Australian beer brewer XXXX Gold has created an island paradise just for men on Pumpkin Island in Queensland.
XXXX Gold has negotiated a three-year lease on a 6 ha island on the southern Great Barrier Reef, with the aim of turning it into a blokes’ paradise called “XXXX Island”.
From October, the beer company plans to send groups of four mates, selected through promotional events, to the island currently known as Pumpkin Island to have their run of the place.
Both XXXX Gold and the island’s owners declined to discuss the value of the lease, citing a confidentiality agreement.
The island belongs to John and Sonja Rumble, a South African-born couple who bought the island in 2003 for $1.3 million through their business, Sojourn Properties Pty Ltd.
They then gave Pumpkin Island to their son, Wayne, for his 27th birthday, which he now runs with his partner, Laureth Craggy, according to Capricorn enterprise CEO Mary Carroll.
“His dad actually said, <<Make it work>>, so this campaign is certainly a way for him (to) make it work,” Mary Carroll said.
Now, 31-year-old Wayne Rumble was recently made director of Sojourn Properties, and told news.com.au that the plan will “support the local community by involving the region’s businesses in the island’s development”.
Wayne Rumble added: “We believe this is a great opportunity for the island that will not only bring more people to the area, but will provide additional jobs and support the local community over the coming months and beyond.”
Tourism Queensland CEO Anthony Hayes said the move was a considerable “coup” for Queensland.
“It’s a wonderful free kick after all that’s happened in the past 12 months,” Anthony Hayes said.
“It sends a great message to all of the Queensland tourism industry that things are picking up again.”
A XXXX Gold spokeswoman said it was a great way to encourage “mates time”, and ideas for activities on the island already include an “ingenious beer delivery system” and “one-hole golf course”.
The beer company will send groups of four friends to the island, which has five “self-contained, eco-friendly beach cottages”, in holidays won through promotions.
Before it officially opens in October, the team behind XXXX Island will be asking Australians to share their thoughts via the website on what would truly make the island the ultimate destination for those who love the good life.
Those Australians with the best ideas will be in the running to earn a trip for them and three mates to the island valued at $10,000.
According to the company’s website, current activities on the island include dolphins, turtles and whale-spotting, fishing the rich waters, snorkelling or experiencing the coral reefs from a glass bottom kayak, harvesting your own oysters off the rocks or simply wandering the secluded beaches.
Launched this week, the marketing campaign will begin by asking consumers to pitch ideas on what should be built or featured on the island to provide the “ultimate mate’s getaway”.
“We are looking to create experiences,” regional sales director for Lion beer, spirits and wine, Bill Webb said.
Given the island’s size, some of those ideas might have to be downsized – think the ultimate one-hole golf course – but Bill Webb said the idea was to provide a unique space for friends to get together and get away from it all.
“We’ve done some research and blokes don’t get away as much as they used to, as much as they should,” he said, adding that the women in men’s lives agreed.
The idea was to provide all expenses paid weekend getaways to the island for groups of four mates who were chosen through promotional events.
If it seems a testosterone-fuelled marketing concept, that’s because it is.
“It is primarily a male product, XXXX is mainly drunk by men, but not exclusively,” Bill Webb said.
Female Gold drinkers will not be banned.
It took a year to develop the campaign, according to Bill Webb who remarked the hardest part was finding the “perfect” island.
The island was eventually chosen for its availability, location and size.
“It’s big enough that we could build something, but still feels intimate enough,” Bill Webb said.
