Social Media Campaign Review: Zostel Lures Students With The #BestInternshipEver

Zostel is India’s first backpacker hostel chain in Jodhpur and Jaipur which provides hostel services and travel consultancy to young travelers. This initiative, by the IIM Calcutta and IIT alumnus, is slowly extending its base and targeting young travelers, students and wanderlust souls, encouraging them to pursue their passion to travel. They have also organized trips for the same.

Objective

In order to promote their aim of encouraging the idea of travelling, Zostel launched an online programme #BestInternshipEver, aimed to select 2 or more interns, who will be known as the Chief Exploration Officers (CEO’s). Their job would be to travel across the country over 50 days and promote the idea of travel and exploration. This one was, undoubtedly, one of the most innovative social media campaigns in the recent times.

Execution

Zostel launched a dedicated website, for the #BestInternshipEver contest. This website hosts a 6-round competitive module, to earn points and make it to the leader board.

The first two rounds are one-time rounds which involve registration and sharing links of their #BestInternshipEver personalized URL.

Round I : Knighting

• Registration points assured to every participant.

Round II : Day Of Love

• The second round is about sharing links of participation, and
• the #BestInternshipEver video.

Round III : Leadership Round

• This is the most intelligent round incorporated. With a minimum requirement of 3 new inspired participants per entry, every inspired participant who joins using your URL will fetch you extra points.

Round IV : Motherland Quiz

• The Motherland quiz aims to test the participant’s awareness and knowledge about India by throwing up 15 multiple choice questions, which are to be answered within a time span of 75 seconds. The maximum right answers and minimum time used fetch you maximum points.
• This round has a minimum point requirement and grants you a maximum of 3 lives every midnight. You could earn extra lives by adding new inspired participants.

Round V : Pen is Mighty

• The first of the two creative rounds being, the word’s worth round. In this, the participants are required to put up 3 different statuses to inspire people to travel, keeping in mind the criteria of creativity and originality.
• This round has a mandatory condition to tag Zostel and #BestInternshipEver in every status.
• And an extra 100 points on the platter are served with a single tweet to @ZostelHostel. These points can only be redeemed at one time.

Round VI : Photography

• This round requires the participants to post 2 travel related pictures that inspire people to travel with a caption and the tag of Zostel and #BestInternshipEver. In the status, as well as in the photography round, there are two factors that come into play.

First, points gained for uploading content and the likes it attracts.

Second, points allotted by the judges on the basis of creativity and originality. The judge’s points will be allotted post the final online closure of the contest.

Bonus Round

The bonus round is an opportunity for all participants to win an extra 50 points by merely guessing the average of the last 100 guesses. The closer your guess is to the answer, the more points you earn. A new opportunity to guess is offered every 15 minutes. The highest earned score shall be considered.

Follow On

The campaign closed on 18th. The photo entries of the top 1000 participants on the leader board will be judged by internal judges and the final top 250 participants will be interviewed via phone and Skype in the final selection process for the internship.

Positives

Zostel’s #BestInternshipEver is a vast campaign with minutely designed rounds. The campaign very well tests the various aspects of the participant’s persona in order to choose their winners who shall travel across the country.

The campaign strikes home the brand's positioning, which is around travel for youngsters.

A 50 days' sponsored tour across the country and a chance to win Rs. 50,000 is an extremely lucrative prize to participate in this contest. The chain method of inspired participants, made the campaign highly successful making it the buzz on social media.

The campaign, through its writing and photography rounds, has been successful in creating a desire in people’s minds to travel.

Scope of Improvement

While Zostel has a very exciting internship up for grabs, it does not give a clear idea or specification of the internship. While participants have an outline idea, there is a lack of detailed understanding of the campaign.

Unveiling the rounds took too much of space, as dates were specified in some rounds. But, for the sub-rounds, no specifications were provided. The lack of reminders and clarity could kill the momentum. Changes in timelines and extensions, without prior notice, must be avoided to prevent chaos and the sense of unfair practices.

Better use of Facebook and Twitter could have been made to keep the buzz alive. Also, Instagram integration for the photography round could’ve worked well to expand their presence.

Conclusion

#BestInternshipEver by Zostel is one of the most innovative and well planned online campaigns in the recent past and has gathered a remarkable response, with over 5000 registrations for the campaign. However, some minor improvements could give the much needed mileage that seemed missing. We are hoping for a better show the next time, following this remarkable campaign by Zostel.