An inside look at MTV’s social strategy for last night’s 2013 MTV Movie Awards

By Natan Edelsburg 

With more than 143 million Facebook likes and 1.2 million Instagram followers, MTV ranks as one of the biggest brands on both platforms. The network continues to outpace its rivals in terms of digital innovation, and with the MTV Movie Awards which aired last night, MTV has show the world that social TV is now about GIFs, Instagram and real-time access to fans via Facebook.

“Historically we’ve used the Movie Awards as a launch pad to test out new digital product integrations for our tentpole events and given the sheer volume of MTV fans on Facebook and Instagram we decided to focus this year on exploring different ways to turn up the dial on these two platforms specifically,” said Michael Scogin, vice president of mobile and emerging media for MTV. “We’re looking to leverage these platforms to bring the audience direct access to their favorite stars while also giving them a voice to decide the outcome of one of the most coveted awards.”

These were some of the social initiatives that were executed.

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–   Selena Gomez documented her entire awards show experience live via Facebook Set to perform her new single ‘Come & Get It’ at the show, Gomez  shared updates during rehearsals and throughout the show itself.

– After successfully launching digitally during the 2012 MTV Music Awards, the Facebook “Thank You” cam mad its on-air debut at the 2013 MTV Movie Awards. As award winners came offstage, they will had the immediate opportunity to personally thank their fans for voting (most fans authenticate in to vote on MTV.com via their Facebook login). 10-15 second “Thank You’s” aired during the telecast and fans can watch the full “thank yous on-demand via MTV.com and MTV’s Facebook page.

– For the first time, fans were able to vote via Instagram for the show’s solely voted social category; “Best Hero” presented by Axe (voting also took place via Twitter). MTV updated fans in real-time on MTV.com with the current rankings and encouraged voting up until the winner was revealed during the main show.

– MTV embedded an “Insta-razzi” photographer strategically in the photo pit to provide fans unmatched and real-time access to stars arriving on the red carpet via MTV’s Instagram account.

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