The search is on for the world's best couple

However, any prospective owners of this rock must first complete a series of challenges set by the jeweller and publish their efforts on the competition website to be judged by the public. Even reality TV star Kim Kardashian, famous for her extravagant lifestyle, branded the competition "outrageous." when she launched the competition,

Big ticket purchases are the first thing to suffer in a slower economic climate, and so when faced with the prospect of launching its new line of super-premium engagement rings, Michael Hill needed a strong publicity-generating campaign.

Excellent tools

Social media based campaigns are excellent tools to generate conversations with potential consumers. Most brands, even those in the luxury markets, have some form of presence on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The most successful social media based strategies can generate significant amounts of earned media, and this was the goal of Michael Hill's strategy.

The World's Perfect Couple competition was opened up to any couple who deemed themselves worthy of the title. Once they had registered with their Facebook or Twitter accounts, couples had to complete up to 18 different tasks, beginning with simple challenges like "best photo," escalating to more bizarre tasks such as, "silliest swap" in which partners had to impersonate one another.

High-profile launch

The www.my22ct.com/ website acted as a platform for the competition, and included information about the entrants, and allowed registered users to vote for their favourite couples. The eventual winning couple is to be gifted a Michael Hill 22-carat engagement ring.

Results

To date the Michael Hill Facebook page has received nearly 4000 "likes".