DIGITAL MEDIA

When more than 100,000 users spend an average of eight minutes on your microsite, you know you must be getting something right. Even more so, when you consider the content was user-generated.

This was the outcome of MTV’s Optus One80 Project – a challenge to online users to create a three minute short film along with a script for a full hour’s production.

By offering users a specific brief, the project differentiated itself from most user-generated content sites. The partnership – which included online, along with SMS and WAP – involved mobile service provider Optus as the major sponsor and Sony Ericsson as a prize sponsor.

Viewers of the site were allowed to post their comments on the work.

For MTV, one of the toughest jobs was persuading sponsor Optus that it was worth the risk of exposing the brand to the unregulated environment

“The tones and interaction with users was very MTV and at times this did not sit comfortably with the Optus brand values” admit’s Matt Fayle, MTV’s director of digital media. “There was a series of challenges in terms of balancing the differing brand attributes of MTV and Optus”, he adds, diplomatically.

Fayle says that Optus initially treated its relationship with MTV as that of agency and supplier, as opposed to a marketing partner. This created particular concerns for the brand as it was in a user-generated environment that was MTV orientated and generated user comments that were forthright and deemed “risky” by Optus.

He says the two parties did not always agree on the functional, developmental and creative processes but that the solution was a re-positioning of the relationship into a partnership with a series of compromises being agreed including Optus relinquishing some of its brand control within a user generated environment to allow the company to capitalise on the “cool” MTV brand associations.

The project was supported through a multi-channel strategy, including print, broadcast and online and also with a live street event.

The overall project, which saw the technical development undertaken by development house Liquid Protocol, included footage submitted in various formats, converted and delivered as streaming audio and video. In addition, the content on the website was integrated within a bespoke microsite, purpose-built by Liquid Protocol to drive traffic to where users could view submissions and comment on them, http://www.one80project.com.au.

The site that the audience used to view the video streams was branded Optus with a custom MTV Internet TV-style delivering every video stream.

Says Fayle: “The project has raised awareness, supported an integrated multi-channel strategy across broadcast, digital and event as well as driving traffic. In addition MTV has taken a further step in the use of user generated content as an engagement tool.

The figures speak for themselves.

9112,529 unique users to www.theone80project.com.au.

9Average time on site 8 minutes 36 seconds.

9Audio/video streams viewed over 941,623 times.

9Over 1,000,000 interactions with the MTV and Optus brand.

953 competition entries for the Mobile Film Festival, exceeding the target of 20.

A second round of the project is now planned.

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