Generating immediate awareness for new car entries is increasingly challenging in today’s cluttered TV environment. Pontiac crafted its G6 launch to overcome the fall season noise in an unprecedented, catch fire manner. The result was not only instant name recognition, but a reinvigorating shot of adrenaline for the Pontiac brand.

Within two weeks, an estimated $100MM in PR value. Instant awareness: 87% American adults, 97% African American women; 600% traffic increase to Pontiac.com; highest Google.com click-thru rate EVER (17%). Dealers: Customers ask for the Oprah car and buy it, Dealerships sold out, Best promotion ever in driving traffic to dealerships.

To truly fulfil the Oprah season, opener episode’s Wildest Dreams Come True mission, Pontiac engineered the unprecedented and unexpected giveaway of 276 G6 vehicles to every audience member. The episode devoted fully 25 minutes to the G6 giveaway, including Oprah’s ecstatic You get a car! You get a car! Audience announcement, a trip to the G6-filled parking lot, a pre-recording of Oprah visiting a G6 assembly plant, and glowing vehicle coverage.

In addition to the 11.6 million adults who watched the Oprah episode, the event received television coverage on the broadcast network morning and evening news shows, on cable business, news, and comedy shows, on late night and syndicated talk shows, and on local news. Further, the TV content was embedded on the Pontiac.com website, which attracted unprecedented traffic post-giveaway driven by a paid search strategy. Print and online news coverage extended the impact even further.

Arguably America’s most influential woman, Oprah Winfrey’s power is grounded in her standard-setting syndicated talk show, but extends far beyond the audience that tunes in each day. Oprah’s Dreams Come True and Favorite Things features have spawned everything from best-selling novels to empty new product shelves. Donald Trump said of Oprah: There’s nobody who is more respected, or has more influence, than Oprah. Pontiac married the power of Oprah’s wish-granting television magic with the life-changing impact of a free new car to introduce the G6 in a manner that generated instant, high-impact talk waves across America.