Showing the possibilities of analytics software by simply using it

A digital B2B-campaign where no one could predict the outcome, except an algorithm: finding the world's best city purely based on machine learning and the biggest data set ever.

Just to find the one most liveable city in the world according to science.

/* Campaign Summary */

CHALLENGE: How can SAS, market leader in Advanced Analytics, prove the possibilities of its established software solutions to a new generation of millennial data experts and IT decision makers?

IDEA: Showing the power of SAS Analytical tools by simply using them: We created the first entirely objective city-ranking that found the analytically best place on Earth; and turned the unpredictable result into an advertising campaign.

SOLUTION: For PARADISE FOUND we invented a unique self-learning algorithm that recognized the 69 most important objective criteria from 5 million data points of unstructured data and identified West Perth, Australia,to be “Paradise on Earth” among the 148,233 cities in 193 countries that were compared. West Perth then became the centerpiece of an extensive digital multi-channel campaign, including targeted display-ads, social media posts, online-videos, and even a web based configurator that allows everyone to find their own personal paradise.

/* Results */

• Significantly increased engagement rate (+73%) as well as the time spent on site (+61%). compared to previous SAS campaigns


• With production costs around 108,000 USD and combined media spendings about 1,000,000 USD in 31 markets in the EMEA region, the campaign achieved 26,164,983 ad impressions and 78,558,944 social media impressions in just 6 weeks.


• Earning SAS about 2,235,000 USD in additional free media coverage, media outlets from trade magazines to business magazines and major national newspapers across Europe and even in Australia covered the campaign, an unusual achievement for a B2B campaign.


• The ongoing interaction of users with the exclusive SAS Paradise Configurator is continually delivering direct response and leads for sales activities.


• As of February 2019, "Paradise Found" and "Paradise Configurator" still rank in the Top-5 search results on Google.