How CBS leveraged social for Academy of Country Music Awards

Posted by on April 9, 2012

CBS.com saw a 331% growth in social media comments compared to last year?s Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMs).�Additionally, their linear ratings for the night the awards aired (April 1st) were impressive. ?For the night, CBS was first in households (7.5/12), viewers (12.21m), adults 18-49 (2.6/07) and adults 25-54 (3.7/09),? according to their release. For every network, awards shows have become essential tent poles to generate tons of buzz and introduce and promote different elements for the network and their advertisers. CBS Interactive was extremely prepared to both capture the social buzz and then issue stats from the awards to display the success they had on both the social and linear sides of the equation. We spoke with�Marc DeBevoise the�VP/GM for Entertainment at CBS Interactive about the growth and Bluefin Labs provided a graphic to illustrate this growth.

Lost Remote: Why are the ACMs important to CBS.com?

Marc DeBevoise: The Academy of Country Music Awards (ACMs) is one of our biggest events of the year on CBS.com. It?s also one that is driven by viewer participation as country music fans come out in huge numbers to cast their votes to help determine which of their favorite artists will win awards.� This year was no different. All of the nominees have strong fan bases and social media followings, and the social buzz drove a fantastic voting turnout and show.

LR: How did the digital components of the awards grow this year?

MD: Specifically, the social media activity around the ACMs was up 330%+ year-over-year. This was driven by a mix of:

-�Our social media correspondent in Beth Behrs (star of CBS Comedy 2 Broke Girls) getting the social conversation kick-started (similar to what we did with Pauley Perrette from NCIS around Grammys). Here is the link to her Behind-the-scene photos:�Beth Behrs Photos. She was around all weekend posting socially from the MGM, backstage, on the floor, and she even presented an award. She did an amazing job.

-��Two kinds of special on-air call-outs: one driving viewers to the online and mobile vote for Entertainer of the Year and New Artist of the Year and the other calling out specific tweets on-air (lower third of the screen) as award winners walked up to make their acceptance speeches. Both of these really gave the fans at home a voice in the show, one via giving them influence over two key awards and one giving them an ability to reach the broader on-air audience with messages about their favorite artists.

-�Artist outreach leading up to� the show in partnership with the academy, the producers and Twitter. Many of these artists have millions of social fans that they reached out to in order to support them at the show.

LR: What was one exciting result?

MD: The results weren?t just in the social conversation but also in the audience participation. The voting for Entertainer of the Year and New Artist of the Year was up over 25% year-over-year to nearly a million votes.

Here?s the Bluefin infographic:

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