"POVMA” is a behind-the-scenes livestream that shows varying perspectives of the MTV Video Music Awards experience in real time. After the viral success of POVMA’s debut in 2023, the VMA social team set out to find ways to add new twists to the livestream in 2024. Not only were we determined to one-up ourselves from a metrics perspective, but we hoped to cement “POVMA” as a recognizable extension of the VMA broadcast, inspire pop culture headlines and secure digital revenue.
At its core, “POVMA” is a straightforward concept: set up backstage cameras all around the VMA venue, find the best nooks, crannies and angles possible, then go live. Anything could happen! But how do you spruce up a successful formula to improve upon the original?
The team started planning months in advance, focusing on two pillars - audience growth and innovation.
Audience growth: In 2023 fans posted POVMA highlight clips with lightning speed - amassing millions of views and engagements outside of the MTV ecosphere. (Shout out to all those fans - we fully encourage them to spread juicy moments far and wide!) However, in an effort to increase our own KPIs in 2024, we knew it would be crucial to plus up our editorial offering and stake claim over some of the night’s biggest moments.
While we’ve always clipped and posted great bits from VMA audience cameras, in 2024 we quickly turned around editorialized videos to give context and voice to stand-out moments - resulting in some of the most-viewed social videos of the 2024 VMAs. For example, pairing up Taylor Swift’s joyful dancing in the audience with footage from Katy Perry’s Vanguard performance? Chef’s kiss!
Innovation: Celebrity audience cams are a consistent crowd pleaser - they’ve been a VMA digital staple for over a decade. But you see, we get our kicks on finding ways to evolve classic formulas. An idea arose: what if someone else could remotely control the backstage cameras? It felt unhinged. But also - like, how? Yet somehow the idea stuck, and eventually we were test driving it. We built an arcade-like joystick pad and a mini control room with a microphone. We convinced celebrities to play along. And voila: POVMA 2.0 included a whole new point of view - VMA VIP commentary with full remote control access of our backstage cameras to pan, tilt and zoom as they pleased.
When VMA day arrived, POVMA went live on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and X in two aspect ratios. We served up real-time red carpet arrivals, celeb audience cameras and backstage hallways. Celebs like Lil Nas X and Anitta self-captured their personal POVs on phones while others like Alexander Stewart showed his POV - literally - with camera glasses. And of course we debuted a shiny, new remote-controlled camera commentary booth.
In 2024, POVMA successfully surpassed - and in some cases, smashed - our primary goal benchmarks. We secured two large-scale sponsors. And footage from POVMA appeared in headlines, trending topics and fan theories for days after the show.
Live views:
- 5.5M livestream views (+35% YOY)
- 5.7 livestream engagements (+183% YOY)
After 7 days, including cross-platform highlight clips:
- Engagements grew 4x YOY as a result of increased highlight distribution
- 58.3M video views (+38% YOY)
- 9.5M engagements (+313% YOY)
