompt.

Creative & Execution System

Assets & channels

  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • live stream

Partners

  • WE ARE KOMODO

Creator role

  • Max Balegde — creator
  • Monty Keates — creator
  • British TikTok stars

Results & Evidence

MetricValue
Working Holiday Visa Sign-UpsTheir efforts contributed to SATC gaining 16,000 sign-ups for their Working Holiday Visa initiative
Engagements1m - Engagements
Impressions4.2M - Impressions
Sign Ups16k - Sign Ups
Views and Likes on Live Streamgenerating over 4 million views and 200,000 likes on their live stream

Why WE ARE KOMODO's strategy worked

  1. 1

    A government recruitment objective converts better when it is carried by creators the target cohort already follows at home, because the proposition reaches them as a peer's account of a place rather than as official messaging about a visa scheme.

  2. 2

    Casting creators from the source market rather than the destination market matches the audience to the campaign's actual geography, since the people who need to be recruited are still living where the creators' followings already are.

  3. 3

    Live streaming appears to do work that edited posts cannot for a destination brief, because an unedited stretch of time in a place answers questions about daily life that a short cut-down leaves open.

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