If screaming Canadian teens are your target demographic, the premiere broadcast event to reach them is the MuchMusic Video Awards, held annually in downtown Toronto. And this year, six brands have signed on to promote their names to the Justin Bieber-loving masses this June.
Nokia, Playtex Sport, Procter & Gamble, Smarties, Stride gum and Virgin Mobile have all signed on as sponsors, the latter four securing broadcast integrations both before and after the event.
Procter & Gamble have teamed with Shoppers Drug Mart for the ‘Doll and Dash’ campaign, offering MMVA fans the chance to win a VIP weekend in TO for the event. The contest is being promoted on the MMVA microsite, which pushes potential entrants to a Doll and Dash microsite. P&G brands promoted via the contest include CoverGirl, Pantene, Nice ‘n Easy Perfect 10, Olay, Venus and Secret. The sponsorship was handled by MediaCom in Toronto.
Nestle brand Smarties will activate during the awards broadcast with Smarties Celebrity Blue Rooms, part of a promotion the brand is running focusing on the return of ‘blue’ to the Smarties rainbow. The Blue Rooms are a spin on the green rooms where celebs hang while they prep for the broadcast. The transformation of the green rooms to Smarties Blue Rooms will be tracked online at the MMVA microsite and via on-air vignettes. The final makeover will be revealed on awards night. Media was handled by ZenithOptimedia, Toronto.
Cossette is the media agency responsible for the third sponsorship integration, which will see Cadbury’s Stride gum launch its new mystery-flavoured gum in tandem with its MMVAs sponsorship. The Mega Mystery contest drives viewers to the MMVA microsite, where they must decipher clues in order to find one of six pairs of MMVA wristbands hidden across Canada. Winners get a trip to the awards, where they’ll get to walk the red carpet and get VIP seating. The contest starts May 25.
And Virgin, which is known to go for the glitz, will activate its MMVA sponsorship – handled by Wills & Co – by hosting an ‘exclusive backstage lounge’ where celeb interviews will be live-streamed to the MMVA microsite. Clips from the ‘VVIP Lounge’ will also run on-air during the broadcast and six high-profile VVIP bloggers will produce MMVA-related content promoting the lounge in the lead-up to show. Bloggers – who will post to their own sites and social media, as well as a VVIP microsite – include Karla ‘HustleGRL’ Moy, Andrew Bravener, Alex Kazemi, Lauren O’Nizzle, 1 Love TO and the Moose Crew. The VVIP Lounge will be promoted before the event with 30-second spots and the co-branded microsite.
Official sponsors also include Playtex Sport, which offers visitors to its website a chance to win a trip to the MMVAs and Nokia, which is offering a free MuchMusic app for its devices.
The MMVAs will be promoted on-air and online across all CTV channels, as well as on a billboard at Queen and Duncan streets in Toronto and a transit shelter nearby as well. Last year, the MMVA broadcast earned a total of 515,000 viewers across its back-to-back broadcasts (9 p.m. and 11 p.m.), a figure that was up 14% over 2008 and up 38% over 2007.
