A few months ago I deleted my Facebook account. In doing so, I inadvertently severed my only means of communication with my Australian friend Ian.
Having realised my mistake I took the only option available, and flew to Australia to try and find him.
I gave myself two weeks to track Ian down, in a country of 26 million people and a landmass almost the size of the whole of Europe. To be honest, it was a completely stupid idea.
However, remarkably, it actually did work.
Against all the odds, and with the help of a few media appearances, I was able to track Ian down in a little under 8 days.
If you’d like to see how it happened my daily video diary is on TikTok, and a feature length edit of the trip is now available on YouTube. I’m not sure whether this is the sort of thing you’re supposed to admit to on the internet, but I did let out a little tear when it was finished.
Obviously, with my work hat on, it was a really cool exercise in viral marketing; with the campaign to find Ian reaching over 10 million people both in the UK and Australia.
I was also very flattered to be asked to visit some friends’ workplaces to give a talk on how the Ianvestigation came together.
If you’ve got any questions, or want to find out more about this week of absolute nonsense, please feel free to get in touch.
Media Appearances
- The Project (Network 10, Australia)
- Today Extra (Nine Network, Australia)
- The Christian O’Connell Show (Gold 104.3, Australia)
- Chrissie, Sam and Browny (Nova 100, Australia)
- Radio 1 Breakfast (BBC Radio 1, UK)
- Metro.co.uk (UK)
- 9Now (nine.com.au, Australia)