The historic island of Pampus has been struggling with a decline in visitors over the last few years. To be able to maintain this UNESCO World Heritage site in the future, visitor numbers had to be increased by 5%. 
Mystery has always surrounded Pampus. For decades incredible stories have been told about the island, and its fort - and its wandering ghosts, lost soldiers and hidden treasures. In the summer of 2011 the renewed visitor centre, where many of these stories are kept alive, opened its doors. To create awareness around the opening, another incredible story was added to the list of mysteries: The Pampus Shark.

During a 2 week period before the opening of the visitor centre a team of specialised stunt divers went into the waters circling the island with a full-scale shark fin. Normally there are no sharks in Dutch waters, so it didn’t go unnoticed: The Pampus Shark was born.

The news and footage spread quickly via Facebook and Twitter. And Pampus was soon overloaded with phone calls and website visitors. The buzz on social media was picked up by newspapers, TV channels and radio stations who seriously discussed the possibility of having a shark in Dutch waters. Even specialists were consulted. The free publicity value was over 2,000% of the money spent on the stunt. But more importantly, despite the lousy summer of 2011, visitor numbers increased by 10%, keeping Pampus and its incredible stories alive.

Summer of 2011. Pampus opens its renewed visitor centre where many of the mysterious stories are kept alive. To bring the island and its visitors' centre into publicity, we added another incredible story to the list of mysteries: The Pampus Shark. 
During a 2-week period before the opening of the visitor centre, a team of specialised stunt divers went into the waters, circling the island with a full-scale shark fin. Normally there are no sharks in Dutch water, so it didn’t go unnoticed.

The Pampus Shark was born. To feed the buzz a bit more, a few days before the opening a surfboard was found, with a big bite taken from it. On the opening day the stunt was revealed to the press, a large billboard showed the divers with the fin. Later on, the movie Jaws was shown in a float-in cinema in Pampus harbour.

After the shark was spotted on the first day, a buzz started and when a video was posted on Facebook more shark sights were recorded and the news travelled fast. Pictures and videos were shared on Facebook, people discussed the news on Twitter, the number of Pampus Facebook fans tripled and the foundation received many curious phone calls.

The news was picked up by a local TV channel who turned it into a big item, inviting specialists to discuss the case. After this, the buzz really took off; newspapers dedicated articles to the shark and national TV and radio stations spent time discussing the possibility of having a shark in our waters. The Pampus website had to deal with an overload. The free publicity value was worth over 2,000% of the money spent on the stunt. But more importantly, despite the lousy weather in the 2011 summer, visitor numbers increased by 10%.