Oprah's A New Earth Web Event

Last night I attended Oprah’s A New Earth Web Event with more than 500,000 other people from all over the world. Oprah kicked off the web event by sharing that over 139 countries were represented in the class including viewers from Bolivia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, China, Australia, and all 50 states.

This is a 10-week class (held every Monday evening) hosted by Oprah to discuss Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. Each week a chapter of the book is discussed along with workbook assignments.

Here are some of my observations from the event so far.

Oprah’s team has made excellent use of e-marketing tools. Since I signed up, which was about a month ago, I have received weekly e-mails about the upcoming web event to get me excited and prepared for the event. The e-mails also directed me to Oprah.com, where there was unique content for readers of the book.

Last night I arrived on the web event at 7:30 pm, a half hour before start time. While I waited, Oprah had videos to watch that built up to the event. There were testimonials from readers of the book all over the world, all ages 20s to 60s, males and females. These testimonials were very powerful and many readers referenced that they have been telling everyone they know to read the book (these people are word-of-mouth influencers and brand advocates).

Additionally, during the pre-webcast programming, celebrities were also showcased who shared their thoughts on the book; these celebrities included Jim Carrey, Guy Ritchie, Valerie Bertinelli, and Jenny McCarthy.

On the webcast Chevrolet, Post-Its, and Skype were noted sponsors. Post-It also had a pre-roll ad showing a reader using Post-It flags to mark passages in her book. Chevy and Skype were also noted sponsors on the player and in the pre-roll.

The first half hour of the event was Oprah and Eckhart Tolle conversing. Then Oprah opened up to questions from viewers by e-mail or by Skype videoconferencing. Select viewers were shown asking their questions with a “via Skype” mention on the screen.

Although the web event cut in and out a lot due to the large number of viewers, the event can be viewed today on Oprah.com, as well as downloaded at iTunes.

I believe this book has a powerful message. The author is a profound spiritual teacher. To Oprah and her team, I say thank you for making this available to so many. From a professional perspective, those of us in social media thank you for showcasing how powerful the Internet can be as a tool to connect people from all over the world and to demonstrate the power of new marketing communications.

I look forward to the next few weeks.

What an amazing time we live in--a book club with more than 500,000 people attending, all from their own living rooms!