The situation:In 2010, Oprah Winfrey and 300 of her Ultimate Viewers audience travelled to Australia to experience a range of destinations and to produce content for The Oprah Winfrey Show. Her time in Australia, which included a visit to the Northern Territory, was of huge interest to the Australian media and public.The objectives:To gain greater share of voice for the Northern Territory’s Red Centre surrounding the broadcast of Oprah’s Australian episodes over other Australian States and Territories involved in Oprah’s visit.The strategy:To promote the strong community spirit that exists in the Northern Territory region and also to get locals and industry behind Tourism NT’s greater Red Centre campaign.

The execution:In partnership with Tourism NT, we gathered real people telling real stories, and brought masses of passionate locals from Alice Springs together in the Outback before dawn to say thank-you to Oprah. The collaboration resulted in a human landsculpture that spelt out Thanks O, and used the spectacular landscape of the Red Centre as the backdrop.The outcome:The Thanks Oprah story made all major Australian news channels achieving over $250k in editorial coverage and was converted into online content, generating over 30,000 unique views.

Where: Northern Territory, AustraliaWhen: 22nd January 2011Duration: 1 dayEvent planning commenced in January 2011 to secure the location, participants and collateral. We engaged a community organisation, the Desert Sports Foundation, to help mobilise Alice Springs locals to participate.

The event was held on Saturday, 22nd January at the historic Heavitree Quarry in Alice Springs, with the team coordinating the 200 strong crowd to form the Thanks O human landsculpture.We worked closely with photography and videography suppliers to ensure they captured quality content for the online video. A b-roll footage package was edited and distributed to TV newsrooms post event; other media relations involved pitching event images and a media alert to all major newspapers and online to drive coverage. The online video was posted on YouTube and seeded through other social media channels six days after launch to continue the momentum achieved by widespread TV coverage.

The campaign was wholly successful in leveraging Oprah’s visit to the NT and securing a superior share of voice for the NT as a destination during the Australian broadcast. Despite the limited TV opportunities given The Oprah Winfrey Show airs on Channel Ten, the story made major news channels and was perfectly timed to tie in with buzz surrounding the final Australian episode broadcast on Sunday, 23 January.

No other Australian State or Territory achieved any proactive media coverage relating to Oprah in this period.The event also achieved the social media objective, a key part of the client’s brief, with the online video generating 30,000 unique views.

Media results- 6 x television pieces - 3 x print pieces- 16 x online pieces- PR Reach: 7.3 million (1 in 3 Australian adults)- AVE: $249,307- Return on Investment: 5:1Social media engagement- 30,000 YouTube views