20 Music Week 21.11.14 FEATURE MTV EMAS
The MTV EMAs celebrated their 20th anniversary this month with a time travel-themed show at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, featuring performances from the likes of Nicki Minaj, Slash and Ed Sheeran
‘THIS IS THE ONE TRUE GLOBAL SHOW’
EVENTS n BY CORAL WILLIAMSON
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TV’s core demographic is the millennials, a generation who are either selfish and lazy, or ethical and hard-working, depending on
which newspaper you read. They’re also tech-savvy, having grown up surrounded by computers, the first mobile phones, and now tablets. There’s no official consensus on birthdates, but it’s usually between the early 1980s and late ‘90s, putting the majority of the generation in their twenties. Bruce Gillmer, EVP, Talent and Music Programming has been with MTV since 1987, a time before ‘millennials’ was a buzzword. He’s worked on the European Music Awards for seven years, giving him a prime view of how both the awards and their home in MTV have evolved to keep up with their young demographic. Here, Gillmer speaks to Music Week about connecting with music fans in an ever-shrinking world.
Over 20 years, how has MTV changed with the times for a new generation and audience? First, in a very organic way, the growth of MTV spread throughout the globe - we’re in over 170 territories at this point. In the early days of the EMAs, starting in 1994, and for the first ten years or so, the event was primarily pan-Euro focused. Then the spread of MTV took hold throughout Latin America and Asia and the rest of the world, so it was necessary for the EMAs to evolve beyond that. Now we have a true global event to market and promote, and connect with fans in every market. We produce an event that can speak to fans around the world. In terms of evolving with the times, of course technology is the obvious front, but, more specifically, social media has really come into play in a huge way. Everything from talent announcements, where we work directly with artists appearing in shows, to voting around specific categories, we have lots of different ways for fans to connect. The world and how it’s connected through social media: I think that’s the biggest change.
Does social media help with connecting with a millennial audience, which didn’t grow up watching music programmes on MTV? The old school model, where MTV and other music outlets would attempt to service fans through one platform, TV, that’s way past us. To keep up with the millennials, who happen to be our core demographic, it’s vital to reach them on a variety of platforms - mobile, online, iPads. If you’re a millennial who’s a music fan to some degree, you’ll find yourself listening to music via mobile, it’s omnipresent in your life in a much more effortless way. We consider all of this when we’re producing programming, specifically the EMAs. “How can a fan be connected to this show in a 360 degree way?”
entry, but it really resonated with the fans in a huge way. Votes through Instagram, Vine and Twitter are well over 200 million. I believe strongly that MTV as a brand, with a legacy and credibility going back to 1981, has got that connection with the artists as well as with fans. Our ability to harness social media is quite unique. I really believe MTV is the centre of the universe when it comes to music, fans and social media.
Does that category tie in with the millennial aim, as research suggests they’re more morally focused? Conceptually, it really is about self-expression, and it’s a positive message overall. It is, without a doubt, a full on bullseye for connecting with the millennials, for sure.
“The old school model, where MTV would service fans through one platform, TV, is way past us” BRUCE GILLMER, MTV
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We couldn’t fit her entire dress on the page: Nicki Minaj hosted this year’s event, as well as winning Best Hip-Hop
TV is only the beginning, so whether it’s voting online or interacting with the EMA app on mobile, it’s always a way to stay connected.
Is it possible to measure how many people are voting versus just watching? I remember the first year we went to an all-fan vote, and used online as the primary conduit; we had 68 million votes coming in, and that number just exploded year-on-year. The one after, we broke 100m, then 200m. Last year, we were just shy of 400m votes. These aren’t tweets or retweets, these are actual votes. The interesting thing is that we have a filtering process - so those are legitimate votes. We count for robotic methods that certain people use, but we filter those out. We’ve broken the record this year as well. The new category, Best Song With A Message - isn’t that great? - it really connected with the artists as well. It was a late
We’re seeing more award shows televised; are they filling a gap left by traditional music programmes? I think it’s cyclical. This is just my observation, but generally, there are years where the music industry is firing on all cylinders and there’s lots of new talent emerging, and it lines up with fully developed talent also having a big year. It all lends itself to an overall peak year, and the healthier the industry, the better award shows perform. The knock-on effect is that you get new players in this space; they see the ratings, it looks like a lot of fun. But in order to have a show where artists are going to up their game, you have to have some sort of past, a legacy for this kind of thing. You can’t just snap your fingers and have someone deliver a moment for you. So there’s an uptick; some of them will succeed, a lot of them won’t, because these are difficult events to pull off. Maybe there’ll be one or two additions that add to the landscape but, once the numbers come in, you’ll lose some of those shows.
There’s also debate about the future of headliners at festivals. Do you worry about running out of talent? Not at all. We do this show once a year, and it’s special. This is the one truly global show. From time to time I worry, if it’s a relatively slower year in music it’s a bit more of a challenge. But there are a lot of amazing artists out there, and it always takes me by surprise, how we’re able to keep raising the bar, and how the talent keeps raising the bar.
How important are the European Music Awards to audiences outside of Europe? It’s another evolutionary trait, I think, with the world becoming so much smaller, and artists like Nicki Minaj and Ed Sheeran, Charli XCX and Beyonce - these big artists coming from the UK and the US have a global appeal. Due to social media and the digital world, these shows have a tremendous amount of crossover. The lineups last year and this year are friendly to most of our markets around the world, because it’s smaller, and fans today have a lot of similar tastes.
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