"Breakfast on the Bridge" was a unique event that saw Sydney’s most famous landmark transformed into the ultimate picnic venue. Six thousand lucky people (and 15 grazing cows) enjoyed a once-in-a-lifetime breakfast picnic on over 10,000 square metres of live grass, laid from pylon to pylon on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

As the centrepiece event of Tourism New South Wales' Crave Sydney promotion the overall goal of the event was to promote Sydney to Australia, capture global attention and drive tourism, investment and jobs for New South Wales.

One of the great challenges of the event was the limited capacity for participants and the fact there would be restricted access to the Harbour Bridge for general traffic movements. An issues communications strategy was developed to mitigate the concerns.A three-pronged PR strategy was developed and executed to:1. Create excitement and encourage NSW residents to enter the draw.2. Share stakeholder messages and manage the issues.3. Maximise coverage both locally and internationally around the inaugural event. Media attendance targets were exceeded and an estimated A$10 million value in tourism and the promotion of Sydney and NSW was attributed to the project by the NSW Premier at the time.

With a broad range of stakeholders and a number of elements to coordinate, it was essential the PR component involved a high level of attention to detail. Specific tactics were established for each of the three campaign phases. During the draw open period, a story schedule and media materials were developed to generate ongoing coverage of the event. Social media and website components were set up, along with a press conference to announce the event.During the closed period, ahead of the event, Twitter and Facebook accounts were managed to drive content, respond to tweets and create public service announcements. Key stakeholder and media relationships were managed and accreditations and execution of media operations were issued. Furthermore, key transport and traffic messages were disseminated to the public.

On the event day, media briefings were conducted, enquiries were fielded and 'media moments' coordinated. Interviews ran smoothly and live TV coverage was facilitated.

The push to drive tourism, investment and jobs within NSW was achieved with an estimated A$10 million value in tourism attributed to the project by the NSW Premier.

Media attendance targets were met and exceeded. Attendance included over 150 TV, print, radio, online and blogger media. All major Australian TV networks channels (9, 10, 7, ABC, Today Show, Weekend Sunrise) and radio stations, were represented.

Major international players such as the BBC, NY Post, Bangkok Post and CBS among others, were also in attendance. Editorial coverage targets were achieved with 650 broadcast items and 270 press articles reaching a circulation figure of approximately 49 million, while entries to the Breakfast on the Bridge draw were exceeded, with 450,000 NSW ballot entries. Finally, any negative commentary about Breakfast on the Bridge was successfully and completely neutralised.