SA Tourism Commission won’t rule out using badly-behaved Sam Smith influencers at other SA events

Tourism bosses won’t rule out working with social media influencers again despite reports of drunken behaviour – as they refuse to reveal the cost of bringing Sam Smith to SA.

SA tourism officials won’t rule out working with social media influencers again despite reports of binge drinking – as they refuse to come clean on the cost of bringing Sam Smith to Adelaide.

An evaluation into the partnership between Frontier Touring and the South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) was held after backlash over the singer’s invite-only performance at the d’Arenberg Cube in January, which the government says generated $32m in “advertising value equivalent”.

Guests at the event included competition winners, celebrities and social media influencers, 30 of which were invited by the SATC.

SATC officials have refused to say how much taxpayers paid for the invitation-only event which included 10 interstate influencers who had flights and accommodation paid for as well as 109 media.

And they admit they may yet invite back influencers such as one who put up a TikTok video talking about “getting messed up on alcohol and trying vaping.”

At a parliamentary committee hearing on Monday, Greens MLC Tammy Franks asked SATC chief executive Emma Terry: “Are you aware of reports of a woman urinating in front of the stage during the event?

“I read it myself on Sam Smith’s Instagram from some of his fans who attended who were disappointed at the behaviour of what they called influencers.”

Ms Terry confirmed she was aware of the post, but was not aware of any follow-up action taken by SATC.

After the hearing, SATC officials told The Advertiser: “The person concerned was not on the SATC nor the Frontier Touring guest list”.

Liberal MLC Heidi Girolamo asked if the same influencers would be invited back to post about future SATC events, to which Ms Terry replied the SATC had “learnings” from the event.

“We don’t condone vaping or messaging around getting messed up on alcohol,” she said, noting the liquor licence and requirement for responsible service were with host winery d’Arenberg.

The committee also was told that despite a state government ban on TikTok on government devices, SATC was using the platform for marketing and event promotion but that it was “compliant” with government policy.

Ms Girolamo asked about a TikTok creators camp where SATC hosted 12 people and if they were encouraged to write captions including: “Ready to run amok in the most boring state ever.”

“I’m not aware of that,” Ms Terry replied.

English singer and songwriter Sam Smith in Adelaide. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

She confirmed SATC paid LIV Golf for the hugely successful event at Grange Golf Club but declined to say how much citing “commercial in confidence.”

Ms Terry noted tourism has reached a record $8.3bn annual value to the state economy, surpassing the $8.1bn record prior to the pandemic, and stressed that events such as the Sam Smith concert are vital to “cut through a really cluttered tourism advertising landscape and deliver eyeballs on South Australia – it has delivered”.

However, she conceded claims the potential global audience for the concert was 1.58 billion people – 80 million more than the last FIFA World Cup final viewership – was due to SATC using “a number of different terms and methologies” that differ to viewership so “they are different kinds of measures.”

Asked to name three Sam Smith songs, Ms Terry struggled but noted she is a big Pearl Jam fan and would have trouble naming their songs.

Sam Smith’s trip to South Australia for an invite-only concert sparked controversy. Picture: Instagram

British singer Sam Smith's exclusive show at the d’Arenberg Cube in McLaren Vale on January 11. Picture: Ben Clark

Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison said the event had generated $32m in “advertising value equivalent”, but would not disclose the cost to taxpayers’ to host the concert.

When asked how much money was injected into the state’s economy as a result of the event, Ms Bettison said the advertising value equivalent figure of $32m was “what I consider to be the return”.

“That is the measurement that we are using for this marketing campaign,” she said. “That’s the measurement that we’re using.”

She said the figure was a “huge return on investment” compared with the undisclosed cost.

According to the report into the partnership, released publicly Monday, the marketing campaign reached 8.3 million people through television coverage, 2.4 million people through social media influencer content and more than six million people through radio.

The report also said SATC would:

UPDATE SATC’s social media influencer selection model;

IMPLEMENT a social media monitoring platform to help support and provide definitive outcomes when working with influencers; and

IMPLEMENT a new contractual influencer agreement for all SATC influencer activity, both paid and unpaid.

Freedom of Information documents previously released to the ABC show the influencers were, in exchange for the gifts, required to make two or three positive posts on their accounts in favour of South Australia.

In March, the ABC reported some may not have complied with the promotional directions, and it costed the value of the accommodation, food, drink and ticket package at $2000.

The SATC’s report stated the evaluation of the partnership found there was a “greater level of transparency on the selection and use of social media influencers” but that “overall, the opportunities to engage in similar strategic promotional activities should continue to be explored”.

Ms Terry said there were “no regrets” about the partnership and that it “delivered above our expectations”.

She said she would like to implement the report’s recommended actions within “two to three months”.

Originally published as SA Tourism Commission won’t rule out using badly-behaved Sam Smith influencers at other SA events