NAACP Image Awards
Background
The NAACP Image Awards is the preeminent awards show from an African American point of view in the arts and entertainment. For more than 40 years the Image Awards has honored Muhamed Ali, Will Smith, Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, and hundreds of other groundbreaking artists and leaders.
The Need
As the world turns digital, so must organizations historically dependent on paper and face-to-face contact to operate. So it was at the NAACP Hollywood bureau, the branch of the NAACP tasked each year with the enormous task of putting on a modern awards show in Hollywood with A-list celebrities and performers. Long before the show takes the air, month of deliberating and decision making goes on behind the scenes, beginning with the accepting of submission for awards and the culling of thousands of entrants down to the final nominations. After nominees are decided upon, a steady and frenzied flurry of PR activity begins that doesn’t let up until a week after the show.
The NAACP Hollywood Bureau was struggling under the weight of old, slow processes for releasing information to the press and the general public. In addition, the Image Awards web site was outdated and uninteresting, failing to engage the public and leaving potential sponsorship dollars on the table year after year. Built on deprecated technology and largely un-scalable, the previous years’ web sites were in no condition to leverage new channels to reach viewers like live streaming and real-time social media feeds.
How We Helped
Web Site
GDD Interactive brought a fresh, digital perspective to the Image Awards with a new web site that was full of engaging content and designed to match the glamor and excitement of the show. Rotating YouTube videos on the home page great visitors with an instant view into past shows’ speeches and special moments. Live feeds from Twitter and Facebook give visitors a window in to the Image Awards’ year-round social media pulse including artists news as well as NAACP content relevant to the arts and equality in show business.
Ongoing events building up to the show, including screenings of films and Q&A sessions with the likes of Halle Berry and Spike Lee are announced on the site and participants can RSVP. Digital event management was a new concept for the Image Awards, and our mechanism for collecting and managing hundreds of even responses significantly reduced work load on the small Image Awards staff.
Nominations, press releases, and winners are all announced as they happen via a custom content management system, allowing for up to the minute news to be released to the blogosphere, through social channels and through the NAACP’s vast email database. Future phases of the CMS will include smartphone apps that allow Image Awards staff to close RSVP ability for an event, announce a press release, and notify nominating committee members by text message of important announcements and events.
Social Media
In addition to building the foundation for a 3,000+ Facebook fan base, GDD Interactive social media specialists created and ran the first live Tweetcast from the red carpet the night of the show. Members of our social media team worked the carpet, doing micro-interviews with the likes of Lenny Kravits, Morgan Freeman, Sandra Bullock, and John Legend. Tweeting from the audience, back stage, and in the green room viewers and audience members followed along for an insider view of the show from 360 degrees. In the two days leading up to and including the show both Facebook and Twitter counts tripled.