Melbourne is unlike other Australian destinations. Instead of landmarks and beaches, it’s a patchwork of little experiences that take time to discover. We had to find a means of letting people explore this depth.

The Remote Control Tourist knitted together digital, social, wearable tech, branded content, print and cinema to do just this – culminating in a 5-day interactive live stream web experience seen by an estimated 150 million people.

It was something never attempted by a city – allowing people to ‘go, before they go’- generating a wealth of content.

Our Tourists became the eyes and ears of our audience. With cameras and GPS they performed almost 3,000 requests – from tasting tacos to trying on dresses. The more they uncovered, the more data we collected - including over 80 hours of video and 1,500 Instagram pictures.

Today the content lives on as the World’s first crowdsourced city guide.

In the two weeks prior to our live period, the campaign was teased via a viral film on Youtube, as well as with rich media banners and press advertising.

Just prior to going live, street posters and postcards began to appear across major Australian cities. A teaser version of the web experience was launched, giving schedules and basic information.

The five-day live streaming web-experience was driven by our four Remote Control Tourists. Kitted out with cameras, smart phones and powerful GPS, they created a fully immersive virtual window on the city that combined elements of live TV and gaming.

Social logins within the site drove sharing and conversation on a massive scale. After every session the day’s highlights, pictures and data were uploaded for people to view. In fact, we generated over 80 hours of videos and over 1,500 Instagram pictures.

Over just five days we generated over 43 million social media impressions and were seen by estimated global audience of 150 million people. We also trended nationally on Twitter, with positive sentiment toward Melbourne rising to 96%. We had users from 158 countries and 3,888 cities interact with us directly. Internationally, we appeared in hundreds of news articles – from everywhere from the Daily Telegraph in the UK, to ABC in the States.

From an earned media perspective we generated over $3.7 million.