Six Australian influencers land in Singapore. They compete in daily challenges broadcast directly to TikTok. Millions of viewers not only watch but actively help contestants solve clues in real-time. The result: 60 million impressions in one week for the Singapore Tourism Board—without a single traditional advertisement.

This is “The Journey,” the world’s first gamified TikTok mini-series and a solution from global social agency Komodo to a pressing problem in destination marketing: how to make tourism content compelling on platforms where conventional ads are ignored.

The issue is serious given that social media platforms are becoming increasingly central to travel discovery and purchasing decisions. TikTok reports that 71% of its European users actively search for travel content, with 77% making travel-related purchases after discovering destinations on the platform. Adobe’s research reveals that over 40% of TikTok’s one billion monthly users view the app as a search engine, with 20% specifically searching for travel destinations.

As Komodo co-founder Nick Seymour explains, “Travel and tourism boards love the idea of TikTok, but it’s still kind of scary. They don’t know how to use it. It takes a lot of work, strategy, and content.”

This hesitation creates a significant barrier for destinations trying to reach digital-native travelers who make decisions based on social media content rather than traditional tourism campaigns.

Komodo’s solution transforms this challenge into an opportunity by creating a format that leverages the unique characteristics of platforms like TikTok and Instagram while delivering tourism messaging in a way that feels like entertainment rather than advertising.

“We wanted to promote these destinations to huge audiences at scale, without it seeming like an ad,” explains Nick.

Combining the elimination-style tension of reality TV with social media’s participatory mechanics, Komodo has created a format where tourism marketing becomes the entertainment itself. The campaigns run on their own dedicated channels, avoiding the limitations of tourism board social accounts while providing precise metrics on audience engagement and conversion.

Reality Competition Meets Social-First Content

What makes “The Journey” special is its fundamental design, which is social-first content rather than traditional media repurposed for social channels. “A lot of TV shows are produced for TV and their social channels are secondary,” Nick notes. “Whereas we went into it with ‘we’re producing this purely for social.'”

The format combines elements from popular reality shows like “Love Island,” “Too Hot to Handle,” and “Big Brother” with the participatory nature of social platforms. It features established influencers with over 2.5 million followers competing in challenges throughout a destination — in this case, Singapore.

Crucially, the production schedule mirrors social media’s immediacy rather than traditional TV production timelines:

“Each day we would shoot with a production crew of about 20 following the creators every step of the way. We were turning around the episodes in 12 hours,” Nick explains. “The next day or next morning, audiences would see what the creators got up to the day before.”

This turnaround creates a sense of live immersion that traditional tourism marketing cannot match. As Nick puts it, “That’s something that’s never been used in tourism marketing… If you can sit a creator down, their fans can genuinely just speak to them, asking them questions like, ‘What was your highlight of the day? What’s your favorite part of Singapore? What did you eat? Where should I stay?’ That takes not seeming like an ad and organic candid style to a whole new level.”

Audience as Active Participants, Not Passive Spectators

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of “The Journey” is how it transforms the audience from passive viewers into active participants in the experience.

“One of the challenges we gave them was clues, which they asked the audience to help them solve,” Nick describes. “That was a really great part of ‘The Journey’ — this audience participation. So helping their creators solve clues to get them to the next challenge.”

The results were immediate: “Within minutes, all of them had hundreds of messages being like, ‘I found this. This is where it is. Here’s a pin. I’ve been there before.’ Some of the creators even had local Singapore people being like, ‘I’ll come and find you. I’ll help you on the challenge.'”

This level of engagement transcended digital boundaries when fans began recognizing contestants in Singapore: “People were yelling at [Jiny Maeng] when she went past in the street, saying things like ‘We hope you win!'”

The TikTok Live “Diary Room” sessions further enhanced this participatory experience, generating 5 million impressions throughout the week as fans directly interacted with creators in real-time.

Measurable Results That Outperform Traditional Media

The statistics validate Komodo’s approach with impressive metrics across all key performance indicators. In just one week, “The Journey” generated over 60 million impressions on content and an additional 4 million live impressions. 

The campaign achieved an organic CPM below $7, while creators exceeded their required deliverables by 80%, demonstrating their enthusiasm for the format. Engagement rates reached 6%—double Komodo’s benchmark—with several individual creator posts reaching 10-12 million views each.

Nick puts these numbers in perspective by comparing them to traditional streaming: “MrBeast dropped [Beast Games] on Amazon Prime and I think there was a press release about him doing 50 million views in 28 days. That’s obviously on TV on demand. It kind of backs the fact of ‘meet the audience where they are’ when we achieved 60 million in a week.”

Selecting the Right Creators for Maximum Impact

Casting was critical to the project’s success. Beyond follower count (minimum 2.5 million) and engagement rates (minimum 3%), Komodo sought creators with complementary personalities and versatile content styles.

“We wanted people to have versatile content styles, not be pigeonholed to one niche, be able to create that lifestyle content,” Nick explains. “We started pairing personalities in terms of who can bring us some energy, who can bring us a little bit of drama, who can bring us that competitiveness.”

This strategic casting created compelling dynamics, such as pitting Australia’s sports influencer of the year and Olympic diver Sam Fricker against Maeng, a culinary content creator, in challenges that combined physical and social elements.

The diversity of creator backgrounds ensured the competition remained unpredictable while showcasing different aspects of the destination through their unique perspectives.

What’s Next for Creator-Led Tourism Marketing

For Komodo, “The Journey” is just the beginning. They’ve designed it as a standalone brand that can be applied to destinations worldwide, with discussions already underway for editions in Europe, the South Pacific, and the Middle East.

“We want to turn it into something like you would see from any reality TV show where they come back with seasons,” Nick shares. “The vision is to create a solution for any destination who’s willing to embrace innovation and the creator economy.”

Future iterations may even include opportunities for audience members to join as contestants: “We have an idea where we put out a global casting call to someone from the community to come and compete against your favorite creators.”

A Proven Model?

To recap, Komodo’s success with “The Journey” offers marketers and tourism professionals valuable insights. 

First and foremost, the project demonstrates the importance of designing content specifically for the platforms where audiences spend time rather than adapting traditional formats to fit digital channels. 

The campaign’s success also highlights the value of transforming audiences into co-creators through genuine participation mechanisms that go beyond simple likes and comments.

The production cycle—turning around episodes within 12 hours—proved essential to creating authenticity that highly polished, delayed content simply cannot match in today’s social media environment. 

Komodo’s approach also revealed the delicate balance between providing structured marketing objectives and allowing creators sufficient autonomy to connect authentically with their audiences. 

Perhaps most significantly, the project illustrates how positioning marketing as entertainment enables brand messages to be absorbed organically without the resistance typically encountered with traditional advertising approaches.

“It’s a proven model now,” Nick concludes, backed by impressive metrics that should make tourism boards and marketers across industries take notice.