VH1 Expands Efforts for Digital 'Divas'

Will stream red carpet and offer new social media tools for '2012 VH1 Divas'

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/14/2012 11:30:46 AM

For the live airing of 2012 VH1 Divas on Sunday, Dec. 16, VH1 will expand both its online and social media efforts for the performance event, which will celebrate dance music and include tributes to Whitney Houston and Donna Summer.

Dan Sacher, senior VP of VH1 and Logo Digital, cites research showing that social media is extremely important to their core "mid-20s, female-leaning demo."

"We found in our own studies and in a Nielsen study that mid-20s females are the most social online, sharing more content than any other demo," he notes, which translated into heavy social media traffic for the event in previous years.

"We know that upwards to 80% of our audience is on one or more other devices while watching TV," he added in an interview. "So if we are not on all three screens, we're getting only a fraction of their attention span."

To capitalize on that usage, this year's Divas will feature streaming during the red carpet before the show to Web and mobile at Divas.VH1.com and offer expanded social media features, notes Jon Mallow, VP of shows and events at VH1 Digital. "We will be using the Twitter tracker for the first time with Divas," he notes.

During the live event, they will also be streaming from a number of cameras backstage and in the audience. They will also be clipping moments from the show, which will air live for the first time in several years, and will be quickly posting these clips to the site, where they can be shared by viewers.

The channel has also installed a booth, where celebrities and performers can have their photos taken, which will be turned into animated gifs that viewers can share.

Interestingly, Sacher notes that the social media traffic typically builds after the show as fans share content and it generally reaches a peak on Monday morning. "We really see the traffic swell up to that water cooler moment on Monday morning," he notes.

While the peak is typically Monday morning he believes the relative quiet of the upcoming holiday period will help buzz will continue throughout the week and beyond.