For the fourth annual iHeartRadio Music Awards, the iHeartRadio social team set out to engage fans like never before. By utilizing new platforms and implementing innovative strategy to give fans more access to their favorite nominees, iHeartRadio made the 2017 iHeartRadio Music Awards one of the most talked about and socially engaging television events of the year.
Once again, iHeartRadio kicked off its Awards campaign by connecting with a community of fans unlike any other. Dubbed the "iHeartRadio Social Roadblock Announcement," iHeartRadio's social accounts announced two of the socially voted categories one day prior to the full nominee announcement. iHeartRadio selected thirteen passionate social media accounts, known as "Fan Army Generals," to represent the 13 nominees for the coveted "Best Fan Army Award." These "generals" each released a custom video nominating their favorite artist for the award. This strategy generated a worldwide trend of #BestFanArmy. Once all the nominees were announced, iHeartRadio released a series of reaction videos featuring musicians finding out about their nomination.
During the voting period, iHeartRadio executed an original "Fan Army Voting Spree" campaign. For thirteen days, iHeartRadio selected one fan army to highlight on Twitter. iHeartRadio created custom artwork that would kick off each day. During these "Fan Army Voting Spree" days, one lucky fan who voted for the specific fan army, was chosen to win a trip to Los Angeles and the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
The day before the show, iHeartRadio hosted an event in Los Angeles for the selected fan army generals and contest winners. During this celebration of fandom, each fan appeared on Facebook Live to talk about their fan base, while continuing to encourage their fan base to vote.
During the promotional period, iHeartRadio partnered with nominee Katy Perry on a Musical.ly contest that asked fans to create a video to Katy's song "Chained To The Rhythm." One lucky winner was flown to Los Angeles to meet Katy in her dressing room at the iHeartRadio Music Awards.
iHeartRadio utilized new technology to increase social voting, including a trailblazing partnership with Google Home. iHeartRadio was the first award show to feature voice voting via Google Home, which allowed fans to vote for a brand new category, "Most Powerful Female Voice."
In addition, iHeartRadio partnered with Snapchat in an innovative way. For the first time ever, iHeartRadio asked winners who could not attend the live show, to record 10-second acceptance speeches on Snapchat. The platform launched a unique Live Story that solely featured these acceptance speeches.
iHeartRadio utilized nationally syndicated personality Elvis Duran and KIIS-FM personality Letty Martinez to host a Facebook Live on the red carpet, which attracted talent such as Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, and more. An additional Facebook Live was conducted backstage which featured a glam session with Noah Cyrus. iHeartRadio also reserved designated space on the red carpet for social partners FYUSE and GIPHY to capture 360° video and custom reaction gifs.
When the show began, iHeartRadio launched two additional socially voted categories: Best Dressed and Best Performance. iHeartRadio covered the live television broadcast on its social accounts with videos, photos and gifs of acceptance speeches, musical performances, backstage moments and more. Custom graphics were created for winners and shared across all social platforms.
The iHeartRadio Music Awards generated a record 165 billion social media impressions, making it the most talked about program of the week. #iHeartAwards even surpassed The Walking Dead and other popular programs, according to Nielsen's social rating.
iHeartRadio's partnership with GIPHY drove over 12 million gif views in the two days following the show. iHeartRadio's partnership with Musical.ly and Katy Perry saw over 354,000 new Musical.ly videos created, as well as 62 million views on the content.
The official hashtag, #iHeartAwards, trended number one worldwide and number one in the United States. #BestFanArmy trended number one worldwide and number one in the United States on the day of the category's announcement.
The Snapchat acceptance speeches garnered national press recognition for its groundbreaking creativity. Social voting for the iHeartRadio Music Awards increased by 10 million votes YOY.
On the night of the show, iHeartRadio Music Awards related videos were viewed over 13 million times on Instagram alone. Finally, iHeartRadio's Facebook Live on the red carpet attracted over 600,000 views, surpassing Billboard's Live red carpet of the Grammy Awards.
