The MTV EMA was this year's biggest night in music, and the most tweeted about music awards show of 2014. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the show aired in 160 regions and territories and showed the power of its fans from over the world, who chose the winners by voting online.
The goal for this year's social campaign was to engage our passionate, opinionated, music-loving audience—3.3 million fans of MTV EMA social platforms and 62 million fans of the MTV brand internationally—to join in the conversation and feel their voices were heard, their opinions mattered, and their beloved favorite artists were recognized. All this in turn would drive engagement with digital content and, ultimately, tune-in to the live show and digital second-screen experience. We employed a wide variety of tactics, including:
The results were astounding: Over the 2-month campaign, we recorded a whopping 389 million social mentions tied to the EMA and 177 trending topics the weekend of the show. This social chatter helped drive a 28% increase in 4+ ratings YoY, a 203% increase in votes year over year, and a 63% increase in page views on MTV EMA's digital platforms.
The #MTVEMA social campaign harnessed the huge global reach of MTV's social profiles and engaging fans worldwide with our shared love of music and artists. Throughout the campaign to the night of the show, the EMA provided value to its audience as well as the artists who make the show so #EMAzing.
About nine weeks before the show, the MTV EMA announced a brand-new voting phase for its established Worldwide Act category. Each year, fans vote for a winner in their country, then a regional winner among those local winners, producing 10 official Worldwide Act nominees. The Worldwide Act winner accepts the award during the live EMA show, shining a light on the singular global nature of the EMA. This year, we made the category even more unique; while MTV selected four of the five local nominees, fans in 30+ regions voted via hashtag to fill the fifth nominee spot with their favorite artist. Fans were eager to be heard: Over a week, we saw 18.9 million social votes and exposure for so many artists around the world. Even more impressive, 14 nominees voted in by fans went on to win their local award, and of those, 4 went on to compete for the of Worldwide Act title. Fans wanted a say in who represented their country, and proved that the love of music everywhere is alive and well. Fan groups even took to the streets to distribute flyers with voting hashtags!
When voting officially launched eight weeks before the show, we used our massive social audience to drive to the EMA digital platforms to vote. And, for the first time ever, fans voted exclusively via hashtag for the popular Biggest Fans category. 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—and EMAzing levels of fan fervor.
MTV and MTV EMA kept the conversation going throughout the campaign with engaging social assets. We celebrated the show's 20th anniversary by sharing archival content in Instagram and Vine videos and driving to an on-air special celebrating the EMA's top 20 moments. We engaged music lovers by asking them to tell us who the hottest artists and songs with #EMAFansHaveSpoken. We posted a selection of fans' posts on our digital platforms each week.
Talent got involved in the social conversation too. We worked closely with host Nicki Minaj, using her social reach and devoted fans to extend the reach of EMA messaging. For example, she helped us unveil her EMA promo spot by posting teaser images and telling her fans to stay tuned for the big reveal. By coordinating her posts with posts from MTV EMA social channels, we succeeded in trending #NickiMinajEMACommercial worldwide and driving views of both the exclusive teaser video on Nicki's Instagram, and the full-length video on EMA platforms. Throughout the campaign, we also announced the show's performers via their own social platforms, then amplifying through traditional press outlets and via MTV's extensive social reach. This system extended the reach of the announcements—and we were able to show artists that their participation paid off. We tracked the followers of the performing artists in the weeks around the show, and found that their social followings increased by as much as 41%, while a control group of artists who did not participate in the show saw their followers decrease during the same time period.
Social conversation hit a zenith on EMA weekend, with the MTV EMA social accounts providing behind-the-scenes content and social activations—e.g. coverage of pre-show concerts, an on-the-ground ticket scavenger hunt, and performer Twitter/Instagram takeovers. On the big night, MTV EMA's Instagram and Vine covered the show live from the red carpet and backstage. Twitter and Facebook commented on the show and engaged with fans in real-time. We used new backstage social activations, like a 360 video booth, sponsored by essence cosmetics, that captured the stars' looks; a Twitter mirror; and an #MTVEMA photo booth. 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. This helped drive a 28% increase in 4+ ratings YoY, a 203% increase in votes YoY, and a 63% increase in page views on MTV EMA's digital platforms.
