MTV Expands Mobile Efforts for VMAs

As consumer traffic increasingly migrates towards mobile devices, the digital efforts for the MTV Video Music Awards show on Aug. 24, 2014 will highlight the channel’s “mobile first” philosophy of recent years and will feature a number of new efforts specifically designed to improve the experience on mobile devices.

“It is part of our ongoing effort to evolve what we offer along with ongoing audience trends and to make sure we are right there with the audience as they branch into new platforms,” explains MTV’s senior VP of connected content Colin Helms.

The company is billing the effort as MTV’s biggest VMA multiplatform social integration to date.

The main digital offerings for the awards show will be at MTV.com and its branded MTV app, but for the first time the MTV Artists app will be the go-to mobile destination for exclusive VMA content, Helms says.

The VMA All Access Live tool, which allows users to select streams from a variety of cameras and angles to provide unique views of the red carpet and the awards show, has been specifically redesigned for mobile.

“We’ve used responsive design to make that more mobile centric so it works wellon all devices,” Helms says. In addition the social feeds that are published during the event on the website and app have been “optimized for mobile,” he explains. “In general, the entire VMA platform has been made more mobile centric, from the All Access Live to the social feeds and the winners lists.”

Extensive content will also be available on a number of other platforms.

As part of an effort to follow audiences to newer platform, MTV for the first time used Snapchat to announce the award nominees.

This year’s social category will be “Best Lyric Video,” with the winner determined by voting via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Vine.

As in the past the channel will use “social influencers” on the red carpet and inside the venue to engage with fans via social media.