Update: Since its conception in 2009, we are delighted to announce the Goa Hippy Tribe series has been selected for a number of prestigious international awards: Winner at SXSW 2012 Interactive Award – Film / TV; Honoree at the Webby Awards 2012 – Online Film & Video; selected for International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2011; and featured in Input 2011 ‘The World’s Most Provocative Public Television Programs’. The Facebook page now sits at over 31,000 ‘likes’ and continues to grow.
The Goa Hippy Tribe Facebook page was created as an alternate broadcast channel for a documentary series that followed Australian film-maker Darius Devas as he filmed the story behind the 30 year reunion of the ‘Goa Hippy Tribe’ in late 2009.
The documentary was developed for SBS Television and episodically released on the Goa Hippy Tribe Facebook page as a series of video interviews and editorial posts with many of the original hippy pioneers who made Goa their home in the late 60′s/70′s.
The Dubs was commissioned by Australian broadcaster SBS in collaboration with Freehand and the project was part funded by industry body Screen Australia because of its innovative take on broadcast and delivering new ways to tell a story and engage with an audience on a far deeper level.
The project has taken on a life of its own after the event and remains on Facebook; it’s worth a look to see how the series unfolded via the Facebook page.
Our Facebook posts were viewed 1,024,804 times and generated Facebook post views, 9,391 user comments, likes and shares, creating 1,220,830 newsfeed posts within the social network. On average, we had 450 unique page views daily, and the video was viewed 35,000 times.
Engagement was high throughout the campaign, with an average of nearly 30 comments a day. We found our key audience on Facebook, identifying 600 insiders, an estimated 60,000 circle of insiders’ immediate friends and family. Our lateral audience is estimated at three to four million.
There were numerous contributions from the audience in the way of uploaded photos, videos, links and comments, creating a self-perpetuating community that continues to be one of the more active ‘alternative lifestyle’ communities on Facebook.
We also came across some hugely interesting characters during the project:
Tobias Moss – the philosophy of shit happens:
Goa Gil is a true legend in his own time: having witnessed the birth of the hippy movement and acid rock, he has been a regular in Goa since the 70s.
Following his own path, he became not only a sadhu but has been instrumental in creating the Goa music scene that he took to the world as the aesthetic of the Goa trance movement.
Gil sees his music redefining the ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century:
This project is currently being featured on the Facebook Studio showcase.
