Univision continues to expand their commitment to make a social a big part of the TV experience. For their “Premios Juventud” Youth Awards show that will air live tonight the network is using social TV to make fans “key players” in the production both online and offline. Here are the details of their social TV strategy.
Univision has been busy this past year launching new apps, a social TV analytics partnership and a brand new social video hub. In June the company announced that they would be expanding their social media efforts, by creating a new team dedicated to the advancement. The company appointed David Beck to VP & GM of Social Media, the first person to hold this position.
Beck, who previously served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for the Office of the CEO has experience that includes consulting firm Bain & Company and MTV/Viacom. We spoke to him about how much they’ve invested social into this super-hero themed awards show tent pole that will take place in Miami.
Lost Remote: How is social being used to promote the show?
David Beck: The super hero-themed “Premios Juventud” is a perfect opportunity – one of many more to come – for Univision to really take engagement to new levels. It’s a people’s choice awards, and fans have been passionate from the get-go about nominating and voting for their favorite celebrity. In anticipation of the show, we have announced exclusively via social the celebrities participating in the July 19 broadcast plus, we will give fans access to rehearsals, among others things. But the best part for fans will be on the day of the broadcast as their activities will be integrated to the content of the show. Fans will be able to “conduct” interviews on the blue carpet by way of twitter, have their photos featured on the broadcast and on PremiosJuventud.com, and most importantly, for the first time, they will decide who is the best-dressed female and male celebrity.
LR: How will it be used during the show?
Beck: We are using social to let fans become part of the actual show – from fan questions and photos to social voting. Working with Cisco Suarez and his special events team — who produces the show, Latin Grammys and “Premio Lo Nuestro” – we wanted to make “Premios Juventud” a unique experience for the fans. With that in mind, one of the key elements is that for the first time we’ll be using social (Twitter-based voting) to enable our fans to not only nominate the best-dressed celebrities on the carpet but also determine the winner by tweeting with the hashtag #MejorVestido (best dressed), once the final six are selected by our fashionista.
Another integration that I mentioned are the fan questions. Starting July 16 people can send their questions for their favorite celebrity attending tweeting with the hashtag #PJPregunta. The questions chosen will be shown on the blue carpet broadcast and asked to the respective celebrity. A cool social play we’re also doing is asking fans to tweet photos of their viewing parties by using #PJFotos, making them once again part of the show.
Throughout the show, our social media correspondent will be taking the pulse of our fans as well as celebrities by calling out and featuring on-screen their social commentary. Select Tweets labeled with #PremiosJuventud will be showcased during the broadcast.
LR: What partners are you working with?
Beck: For the social plays on-air, we worked hand in hand with Twitter and Mass Relevance. It’s important that we reach our fans in their favorite environment so partners such as Facebook – with whom, as you know, we’ve partnered with for UVideos – as well GetGlue, Foursquare and Viggle play an important role as we continue to enhance our social activities.
LR: What makes this award show unique?
Beck: Fans are actually becoming part of the content of the show. Their pictures, comments, questions and picks for the best dressed will be part of the show – on the first and second screen. We’ve seen how active our fans are and the social plays for “Premios Juventud” will enhance their social experience like never before.
Lost Remote: Anything else?
Beck: Univision is committed to engaging audiences across platforms, and with our new social team in place, we are going to integrate our social fans to Univision programming in unprecedented ways. We are excited for “Premios Juventud” as this is one of many exciting social experiences we have planned for all our properties not only on the Entertainment front but with News in this election year as well as Sports, one of Hispanic America’s passion points, and our community initiatives such as civic engagement with ya es hora (It’s time) and education with Es el momento (the moment is now).