SBS – Mardi Gras

The Project:

Australian broadcaster produced a highly interactive campaign for the world’s biggest and most spectacular celebration of the LGBTQ community. Following a strict lockdown in Australia, Mardi Gras became a beacon of freedom for fans in the stadium and the national audience, with viewers’ experience shared on SBS 1, live.

The Challenge:

For the first time, Australian Mardi Gras was set in a stadium environment, rather than a parade down Sydney’s famous Oxford Street. Producers aimed to put viewers at the centre of the content and enhance their coverage of the event, so they needed a platform to source, moderate and curate content that was shared on Instagram and twitter – particularly as their audience is highly engaging and likely to share 100s of comments and images.

How we did it:

Partnered with Vizrt, Viz Social is powered by Dizplai’s social moderation engine. SBS worked with Dizplai and Vizrt to integrate the platform into the vast production workflows, including multiple sources and outputs. The support team were on hand for online training and implementation of the broadcast graphics operations with Viz Social. SBS’ producers managed the live social moderation and curation during the four-hour show.

The Results:

Mardi Gras was trending across Twitter during and after the live broadcast. SBS and associated social channels interacted with followers during the event, creating a huge party for all. Presenters called for viewers to share images, videos and comments of their parties at home tagging @SBS, with the hashtags #SydneyMardiGras and #MardiGras2021 . Producers used Viz Social to source the social interactions, moderate and queue, in preparation to go live, redisplayed with their broadcast graphics overlays.