The Screen Actors Guild Awards is preparing for its red carpet ceremony later this month by unveiling a new mobile-optimized site featuring a live social media content sharing section and large-format imagery.

The newly redesigned responsive site, powered by MJD Interactive, aims to offer film enthusiasts an engaging second-screen experience to augment their television viewing. As more consumers embrace the trend of live-streaming programs and awards shows on mobile, this move will likely resonate well with plenty of consumers hoping to receive more information on the night?s nominees and share their personal predictions with friends.

?Over the last two years, SAG Awards has seen a significant trend toward mobile access of its Web content,? said Jeremy Duimstra, co-founder and CEO of MJD Interactive, San Diego, CA. ?More than half of its traffic now comes from mobile sources, and this number spikes significantly during the award show when its audience brings up the site on their phones while they are watching the television airing.?

Sprucing up mobile
The Screen Actors Guild Awards? revamped site offers mobile-first features for any film or television fans wanting to follow along with the program on their smartphones. Social media buzz generally hits a peak during awards ceremonies, particularly if unscripted or outrageous moments occur, meaning that mobile marketing opportunities will be plentiful.

Consumers who visit the new SAG Awards site will find a live countdown widget on the homepage, displaying the exact amount of days, hours, minutes and seconds until the ceremony airs on January 30.

All large imagery has been formatted to fit small screens, making it simpler to read accompanying captions and enjoy photos from previous shows. Mobile users seeking to brush up on last year?s winners can scroll over to the interactive awards section, which showcases information on nominees and will include live updates from the show on Jan. 30.

The responsive design site?s theme was selected as a throwback to the days of the ?silver screen,? featuring a white and black background video with a modern video background on the homepage.

Tapping into social
The mobile-optimized site also includes a live social media content sharing section, which will aggregate all Twitter, Instagram and Facebook posts uploaded via the #SAGAwards hashtag. This feature is likely to be a huge driving force fueling fans to visit the site on the night of the ceremony, especially those who want to avoid the inevitable spam that will plague social networks? feeds.

?Traffic will indeed be very heavy,? Mr. Duimstra said. ?In our work for both SAG Awards and the GRAMMYs, we see some of the largest social sharing spikes of the year in the U.S. on the nights of their shows. It's impressive.?

Many brands will be posting content via their official social channels on awards night as well. While some marketers may find little organic material to disperse among fans, others will undoubtedly leverage popular awards show GIFs and memes to advertise their own products or services, a strategy typically used during major events such as the Super Bowl.

Therefore, consumers who want to see these types of posts can visit www.sagawards.org to view the aggregated content.

MJD Interactive also powered The GRAMMY Awards? mobile application, which sought to engage viewers beyond the television by featuring a daily content feed of music-related articles, a Tweet aggregator and music buying options, reflecting how event marketers can add to an experience via second-screen engagements (see story).

The company believes that consumers planning to watch this year?s SAG Awards will find plenty of useful and interactive tools within the newly redesigned site.

?Live updating of winners will be a great new feature this year,? Mr. Duimstra said. ?This is particularly fun for viewers as the show moves forward on TV and they use their phones to look back on the full list of winners for the night.?