The iHeartRadio Music Awards "Best Fan Army Award" unites fan bases all over the world. In the 10 years since hashtags first surfaced on Twitter, #iHeartAwards and #BestFanArmy are two of five awards-based hashtags that have been used over 3 billion times. In 2017, iHeartRadio took its promotion of #BestFanArmy to the next level to have it used more times than ever.
Once again, iHeartRadio kicked off its #BestFanArmy campaign by connecting with a community of fans in a way unlike any other. Dubbed as the "iHeartRadio Social Roadblock announcement," iHeartRadio's social accounts introduced the nominees for the Best Fan Army award a day prior to the full nominee announcement. For this "roadblock" iHeartRadio selected 13 passionate social media accounts to lead the charge of voting for the coveted "Best Fan Army" award. The accounts, known as "Fan Army Generals," had a chance to win a trip to Los Angeles to attend the iHeartRadio Music Awards. On announce day, each general released a custom video that nominated his/her favorite artist for the award. This generated a record number of votes and a worldwide trend of "#BestFanArmy." In addition, a few of the nominated artists created their own videos inspiring their fan bases to rally and vote.
Throughout the voting period, iHeartRadio took its social strategy to a whole new level by executing a one-of-a-kind "Fan Army Voting Spree" campaign. Each day, over the course of 13 days, one fan army was highlighted on iHeartRadio's national Twitter account. iHeartRadio created custom cartoon artwork that would kick off each specific day. The "Fan Army Voting Spree" days allowed fans to send messages on the iHeartRadio account. Through this process, one lucky fan from each army, who voted on Twitter, was chosen to win a trip to LA and attend the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
The night before the event, iHeartRadio hosted the selected Fan Army Generals and Fan Army Contest winners for a celebration of fandom on Facebook Live. They appeared on iHeartRadio's Facebook account to talk about their fan base and encourage their respective fan bases to vote. In addition to receiving complimentary gift bags and red carpet passes to the show, Fan Army Generals and Fan Army Contest winners walked along with their favorite artists and held conversations with them.
Voting for the award continued an hour into the show, culminating in the announcement of the winner by host Ryan Seacrest. The winner, Fifth Harmony, delivered an acceptance speech.
The hashtag #BestFanArmy was used over 50 million times worldwide over the promotional period. It is reported that #BestFanArmy is one of the most used hashtags on Twitter of all-time.
On announce day, #BestFanArmy trended No.1 both Worldwide and in the United States and helped to contribute to 165 billion social impressions for the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards.
