MTV European Music Awards

The goals

Extend the European Music Awards on-line experience by reaching out to millions of users with mobile phones
Engage with consumers in multiple languages and countries world-wide
Understand where users are coming from and which content types are most popular
Activate mobile payment across multiple territories
Provide a foundation for MTV’s mobile strategy in the future

The solution

MTV is the world’s most-watched television network and the leading multimedia brand for youth. The International division of MTV Networks, MTVNI, worked with Bango to build a great mobile experience for their MTV European Music Awards (EMAs) held in November 2007. As well as live simulcast on mobile TV, MTVNI wanted an interactive mobile website that could be access by music fans across dozens of European countries.

Apart from giving them the chance to participate in the voting, the mobile website gave MTV viewers the opportunity to download a mass of free content including wallpapers, ringtones and videos plus exclusive gossip live from the show. Premium content on the site included a downloadable quiz game where visitors can test their music knowledge and win tickets to the show in Copenhagen.

MTVNI signed up to the Bango Target package (now called Bango Payment World) to get the full capabilities of the Bango Service along with vital information about the user’s country and network. Bango was chosen to provide the billing because of its global platform which offers consumers a choice of ways to pay for premium content on the site.

The mobile site was localized into 8 languages with Bango providing the network identifier so people were automatically pushed to the right language.

MTV made it easy to get to the mobile site with a Bango Web Trigger. Visitors to www.mtvema.com were able to simply input their mobile number and Bango sent them a link to the mobile site on their handset – when they select the link, Bango determines the appropriate WAP page to send each user to.

One simple call to action on the website worked in all countries. In other media such as on the TV or print, the URL www.mtvema.com was promoted, taking people to the PC or mobile site based on the device they were accessing the site from.

The results

Bango’s real-time reporting tools enabled MTV to analyze data about its visitors, identifying usage trends and highlighting the most popular content. MTV detected consumers from over 40 countries world-wide accessing the site, indicating the importance of leveraging a global platform to launch and run a mobile web site.

“We created a great foundation for our mobile strategy moving forward. For 2008, we plan to make the mobile site an even bigger part of MTV’s EMA strategy, strengthening our position as a global leader in the field of music and creating a more interactive experience for music lovers throughout Europe and beyond.”
Mark Bamber, Director of Mobile at MTV Networks International Digital Media

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