State Vs State
Tonight we see the first of the Queensland versus New South Wales State of Origin games for 2014 and it got us thinking in the Shared Marketing office, which is the better state overall . . . when it comes to marketing and internet presence?
So to settle the debate, we started by Googling “Visit” for each state and we came across the official ‘Visit’ websites for both Queensland and New South Wales which we thought was a good way to see what a potential visitors first impression of either destination would be.
Now, it must be noted that Queensland does have a bit of content advantage here due to the size of the state. They can fit a few more attractions in such as theme parks, beaches, hinterland, the Great Barrier Reef and most importantly to tourists, lots and lots of sunshine! All said and done, lets how each state’s website rated.
New South Wales
Images: Urm, one question . . . Where is Sydney??
Navigation: Easy to follow and good menu options. Might even check out the Rodeo in Coonamble?
Overall impression of NSW according to websites homepage: There’s some farmland to visit, some pretty awesome looking rocks and a marching band. Hmmm, quite a few clouds in those photos too, hope the weather is okay?
Number of Smiling People on New South Wales homepage: 6
Queensland
Images: Bright, vibrant, fun . . . Where do I sign up?
Navigation: Easy to follow through the menus. There is so much stuff to see in Queensland!
Overall impression of QLD according to websites homepage: Wow! Look at all these different things I can do! Hug a koala, go snorkelling off an amazing reef, check out some stunning hinterland from a hot air balloon, go surfing and I can even wave to my own private helicopter from my own private beach?! And it NEVER rains. I can’t see one single cloud on that page. I’m there!
Number of smiling people on Queensland homepage: 12
After careful consideration of all the above observations, we all agreed that this was not an easy task to decide the winner. So since the states were neck and neck, we decided to flick through the link on both homepages to their respective Facebook pages and let the ‘Likers’ do the talking. Well, there really was no competition there.
Visit New South Wales held the notable number of 280,429 Likers.
However, as expected the Visit Queensland Facebook page knocked them out of the competition with a whopping 1,053,915 Likers (and way cooler pictures).
Both Facebook pages adopt similar strategies of encouraging interaction through Likers sending through their own photos of their time in the state, but for some reason, it appears there are much more professional-type photographers visiting Queensland than NSW with the quality of photos belonging on postcards.
Taking these points into consideration, it will come to no surprise to you that in our opinion at Shared Marketing HQ, based on the Gold Coast, Queensland, that Queensland is the outright winner and has the best internet presence out of the two states.
We have no doubt that this supremacy will reign tonight when the Mighty Maroons wipe the floor with the Blues in Origin.
Note: These opinions may be slightly influenced by the location of our marketing office in sunny Queensland and that in fact, Queensland is just better than NSW.