The MTV EMA was this year's biggest night in music, and 2014's most tweeted-about music awards. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the show aired in 160 regions and territories, creating a truly global event that audiences watched, interacted with, and discussed passionately. The MTV international team worked tirelessly across time zones, both on the ground in Glasgow and in regional MTV offices across the world, to bring an engaging night-of-show experience on social media to the 3.3 million fans of MTV EMA social platforms and 62 million fans of the MTV brand globally. We also provided a digital-exclusive backstage show across our 34 localized sites and ioS and Android, engaging audiences during on-air commercial breaks. Not only did this experience contribute to our goal of driving linear tune-in, but it provided an engaging experience for all those tuning in from anywhere on any platform, and they spread our message for us, to staggering results.
#EMA2014 was a worldwide trending topic for most of Sunday night, occasionally hitting the #1 spot. We also saw an additional 177 total trending topics appearing during the weekend of show. The entire campaign produced 389 million mentions, with the social conversation to a fever pitch during the week of the show, with 80% of the conversation happening that week. We also saw an overall 4+ ratings increase 28% increase year over year.
While the MTV EMA social campaign was two months long and many more months in planning, we always had in mind the huge global event that defines us. Two months before the global event, the #MTVEMA social campaign launched across @MTVEMA's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, and Vine, as well as through local MTV social accounts across the world reaching 62 million fans. This year, the content strategy focused on engaging music lovers, displaying our global identity, and giving power to our fans. We talked #tbt MTV EMA moments in celebration of the show's 20th anniversary; we created a new social vote phase for our signature Worldwide Act category that allowed fans to nominate their favorite local music act; and we featured fan opinions on music and artists with #EMAFansHaveSpoken. This content strategy invigorated our audience and continued to get them excited for the main event.
Each year, the MTV EMA winners are determined by the fans themselves via online voting. This year, we extended the votes to social with the popular Biggest Fans category decided through hashtag voting on Twitter and Instagram. Until the week of show, the votes for each of the five nominees—One Direction, Justin Bieber, 5 Seconds of Summer, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande—were visualized on mtvema.com, spurring the fandoms to keep voting and see their numbers grow. In the end, the category saw an astounding 318 million hashtag votes across Twitter and Instagram. Even more importantly, with the visualization removed to prevent spoilers, fans knew they had to tune in to the event itself to find out if their hashtag voting had paid off.
When the campaign reached the week of the show, focus shifted to on-the-ground social activations for those fans in Scotland, and coverage of on-the-ground events syndicated out to an international audience. MTV UK excited the fans of Scotland by conducting a ticket scavenger hunt throughout Glasgow with #IWantEMATix. MTV EMA social platforms live-tweeted and posted MTV Music Week events like a Biffy Clyro and Slash concert at Glasgow's O2 Music Academy. We gave fans up-close-and-personal experiences with talent, with Charli XCX taking over the @MTVEMA Twitter account to answer fan questions and Kiesza giving @MTVEMA Instagram followers an exclusive look at her rehearsal. Between social voting and all of these on-ground activations, we saw a steady increase in EMA social conversation in the days leading up to the event.
And then, it was the night everyone was waiting for. Not only did global music fans watch the show on-air, but they could enjoy a robust second-screen experience. A live stream of the main and red carpet shows across 34 localized sites and ioS and Android apps. Behind-the-scenes webcams showed different views within the venue, including footage 'shot' by roving robot cameras backstage. The mtvema.com sites and app also mounted an exclusive backstage show that streamed live during commercial breaks in the on-air show, featuring MTV VJ Laura Whitmore's interviews with celebs, plus the presentation of the Best PUSH Act and Biggest Fans awards—all keeping fans riveted and keeping the show's momentum up during main show breaks.
MTV EMA's Instagram and Vine profiles covered the show live from the red carpet and backstage. Twitter and Facebook commented on the show and engaged with fans in real-time. The EMA website and app visualized social activity around the livestream of the main show and backstage show, while also hosting a separate social radar page that visualized social buzz from fans and celebrities' social media accounts. We used new backstage social activations like a Twitter mirror, #MTVEMA photo booth, and 360 video booth sponsored by essence cosmetics in order to excite artists and populate our MTVEMA social feeds with star-studded photos and videos. Content appeared on our social platforms in near-real time and was posted to the 34 localized mtvema.com verticals and localized iOS and Android app during and shortly after the main show broadcast.
The content resonated, and the show was a success, as we saw a #1 worldwide trending topic, 31 total worldwide trending topics, and 146 local trending topics. Not only was the show itself a hugely discussed moment, but we converted on our goal of increasing ratings, seeing a 28% increase in 4+ ratings year over year. The 2014 MTV EMA was a truly EMAzing global event.
