MTV uses virtual reality for EMAs
MTV has broadcast its Europe Music Awards ceremony with virtual reality this year.
The release:
MTV gave fans new ways to interact with and experience the 2015 MTV EMAs, MTV’s biggest international music event of the year. MTV broadcast the red carpet pre-show and entire main show event via a virtual reality live stream that viewers in markets around the world could access directly via the MTV EMA app. Held in Milan with the red carpet pre-show airing at 6am this morning, the 2015 MTV EMAs are the first global music award show to give fans this fully immersive experience. The network also teamed up with Instagram to host a custom booth backstage at the main event, inspired by Instagram’s new Boomerang app, with global music and internet stars Instagramming exclusive images and boomerang style videos throughout the event. Additionally, in the second phase of its international rebrand, the network debuted MTV Canvas, a new tool found on MTVbump.com that gives the audience tools to play with pop culture and create and submit spots to possibly run on-air on MTV’s network of international channels in 160+ countries.
Virtual Reality
The 2015 MTV EMAs is the first global music award show to fully integrate a live virtual reality viewing experience into both its red carpet pre-show and the main show, giving fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with their favourite music and celebrities in real-time. By placing cameras on the red carpet and in the main show, fans in markets around the world were able to choose where to look, giving them a unique and individual interactive virtual reality experience. Accessed via the 2015 MTV EMA app (supports iOS 8 and above or Android 4.4 and above), and used in conjunction with an easy to use cardboard viewer, the real time experience let fans feel as though they were on the red carpet or sitting in-house watching the show. Fans without a viewer could still access a 360-degree viewing experience via the MTV EMA app.
“We are always looking at new ways to engage our audience and push boundaries. The MTV EMAs are one of the biggest nights of the year for us globally, so it makes sense to immerse viewers in this event live via virtual reality,” said Bob Bakish, President and CEO of Viacom International Media Networks. “As the first global music award show to broadcast the full event live in VR, we’re giving young people around the world a front row seat to the incredible music, artists and unexpected moments that make this show epic.”
2015 MTV EMAs Social Activations
MTV collaborated with Instagram to host a custom “Boomerang” inspired booth backstage at the 2015 MTV EMAs, where musicians could capture and Instagram their own Boomerang style videos.
Boomerang is a new standalone app, which was launched by Instagram, that helps you turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected. Boomerang takes a burst of photos and stitches them together into a high-quality mini video that plays forward and back. The design is as simple as it gets: press a button and the app does the rest. No login required. The backstage booth was formed of a semi-circle of LED screens playing fast moving images, which generated live action Booms. The videos were shared on talent’s own Instagram accounts throughout the event and on MTV EMAs Instagram account.
MTV and Snapchat also partnered to bring fans closer to the action of the EMA’s. Snapchat covered the event through an MTV EMA Live Story and had custom MTV EMA geofilters available to Snapchatters attending the show. Additionally, MTV featured exclusive EMA content from the red carpet, main show and backstage on its international Snapchat Discover channel. Additionally, the network featured live content on Vine, Facebook and Twitter throughout the night, and live-streamed backstage moments via Periscope.
MTV Canvas
On the night of the 2015 MTV EMAs, the network unveiled MTV Canvas. Created with To.Be, Canvas is an online tool that gives the audience freedom to create and play with the brand and pop culture, making their own visual art with music, backdrops and more. The pre-loaded content will be refreshed on an ongoing basis, starting with MTV EMA-themed assets. Found on MTVbump.com, users can share the Canvas video spots they’ve created on Facebook or Twitter, and submit them to run on-air on MTV’s international channels. Videos that have been selected to run on-air will also be featured alongside #MTVBump content on the site. All spots will give credit where its due, featuring users’ social media handle.
“When our international channels evolved from ‘I want my MTV’ to ‘I am my MTV,’ we knew it would be critical to give our audience different entry points to play with the brand and truly make it their own,” said Bob Bakish, President and CEO of VIMN. “Its fitting that we’d launch this tool on one of our biggest nights of the year, and we hope our audience uses MTV Canvas to continue the pop culture revelry in the wake of this year’s show.”
MTV launched #MTVBump earlier this year. #MTVbump connects the Internet to the network’s linear broadcast system, allowing social media videos on Instagram or Vines shared on Twitter with #MTVbump to be up on-air in as little as two hours. MTV collects the videos using a custom content management system (CMS) developed together with B-Reel Creative that allows MTV teams to curate the content, filtering for local relevance, pop culture topicality or number of fans, and then seamlessly scheduling it to be up on-air and across platforms. Users can submit directly on Instagram or with Vines shared on Twitter, or go to MTVbump.com, where they can also view the “bumps” that have made it on-air around the world. Numbers vary by market, but in total – #MTVbumps are airing an average of nearly 1,200 times a day across participating markets combined.
For 2015 MTV EMAs artwork, press assets and further information please visit press.mtvema.com. To play with MTV Canvas, head to MTVbump.com/Canvas beginning on Monday, 26 October.
Source: MTV Australia press release
