With a growing trend of social media use during major events (see our blog post about social media campaigns during Super Bowl XLV), it’s no wonder that The Recording Academy has jumped on board and created its own social media campaign for the 2011 GRAMMYs which take place this Sunday.
The Academy launched the “Music Is Life Is Music” campaign for this year’s event, based on “the idea that everyone has a musical journey with memories tied to certain songs and locations.” The campaign will involve geolocation, mobile, web and social media components.
2010 Grammy Awards Social Media Campaign
This isn’t the first time that the Grammy Awards used social media. In 2010, the Academy debuted the “We’re All Fans” campaign where fan-generated YouTube performances were used as television spots for a nominated artist. On the We’re All Fans website, a “living” composition of artists or groups was created by real-time content from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr.
Here’s the composition for Lady Gaga:
2011 Grammy Awards Social Media Campaign
This year, the Grammys created a more interactive campaign. The Recording Academy came out with a Foursquare-like application called the MusicMapper for the “Music Is Life Is Music” campaign. MusicMapper allows fans to tag songs and stories to physical locations, showing how music creates memories connected to special times and places.
Users start by searching and dropping a pinpoint on a specified location through MusicMapper. Then they can tag an artist’s track, from the music subscription service Rdio, and their personal story.
Here’s a look at the MusicMapper microsite:
MusicMapper integrates with other social media platforms by easily allowing the user to share their tag on Facebook and Twitter. Concert venues can be highlighted via Foursquare. Flickr photo data is used to promote artists and venues related to the Grammys.
The free application is compatible with both the iPhone and Android and is also available to users on the Music Is Life Is Music microsite. The microsite allows users to tag any location, but the mobile app only allows users to search for addresses and tag their current location.
Here’s a look at the iPhone version:
Special markers are seen on the map, showcasing the musical journeys of several artists picked by The Academy.
The app also has QR code reader, that is used to unlock exclusive Grammy content from print and outdoor advertisements. The content is specific only to the user’s location and is determined by SimpleGeo. The content includes eight full Grammy performances from the past, including Ricky Martin’s “La Copa De La Vida (Cup of Life) from 1999, Radiohead’s “15 Step” from 2009 and Mary J. Blige’s “No More Drama” from 2002.
GRAMMY Live
In addition to the Music Is Life is Music campaign, The Recording Academy is launching GRAMMY Live today, allowing users to to watch VIP events online for three days leading up to the Sunday’s event. GRAMMY Live is available on both GRAMMY.com and YouTube beginning today, Friday, at 2 pm PT and runs through Sunday. The sites feature video, photos, blogs, tweets, in addtion to official news reports and updates from GRAMMY Live hosts actor and comedian Ben Gleib, TV and Web personality Shira Lazar as well as veteran broadcast music journalist John Norris.
The audience will get to see behind-the-scenes video of the hottest events during GRAMMY Week. They will also be able to attend the Social Media Rock Star Summit where a panel of top leaders in social media will be discussing how their industry has caused shifts in how musicians and fans interact.
A list of events covered by GRAMMY Live can be found here.
