The island Pampus with its historical fortress struggled a decline in visitors the last couple of years. With no budget for a bought media campaign, something extraordinary had to happen to reverse the annual 5% decline into a 5% increase of visitors. Throughout history incredible stories have been told about the island. To raise awareness around the opening of the renewed visitor centre, another incredible story was added to the list of mysteries: the Pampus Shark.

During a 2 week period a team of specialized stunt divers went into the waters surrounding the island with a full-scale shark fin.

The news was picked up in social media and travelled even faster when newspapers, TV and radio stations started discussing the possibility of having a shark in our waters. The campaign generated an enormous amount of free publicity. But more importantly visitor numbers increased by 10%.

During a two week period before the opening of the visitor centre a team of specialised stunt divers went into the waters surrounding the island with a full-scale shark fin. Normally there are no sharks in Dutch water. So it didn’t go unnoticed.

To feed the buzz a bit more, a few days before the opening a surfboard washed up on the shore, 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.

No paid media was used to generate attention for the Pampus Shark. By the use of social media, free publicity took a flight and we got our message across through almost every channel: social, print, TV and radio.

After the first day, the shark was spotted and a video was posted on Facebook. News travelled fast. More shark sightings were recorded and shared via social media. The buzz was picked up by a local TV channel which turned it into a big item, inviting specialists to discuss the case. After this, newspapers dedicated articles to the shark and national TV and radio stations spent time discussing the possibility. The free publicity value was over 2,000% of the money spent on the stunt. Visitors, curious about the shark and the island, visited in large amounts. Numbers increased by 10%.