IVY PR, part of BCM Group, has unveiled its latest campaign for Visit Sunshine Coast, launching a nationwide search for Australia’s first ‘Chief Star Counter’.
IVY PR was re-engaged by Visit Sunshine Coast to create a campaign for the hinterland designation that could extend beyond Queensland and engage all Australian consumers.
The activation, designed to generate national earned media and social conversation, supports the Sunshine Coast Hinterland being named Queensland’s first international Dark Sky Reserve, recruiting a ‘Chief Star Counter’ for critical stargazing work.
Targeting adults and children alike, the campaign invites Australians aged seven and above to apply for the volunteer role in one sentence – sharing why they would make the best Chief Star Counter. While formal qualifications in astronomy aren’t mandatory, enthusiasm for stargazing is.
The winner will be relocated to the Sunshine Coast for a two-night stay in the hinterland, along with a private stargazing session with an astronomer, valued at more than $4,000.
The Sunshine Coast is the first Queensland region to receive a Dark Sky Reserve designation, and only the second Reserve designated in Australia. The region is at the perfect latitude to see the Milky Way clearly due to the natural geographic barrier formed by the Blackall Range, which protects it from light pollution.
“Our brief was to take a significant milestone – Queensland’s first International Dark Sky Reserve – and build a simple earned-first activation that felt like it belonged to the destination, not just the announcement,” said IVY PR co-founder and managing director Emma Bedsor.
“Rather than lead with the designation itself, we built something that invites people of all ages in, and turns a scientific achievement into a travel moment – repositioning the Sunshine Coast Hinterland as somewhere worth visiting after dark.”
“The hinterland Dark Sky Reserve designation is a genuine milestone for the Sunshine Coast – 10 years in the making and a testament to the extraordinary commitment of our community. We knew we needed to celebrate it in a way that matched that significance, but also wanted to invite the rest of Australia into the story. The ‘Chief Star Counter’ campaign does exactly that – it takes something that could easily have stayed within the tourism industry and turns it into a moment the whole country can engage with,” Visit Sunshine Coast head of marketing Kelly Ryan added.
The ‘Chief Star Counter’ competition closes on June 30.
