Last night’s Grammy Awards ceremony marked a major change in marketing strategy for the venerable sponsor of the awards, the Recording Academy. For the first time, the Grammys focused heavily on social media in its advertising efforts. This included, as was to be expected, an enhanced presence on Twitter and Facebook. But the Grammys incorporated an inclusive message of social media even in its more traditional advertising, adopting the slogan We’re All Fans. And this is more than just a motto: the very substance of the TV and print ads incorporated user-generated content.
I first saw the type of mosaic-photo used by the Grammys (and pictured above) as part of Sports Illustrated‘s 2004 Sportsmen of the Year celebration, honoring the long-suffering Boston Red Sox and–significantly–their fans. This multi-layered visual is striking and attention-grabbing, as the eye is drawn to both the component pieces and the unified whole. In short, it’s an ad that begs to be looked at.
The similarity of focus for both these mosaic-photos is telling, as they both emphasize the connection to fans. In the case of the Red Sox, this connection is limited to a supportive and–some might say–a spiritual role, as people who have waited entire lifetimes to see the team win a World Series finally witnessed this event. It’s a passive form of fanship in play here. The Grammys ad manages to take an additional step, incorporating fan-made versions of popular songs directly in the professional marketing campaign. The Grammys here redefines what it means to be a fan, transforming it from the passive supporter of a baseball team to the type of collaborator and partner that is now possible with the proliferation of user-generated content.
This point is further driven home by the Grammys YouTube-focused TV ads. Notice that the components here are all real user-uploaded videos, and that a viewer can see these diverse tributes by clicking on the mini videos themselves.
As Mashable points out:
Not only is it a cool visualization of the campaign, but for the fans that made those videos themselves, it must be amazing to see something you made and created airing on CBS and on the Internet for the whole world to see. To be clear, these weren’t performances done specifically for an advertising spot, this was a clip composed of stuff that real fans made just because they’re fans and they wanted to share their respective talents on YouTube.
In an environment in which there are dozens of YouTube tributes to, for example, Beyonce’s Single Ladies video, it makes all the sense in the world for The Grammys to emphasize the newly formed creative connection between artists and fans.
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