Online influencers and train lovers are being used to promote the $15-billion Metro Tunnel ahead of its opening on Sunday.
The Victorian government has been escorting influencers and train enthusiasts — known as gunzels — underground for “sneak peak” tours of the five new stations and 9 kilometres of tunnel.
Documents obtained by the ABC under Freedom of Information laws show the government targeted dozens of influencers whose accounts are dedicated to trains, art history, photography, experiences in Melbourne and even food recommendations.
A fantastic idea and one that will be the best marketing approach of all. This has been going on for a long time, I am aware railpage was invited to many of these so called reviews and walkthroughs especially around the Level Crossing Removal Programme.
“Gunzel influencers are our strongest champions, their content was the most publicly engaged with,” the documents said.
The documents calculated that posts from one tour involving more than 30 influencers garnered more than one million views.
“Audience size is not necessarily a good indication of impact,” the documents said.
“Creators with smaller audiences (<3K) tended to be more enthusiastic about the opportunity and publish more content in the aftermath than those with larger audiences.”
The documents encourage staff to “proactively suggest creators tag the project accounts” and check in with influencers post-tour to “mention that you’ve seen their event content and comment on it”.
“This opens the door for the creator to come back with metrics/discuss performance,” the documents said.
Metro Tunnel has been heavily debated since it was announced in 2015, with the project plagued by cost blowouts.
Sadly yes but no one will case when it opens and it is a vital transport link for the city.
It will only operate for five hours a day for the first two months, with trains running every 20 minutes outside peak periods.
The full service between Footscray and Caulfield will open on February 1, with the government saying trains will then run as frequently as every four minutes and add an extra 1,000 services to the the Sunbury, Cranbourne and Pakenham lines.
So it is a partial opening ion that case as all the services will not be running.
The tours for content creators have been running for more than a year, although have ramped up with a flurry of videos and posts days out from the tunnel’s opening.
The vast majority of influencers were not paid to join the tours, with the document suggesting “paid promotional opportunities would be managed differently”.
