Social media influencers roll on day 1 of the Australian Open.
YouTube mega stars hit the greens at the Australian Open in conjunction with Tourism and Events Queensland to help promote the up and coming Commonwealth Games On the first day of play Broadbeach Bowls Club was bustling when they welcomed international social media influencers from Singapore, India, Australia and Malaysia, who are currently on the Gold Coast filming promotional material for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Accompanied by officials from Tourism and Events Queensland and their host Candice Dixon from Saturday Disney, the social media influencers and their entourage have an action-packed couple of days planned where they will try each of the Commonwealth Games sports at venues across the sunny Gold Coast.
Their impact in their home countries is unmissable, with Singaporean Youtubers Wah!Banana raking up over 100,000,000 total views on their videos, and Malaysian YouTubers JinnyboyTV who have over 600,000 subscribers to their channel.
Likewise, representing India Gautam Bhimani is here with TEN Sports, and has over 35,000 followers on Twitter, whilst Caroline from the Australian travel blog, yTravelBlog, has over 500,000 monthly page views.
This was a fantastic opportunity for bowls to be promoted all around the world and with the Australian Open in progress whilst the cameras were rolling, it is also great publicity for the world’s biggest festival of bowls.
As none of the the influencers had ever played bowls before they were lucky enough to be joined by Australian Jackaroos and Bowls Australia staff members Mark Casey and Kelsey Cottrell who gave them a quick rundown on the basic rules and mechanics of Lawn Bowls.
With Kelsey on stand-by for assistance and moral support, each influencer had their first ever roll on the green, learning to adapt to both the bias of the bowl and the strength required to reach the jack.
The practise culminated into a final Mega Bowl end, where all their skills were put to the test and the pressure was on for Audrey representing Singapore, Gautam representing India, Reuben representing Malaysia and Caroline representing Australia.
With cameras filming their every move and their nation’s pride at risk, the competition was on for the YouTube stars who all wanted to be crowned the champion bowler of the day.
Gautam ultimately took out the title of Mega Bowl Champion, potentially setting him up to be India’s next star bowler, something that certainly interested the star when learning that India in fact has a bowls team, and Audrey from Singapore coming in a close second.
Broadbeach Bowls Club is the official home of the Lawn Bowls competition during the XXI Commonwealth Games in 2018, where the best bowlers in the world will compete and the Australian Jackaroos will hope to bag a few gold in front of a home crowd.
