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Aloft and MTV put social media at center of concert series promotion

Starwood?s Aloft Hotels is tapping into MTV?s pull on social media for a series of musical performances, leveraging Instagram, Facebook video and Snapchat Discover to cater to a young, trendy demographic. 

The hotel brand is building up its Aloft Live concert series with three special performances in partnership with MTV that feature breakthrough artists, and is tapping the entertainment?s large presence on social media to promote the concerts. Social media users will be able to catch snippets of the concert series on various platforms as well as interviews with the performance artists, photos on Instagram and have a chance to win tickets on a mobile-optimized giveaway site. 

?This exciting new collaboration harnesses the power of MTV?s social media footprint,? said Lee Sears, vice president of Viacom Velocity International, Viacom International Media Networks. ?The entire campaign is built around social media, from promoting the competition on Instagram, to using Facebook Video for interviews with talent and MTV Snapchat Discover through which fans can get an exclusive look into the life of an up and coming artist.

?We want to engage with as many music fans as possible on all the social channels they love in order to build brand awareness of Aloft Live but more importantly to provide a customized destination for new up-and-coming talent where the audience is highly engaged and interested in new music,? he said. 

Aloft with social media
Aloft is ramping up its presence as a trendy hotel brand through its Aloft Live program that focuses on bringing concerts and musical performances to its hotels across the world. MTV is partnering for three concerts featuring up-and-coming artists Anne-Marie, Max Giesinger and Jonas Blue at Aloft locations in Munich, Abu Dhabi and London, which will be heavily integrated with pushes on social media. 


MTV and Aloft team up for special performances

MTV will be sharing a series of social media content to promote competition for the three performances during which users can win free tickets. Anne-Marie, a pop singer, will perform an acoustic set at Aloft?s London location, while Dutch singer-songwriter Max Giesinger will also perform acoustically in Munich and electronic DJ Jonas Blue will complete at set on Abu Dhabi?s Aloft rooftop. 

Snapchat users will be able to catch the action on MTV?s Discover channel, which will feature content and musical numbers from the performances. Instagram will similarly feature videos and photos from the concerts, and packaged vignettes from the performances will be shared on multiple social media platforms. 


MTV's Snapchat Discover channel 

The footage will also be available on MTV?s international YouTube channel, which will be the first branded content on the account. 

MTV partnerships
The Hershey Company?s Reese?s brand similarly took over MTV?s Discover channel on Snapchat as part of its sponsorship of the Woodies awards, leveraging relevant new ads as well as a dedicated hashtag for the event (see more).

Viacom also had fun and celebrating with consumers through the selfie singing application Hook?d to promote its international summer events, a contest and a variety of content (see more). 

?The goals of the campaign are to inspire our audiences with unique content that explores what it is really like to be a breakthrough artist today including their back stories, on platforms we know they love such as YouTube and Snapchat and to inform audiences about MTV Push Futures and Live at Aloft, both of which foster emerging talent and give a platform for new artists which audiences can engage with,? Mr. Sears said.