Community Building for SBS’ Mardi Gras Coverage

Challenge

With strict lockdown restrictions leading to the Australian Mardi Gras moving to a stadium environment for the first time, broadcaster SBS wanted to put ensure the LGBTQ+ community was still at the centre of the event, whether they could attend the event in the stadium, or they watched the celebration from home. The challenge was to manage the massive volume of user-generated content (UGC) shared on social media and seamlessly integrate it into their live four-hour broadcast to create a truly interactive media experience for the audience.

Solution

We partnered with SBS and Vizrt to deliver a comprehensive solution for digital fan engagement. Our platform’s social media integration and powerful content moderation engine, which powers Viz Social, allowed producers to source, moderate, and curate viewer content from multiple social platforms from users who engaged with the hashtags #SydneyMardiGras and #MardiGras2021.

Our team supported client onboarding, providing online training and worked with SBS to implement broadcast graphics operations, ensuring live social interactions could be redisplayed with custom overlays, creating an immersive experience for the national audience.

Results

The campaign successfully transformed the Mardi Gras broadcast into a live, interactive event, connecting with viewers on a massive scale, which generates results like:

• Hashtags #SydneyMardiGras and #MardiGras2021 were trending on Twitter during and after the live broadcast.
• SBS’s social channels successfully interacted with followers, creating a “huge party for all.”
• Producers efficiently managed a high volume of social interactions, from images and videos to comments, in real-time.