A Sunshine Coast marketing campaign has picked up multiple international awards.
The video-led campaign, which showcased the region’s high-tech capabilities, won two top honours at the 2024 International Economic Development Council (IEDC) awards.
Sunshine Coast Council took home three gold awards at the ceremony, in Denver in the United States, with a post-Covid rebuilding program also being honoured.
Mayor Rosanna Natoli said Council’s Testing Tech in Paradise and Sunshine Coast Incentive Assistance programs earned the top accolades for innovation in marketing, technology and economic recovery efforts.
“Our region is on the world map and these awards highlight how the Sunshine Coast is leading the way in innovation and growth,” Mayor Natoli said.
“We’re not just competing on the global stage – we’re winning.”
The Testing Tech in Paradise initiative won both the Multimedia Promotion and Paid Advertising Campaign categories at the awards.
Mayor Natoli said the campaign, created with support of local business Macneil & Co, featured futuristic AI video avatars and attracted more than 890,000 views, over 1.2 million impressions and generated 312 new investment leads over three months.
She said it featured The Connected Worker video which took viewers behind the scenes of a technology trial of augmented reality headsets supplied by the AVR Lab and the Sports Tech video which positioned the Sunshine Coast as the ideal test site for sports tech in the lead up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The Sunshine Coast Incentive Assistance Program (SCIAP) won gold in the Recovery, Resilience and Mitigation category for its role in re-building the local economy after the COVID-19 downturn.
Mayor Natoli said SCIAP helped expedite shovel-ready projects to rapidly increase capital expenditure and job creation.
She said outcomes of the program included five completed projects with 12 still underway and a total economic impact (direct and indirect) of $411.8 million and 1271 new jobs.
IEDC President and CEO Nathan Ohle said Sunshine Coast Council was setting the standard of excellence for economic development with its Testing Tech in Paradise and SCIAP projects.
“These awards highlight Council’s commitment to its community and demonstrate the transformative impact of economic development,” Mr Ohle said.
