In today’s edition of taking our readers back through the most iconic adverts – be it Thanksgiving, or just regular day in the office of DollarShaveClub – we take a peek behind a green screen. As this #ThrowBrandThursday will show you, the power of internet (and memes) can be used making a promotion stand out within the clutter of 3.5 billion active internet users posting on social media and Internet in general. So, ahead of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), the highly popular music television channel called upon all its own fans (and general public) to create billboard ads to promote the show — with a little help from a green screen Miley Cyrus.
The MTV Video Music Awards are believed to be a wild night during which big stars come out to show their latest (not only musical) exploits. In recent years, this event created some of the most iconic and shareable pieces of pop culture (such as the one involving Kanye West) and 2015 was no exception. For the last year’s VMAs, MTV partnered with Jam3 – one of the world’s top digital production and design agencies that specializes in “creating highly advanced, experiential works in both the advertising and entertainment industries” — to produce a site largely inspired by Reddit and Tumblr and allowed users to generate their own GIFs and memes of Miley Cyrus and others. Taking the site by storm, artists (or any other users familiar with a bit of photo/video editing) attended the campaign’s landing page and downloaded green-screen templates, billboards, backgrounds, or stickers — as well as artist photos and videos of the likes of Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran, Mark Ronson, Bruno Mars, and Kendrick Lamar.
While the agency provided the design, development, and UX, MTV took to capturing all what represented Miley Cyrus and other artists on green screen. To ensure the company gathered all possible entries it monitored both Twitter and Instagram and all submissions were immediately featured on the landing page of a responsive site which was optimized for desktops, tablets, and smartphones and allowed the internet public to do their thing. As expected, the images, videos, and animated gifs brought together a product short of disappointing! The campaign also received Gold Lion in Co-Creation/User-Generated Content category, and other three Silver ones in Promo & Activation, Media & Publications, and of course Entertainment.
Andrei Chahine, Creative Director for MTV, explained that: “this shade of green is the universal Internet symbol for ‘come play with me’. Add to that the fact that we’re swapping out all the green screens in all mediums for fan- and artist-made versions two weeks later, and that is a narrative we think will naturally lead people to [watch] the show itself.” On using Miley Cyrus as a host, he added: “Our belief is that the Internet will really bring it. In fact, this campaign was very much inspired by the way our host, Miley Cyrus, encourages fan art on her social channels.”
“The intent is also to promote the show’s unique promise of the unexpected, the chaotic and the artistic,” Chahine added and explained campaigns background: “The VMAs have a long history of creating cultural moments that no other award show would dare deliver. It’s ruffled more than a few feathers, and that’s because it’s very much an uncontrolled environment. Same goes for this campaign. We’re effectively relinquishing control, giving people full access to VMA artists and assets, and letting them make whatever they want in the name of artistic expression. If our campaign can communicate the spirit of ‘What the hell will I see next?’ then we think those eyeballs have a good chance of watching the show, too.”
See for yourselves that there is a ton of cool stuff made up by people using images and videos from the 2015 VMA promo campaign – below, or by visiting the dedicated website.
.@MileyCyrus is pizza party ready! Create your own #VMAs fan art like @HeyBeautifulJrk at http://t.co/zJIKjS2mAA!https://t.co/MEcizN3zzv
— MTV (@MTV) 17. srpna 2015
And if you’re interested in mere facts, see how the 2015 MTV VMA campaign rated in numbers:
- 24 million VMA hashtags
- 541 million social media engagements
- 64 million interactions on Instagram
- A viral lift of 2005%
- An overall reach of 122 billion total impressions
- The 2015 VMAs became the most tweeted TV program in history
And if you haven’t had enough, and/or are a fan of Jam3’s work, you can watch their 2016 showreel:
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