Melbourne Remote Control Tourist

Why it works

For five days in October 2013, anyone online could steer real tourists around Melbourne. Four explorers in helmet cameras streamed live to RemoteControlTourist.com while Facebook and Twitter users told them where to go and what to do, from making pizza and trying on dresses to tracking down secret gigs. Built by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for Tourism Victoria with Tool director Jason Zada and Exit Films, it turned the line “go before you go” into a live, crowd-directed travel show, and everything the tourists filmed and photographed was meant to live on as a crowd-built visual guide to the city. It is studied as an early, ambitious piece of real-time brand content in which the audience, not the agency, wrote the itinerary. Figures submitted to IAB Australia’s Creative Showcase claim users in 158 countries and 43 million earned social impressions in five days. It took four Bronze Cyber Lions at Cannes in 2014 and the Branded Content and Entertainment Grand Prix at Spikes Asia.