MTV EMAs

Our 2010 challenge was to keep the 17th Europe Music Awards (EMA) show relevant and engaging for the MTV audience whilst providing an opportunity for brands to use the event as a marketing platform. Although firmly established as the biggest music awards show in Europe, we needed to keep the show relevant whilst increasing the number of touch points across all platforms, creating a deeper and more engaging experience for our audience of music fans and thus increasing brand partner transference and consideration amongst the MTV audience.

On Sunday 7th November, the EMA’s were broadcast live from Madrid to an audience of millions. The show was hosted by Eva Longoria with performances by Shakira, Rhianna, Miley Cyrus, B.o.B, Kings of Leon, Kid Rock, Plan B, Bon Jovi, Dizzie Rascal. Parts of the show were transmitted from Puerta Alcala, in the middle of Madrid, with Katy Perry and 30 Seconds to Mars performing on an outdoor stage in front of nearly 100,000 people on the ground. Justin Bieber was also tweeting and interacting live with fans watching the EMAs online through a number of new, exclusive features added to the web simulcast of the show.

The bigger campaign consisted of on-air competitions, online voting, on-the-ground activity, continual on-air and online promotions and strategic press releases. News, voting, nominations and gossip appeared on Facebook and Twitter with Habbo Hotel offering EMA-branded rooms with voting and participation in other EMA activities. All these activities allowed music fans to connect with each other and with the show across multiple platforms.

The 2010 pan-Euro partners were Suzuki, Dell and Calvin Klein Jeans, with each partner owning an area of the EMA’s that delivered against their objectives, whilst maintaining separate brand identities and messages throughout the campaign.