Objectives and goals of the MTV & Coca-Cola partnership around the 2015 MTV Fandom Awards included:
GENERATE EXCITEMENT AND ROBUST SOCIAL CONVERSATION AMONG MILLENIALS:
Celebrating the unique personalization of names on Coke products, sharing, and 'togetherness' to embody Coke's "Share-a-Coke" campaign vision.
SPARK AN AUTHENTIC & EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH MILLENNIALS:
Create a personalized fan experience through social engagement and participation around what they're most passionate about.
REACH FANS EVERYWHERE…WITH A PLATFORM-INTENTIONAL APPROACH:
Leverage multi-channel activation to deliver mass awareness – delivering quality content at scale and igniting social dialogue within environments where fans are creating, consuming, and sharing content/media.
We architected a multi-platform activation designed to foster fan engagement, original social content creation/sharing, and meaningful experiences for fans. We anchored our marketing efforts around The 2015 MTV Fandom Awards, celebrating the heart and soul of today's most passionate fan groups around the most iconic movies and shows of today's generation. The program spanned across linear, social, digital, and on-the-ground at Fandom Fest, culminating with a custom MTV + Coke on-air commercial that aired during the Fandom Awards.
STRATEGY
We rooted our campaign idea in one of the most prevalent Fandom behaviors – Shipping -- seamlessly aligning with the core principles and equity of Share-a-Coke in sharing and pairing two names together. Shipping is short for RELATIONSHIP - a cultural phenomenon where fans pair their favorite TV and/or Film characters based on their strong bonds, and undeniable chemistries on-screen. These virtual relationships can be romantic and platonic, taking on unique expressions via a combination of their names (i.e. "Sterek" – Derek/Styles from Teen Wolf). Shipping is entirely mainstream; as fans take to social media creating endless amounts of content, storylines, and conversation around today's most beloved characters.
IMPLEMENTATION & KEY FEATURES
'Ship of the Year' Award Category
MTV created a new award category as part of the Fandom Awards nominee line-up - establishing Coke as the exclusive partner of the "Ship of the Year" Award, celebrating the most iconic on-screen relationships and the personal passions and communities that fuel them.
Social Voting on Tumblr
Based on our fan's demand/expectation for real-time access to the content they crave, we designed the award category to be socially voted upon – partnering with Tumblr as the social epicenter of Fandom + Shipping culture to host the most organic voting experience.
We created (6) voting assets (1/nominee) using animated GIFs to rally fans to vote, share the content, and spark a viral effect among fans. This voting content featured shipping scenes of highly trending moments between characters. We built unique Coke bottle assets, featuring the names of the nominees on the bottles (i.e. "Team Sciles"), which were embedded into the GIF voting assets that fans shared across their feeds.
SOTY Social Influencers
We built a first-of-its-kind social talent team, recruiting (6) influencers to represent the six nominees as authentic "Fan Leaders" that rallied their respective fan bases to vote with over 100 pieces of custom content across YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, and Snapchat, and interacted with fans on-the-ground during the Fandom Festival.
On-the-Ground Fan Activation
We created a fully immersive Coke experience at Fandom Fest that included:
Coke-branded Ferris wheel, Coke Kiosks to personalize mini-cans, a Coke photo sharing station, sampling, and a real-time activation with the (6) influencers.
In-Show Award Reveal Moment
We created a customized MTV/Coke commercial that aired during the Fandom Awards show, teasing the award winner reveal. The spot featured the Social Influencers, exciting fans at home with their favorite social stars on TV, as they made their way through San Diego representing their favorite Ships via the custom Coke bottles.
We saw tremendous success in driving both reach and engagement with fans during each phase of the program – ultimately delivering on our goals of igniting social conversation, creating an emotional and authentic connection with teens, and reaching fans across their native platforms.
Social Success
-Achieved over 150 Million total social impressions; delivering a 111% viral lift in earned media value
-Drove an incremental 600K fan engagements (likes, comments, shares, etc) beyond votes on Tumblr
Tumblr
-Generated over 28 Million votes on Tumblr as voting content went viral; set new benchmarks for success for Tumblr and MTV social campaigns
-Achieved tremendous engagement on Tumblr; voting GIFS trended 2x on the homepage
-Sparked organic fan content beyond the votes on Tumblr, featuring "Share-a-Coke" and the custom Coke Shipping bottles. These actions were entirely unsolicited, a testament to the passion they had around the Ship of the Year award
Social Talent Team
-Social Talent Team drove 800k fan engagements with program content and over 1.7 Million YouTube video views
Day of Festival / Fandom Weekend
-Drove 38% of the overall #shareacoke social conversations during Fandom Weekend
-10,000 organic Coke brand mentions during the 4-hour priority festival
Night of Broadcast
-Drove immediate social engagement during the Fandom Awards broadcast when the Coke/ MTV commercial aired, resulting in a 202% viral lift
-Fans instantly blew up in social, thanking Coke/MTV for the SOTY award, inquiring about how they can get the custom Ship bottles, etc.
