How MTV and Trojan Brand Condoms Used Influencers for the VMAs

Now more than ever, innovative brands seem to be baking influencers into their marketing strategies to reach the mostly - millenial audiences that are attracted to events like the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs). Because millennials now rely on social media to communicate with others and consume content, building marketing campaigns with influencers is one of the most powerful ways that brands can reach untapped audiences. Influencers have built communities around themselves in a very niche space. They are able to provide a message that target a very specific audience, allowing brands to direct their messaging to a wider audience and expand their reach.

This year MTV took an interesting approach to creating original content by leaning on brands like Trojan Brand Condoms and Orbit gum and recruiting influencers to represent both their brand and the sponsor's brand.

Clinical sexologist and social influencer, Shannon Boodram, and YouTube star, Josh Leyva, partnered with MTV and Trojan Brand Condoms in an eight-part series leading up to the VMAs that raised awareness of safe sex in conjunction with VMA-centric topics to promote the award show. In addition to the eight-part series, Trojan Brand Condoms created behind-the-scenes content for Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and live Q&A segments on Facebook Live. MTV leveraged Trojan Brand Condoms' popularity as a brand and its use as a product to get their message across and promote the VMAs. In return, Trojan Brand Condoms had access and reachability to MTV's audience to raise their brand awareness. MTV and Trojan Brand Condoms leveraged Boodram and Leyva's targeted social communities, popularity as social figures and relevance in the topic to expand their reach.

Trojan Brand Condoms generated 38.2K total actions (likes, comments, shares, retweets and dislikes) on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram one month leading up to the VMAs. That represents a more than 1,400% increase in engagement compared with the previous year.



Trojan Brand Condoms expanded its campaign with two new commercials that aired during the VMAs, featuring celebrity influencer and rapper, Lil Dicky. Below is Trojan Brand Condom's most engaged post on Facebook leading up to the VMAs.



All of the content featuring celebrity influencer, Lil Dicky, and social influencers, Boodram and Leyva, collectively communicates the importance of safe sex. The usage of both social and celebrity influencers in a campaign creates a successful integrated campaign due to the varying levels of engagement and reach among their fans and followers. Social influencers have a dedicated audience that regularly engages with their content and are seen as accessible, while celebrity influencers have a large, impersonal following and adds a coolness factor into the mix.

Orbit Gum had a similar approach with their #TimeToShine campaign, featuring YouTube personality, dancer and rapper, Dominic Sandoval, which promoted the VMA Professional Categories to highlight the people behing-the-scenes of music video.



For more on influencers, check out 3 Reasons to Use Influencer Marketing.