The Best Oprah Giveaway Yet
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Last night, before going to sleep, I checked the news on my mobile's GPRS service. I clicked on the headline that says "Oprah Gives Away Cars" (or something to that effect).
Now we all know that Oprah loves giving away stuff. Magazines, CDs, freebies, makeup, makeovers, home makeovers, cars (once in awhile), money to charity and other what have yous. But what's so special about giving away cars this time was that everybody, ALL 276 surprised members of the audience, got a new car.
It was the launch of General Motors' new sports sedan, the Pontiac G6, which was targetted to women. The people from General Motors wanted to draw attention to their launch while Oprah wanted to open her 19th season with a bang and so they had the $8 Million tie- up.
Now, usually, whenever Oprah rewards someone something, the person is left out in the dark and only the letter sender and audience knows what's going on. But in this case, nobody knew. For its "Wildest Dreams" episode, the season premiere, Oprah called 11 random names from the audience and told them that they were there for a reason and that reason was they needed a brand new car. Everybody was surprised and clapped. A group of women holding boxes started handing out the boxes to the audience. She turned to the audience and said that in one of the boxes contains the key to the 12th car so whoever has the key, gets it. And once everybody opened their box, everybody screamed in delight. They all had a key! (Oprah even had an emercency medic crew on standby in case anyone fainted). Oprah, then, guided them to a parking lot filled with Pontiac G6s with huge red bows on them. The audience members gets to choose the color they want and the features that would be added to it. Wow! How lucky are they?!
But at the end, it's a one big marketing stunt. First, Oprah had a teaser for its season premiere, telling people all over America that they're doing something big to start off the season. Naturally, everybody would tune in to the show. Oprah, then reveals the surprise to the 11 handpicked people, shows the features of the car, then surprises everybody by giving them a car. Oprah talked about the car, claiming that the project was very top secret that she had to do the negotiations herself, then proceeded in showing a video when she visited the Pontiac G6 plant. And because giving away brand new cars to 276 people just like that, it becomes instant news and therefore, the event is featured all over the news. See this site to find out the effects of the publicity stunt.
Amazing, isn't it? Both the giving away 276 cars and a major stunt being pulled off like that.
Now we all know that Oprah loves giving away stuff. Magazines, CDs, freebies, makeup, makeovers, home makeovers, cars (once in awhile), money to charity and other what have yous. But what's so special about giving away cars this time was that everybody, ALL 276 surprised members of the audience, got a new car.
It was the launch of General Motors' new sports sedan, the Pontiac G6, which was targetted to women. The people from General Motors wanted to draw attention to their launch while Oprah wanted to open her 19th season with a bang and so they had the $8 Million tie- up.
Now, usually, whenever Oprah rewards someone something, the person is left out in the dark and only the letter sender and audience knows what's going on. But in this case, nobody knew. For its "Wildest Dreams" episode, the season premiere, Oprah called 11 random names from the audience and told them that they were there for a reason and that reason was they needed a brand new car. Everybody was surprised and clapped. A group of women holding boxes started handing out the boxes to the audience. She turned to the audience and said that in one of the boxes contains the key to the 12th car so whoever has the key, gets it. And once everybody opened their box, everybody screamed in delight. They all had a key! (Oprah even had an emercency medic crew on standby in case anyone fainted). Oprah, then, guided them to a parking lot filled with Pontiac G6s with huge red bows on them. The audience members gets to choose the color they want and the features that would be added to it. Wow! How lucky are they?!
But at the end, it's a one big marketing stunt. First, Oprah had a teaser for its season premiere, telling people all over America that they're doing something big to start off the season. Naturally, everybody would tune in to the show. Oprah, then reveals the surprise to the 11 handpicked people, shows the features of the car, then surprises everybody by giving them a car. Oprah talked about the car, claiming that the project was very top secret that she had to do the negotiations herself, then proceeded in showing a video when she visited the Pontiac G6 plant. And because giving away brand new cars to 276 people just like that, it becomes instant news and therefore, the event is featured all over the news. See this site to find out the effects of the publicity stunt.
Amazing, isn't it? Both the giving away 276 cars and a major stunt being pulled off like that.
2 Comments:
Oprah is daBOMB man. Geez. Well THAT just gives you an idea of how powerful and filthy rich she is. She's totally my idol: molested as a teen, wandered around and got involved with all the bad shit in life, then she gets focused and becomes more successful than she ever DREAMED possible. And rich too. Galeng.
(aka pinayhekmi)
I heard about this too! I am soooo dying to be in her show. I've checked already and she has about a year in advanced booking. So the seats for this season's shows are already taken.
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