In anticipation of Tuesday’s BET Hip Hop Awards, Brief takes a look at the network’s social strategy in promoting the awards show:
The 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards debuts tonight, Oct. 15, but the awards show has lived through BET digital platforms for more than six weeks with host Uncle Snoop. With so many social and digital opportunities at BET’s disposal, the Bet Hip Hop Awards went out earlier this year, announcing the show’s host (Snoop Dogg aka “Uncle Snoop”) back in August and performers in September.
But what really started off this year’s promotion of the BET Hip Hop Awards were its Cyphers.
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“Every awards show has performances and awards,” according to JP Lespinasse, director of social media at BET. “The Cyphers are what have differentiated the Hip Hop Awards from other awards shows and has made it a mainstay in the hip hop community. It’s really about the essence of hip hop.”
These Cyphers – video clips, memes, etc. – were first released in early September and featured new and seasoned performers as promotion for the show. First, because they couldn’t release much information about the show itself yet, BET released artists’ Cyphers from past awards shows, then got BET talent into the game like Kevin Hart and the rest of the “Real Husbands of Hollywood” (whose season premieres right after the BET Hip Hop Awards on Tuesday).
Mid-September kicked off the “second tier” of BET’s social strategy, with a call to action on Tumblr, Instagram: “What does hip hop mean to you?” Through hiphopisthis.tumblr.com, BET posted videos, memes, GIFs and images, while encouraging fans to do the same, explaining what hip hop means to them and promoting the upcoming show in the process.
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On Oct. 4, BET and its social sites started a countdown to the awards show: 12 days of hip hop. With a daily release of new lyrics with a video or a meme, each day was represented on BET.com as well as its Tumblr and social sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). On the last day of the countdown, BET encouraged people to sing the entire song back to them via Instagram video in order to win a prize.
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This year BET also released more exclusive social content – posting promotional video via Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and via its own network. The “Real Husbands” helped the Hip Hop Awards cross-promote with videos and promos. Through a partnership with Shazam, BET Hip Hop Awards and promos were Shazam-enabled, leading Hip Hop Awards spots to an exclusive video from artist Jon Connor and “Real Husbands” to exclusive show content before its premiere.
According to BET’s Lespinasse, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter were perfect for these kinds of digital ideas, because like most marketers, he likes to use the outlets that are easily quantifiable – so right now that means Facebook and Twitter over Instagram. But BET took advantage of the Instagram format and actually cut some of the show’s promos in Instagram format, releasing those spots via the app as well as on Facebook and Tumblr.
“We do Instagram because we love the video component, we love the short-form video,” said Lespinasse. “It’s a great place to put these memes and other graphics and images to remind people about the show.”
Before the show goes live on Oct. 15, BET will start live-tweeting the telecast. The network also projected images on the sides of buildings in a digital and stunt marketing mash-up. In select cities, BET let out the location of the projections via social media and fans then tweeted the image back to BET for a chance to win BET swag.
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Lastly, in an effort to include BET’s entire audience, smartphone owners or no, they also went out with a contest to win free tickets to next year’s awards show.
“This is kind of old school, we just wanted to make sue to be as inclusive as possible,” said Lespinasse. “There’s also an overlay, so if you text us in using a short code, you can win tickets to the 2014 Hip Hop Awards. Not everybody has a smartphone, not everybody’s on Twitter or Instagram, so we wanted to have something as democratic as possible.”
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