Sheep View 360 wins at the World Media Awards 2017

The Faroe Islands’ Sheep View 360 campaign

wins at the World Media Awards 2017

Sheep View 360, which saw the Faroe Islands enlist the help of its many (80,000) sheep to put the islands on the Google Street View map, has won the top Travel & Tourism Award at the World Media Awards 2017.

The event, which took place on last night in London, at the prestigious Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, was established to demonstrate the effectiveness of cross-platform, cross-border, content-driven advertising, and to celebrate bold and creative strategies for engaging with international and influential audiences.

With a budget of only $200,000, Sheep View 360 did just that. Generating two billion media impressions and an estimated PR value of around $50 million, the campaign, in turn, shared the natural beauty of the little-known islands with the world, garnering support from countless destinations worldwide.

The campaign saw Faroese resident Durita Dahl Andreassen combine forces with Visit Faroe Islands to undertake a unique sheep-based mapping system to petition Google to put the destination on Street View, thus unlocking the Faroes’ hidden beauty. By mounting cameras on the back of sheep, which periodically captured 360˚ images as they wandered the hillsides freely, Durita was able to upload the pictures to Google maps, thus creating the unique ‘Sheep View’.

Nominated alongside Airbnb, Destination Canada, London & Partners and Marriott International, Visit Faroe Islands was thrilled to scoop the top award in the Travel & Tourism category.

Guðrið Højgaard, Director of Tourism at Visit Faroe Islands, said:

“It really is an honour to have won the Travel & Tourism Award at the World Media Awards. The intention of Sheep View 360 was to be able to share the stunning beauty of our nation with people around the world and it is wonderful to have this recognised on such a revered stage.

“One of the key criteria that had to be met to secure the top award was to ‘demonstrate the power of storytelling’ and this is something that is very close to the heart of our nation, with a culture historically founded on storytelling and song. The award therefore means a huge amount to all of the 50,000 Faroese people; we are truly honoured and delighted.”

The World Media Awards 2017’s independent judging panel consisted of international advertisers, agency experts and editorial specialists. Alongside exceptional ‘storytelling’, the criteria for winning entrants included demonstration of the depth and breadth of engagement with the campaign, successful collaboration with leading media brands, and the true ‘talkability’ generated.

Working with Visit Faroe Islands on Sheep View 360 were creative agencies Sansir and Liquidminds, the Faroe’s national carrier, Atlantic Airways, Kovboyfilm and London-based PR agency, Travel PR.

To see photos from the World Media Awards 2017, click here.

For more information, see www.visitfaroeislands.com.

Enjoy this video from the Awards Ceremony: