by Rohan Castelino and Katherine Miller

Research compiled from IRIS.TV’s network of publisher clients based on previous award shows and seasons

General Best Practices for Tentpole event  

Encourage video viewing on your owned & operated (O&O) sites and apps  by featuring a video asset on every award show article. Feature side-trail of trending related stories with embedded video link.

Minimizing Player: Increase retention rate* by 23%

Autoplay: Don’t fear autoplay.  

IRIS.TV publishers with autoplay not only saw Video Lift™** on O&O increase by 47% but also saw significant increases in time on site and clicks across the domain.

Example: PeopleMag Golden Globes 2017: Emma Stone Wins Best Actress Comedy for ‘La La Land’

Metadata best practices: Extract full value from your asset library with a taxonomy

Top award videos tagged with appropriate category have a 30% higher IRIS.TV Video Lift™ and 12% higher retention rate than videos left uncategorized.

Download Video Metadata 101 Infographic to learn more best practices

Metadata suggestions: redcarpet, awards, Oscars2017, celebritynews, grammyawards2017, fashion, breaking

For more information about Metadata Best Practices for Awards Season, check out:

• IRIS Insights: Maximizing Video Revenue from Known Viral Events
• Billboard Music Awards: How Publishers Drive Digital Video Viewership Around Tentpole Events
• A Publisher’s Guide to the Best Video Taxonomy

Primary Takeaways to Drive User Engagement and Retention

Create assets that highlight popular winners of the night and memorable speeches to encourage extended video consumption on across site. IRIS.TV Adaptive Stream™ will program high performing video assets to keep your audience engaged wherever their video viewing experience begins.

Example: PeopleMag ‘Stranger Things’ Wins Best Ensemble Cast

Primary takeaways to Drive overall Video Viewing on O&O

Awards videos that feature celebrities discussing hot-button political issues on and off the red carpet. These videos tend to cross the boundary from “niche” to “news.” Some successful formats incorporate clips from the speech with a reporter’s overlay of comments.  These videos incorporate a shorter format, typically under 1 minute.

Example: EW This Is Why Tom Hiddleston Was Criticized for His Golden Globes Speech

Unconventional Awards Coverage

To get a head-start on award coverage, create and circulate videos that predict winners for the top categories. Prediction videos perform well when they include opinionated take on nominees.

Example: Rolling Stone: Golden Globes 2017: What Will Win, What Should Win

When it comes to driving up engagement and continued video viewing around a tent-pole event, a “hook” or “listicle” title is an effective way to grab audience’s attention and attract them to a particular video.

Example: Billboard: Here Are the 12 Best & Worst Moments at the 2017 Golden Globes

Additionally, creating content around surprising moments or mistakes during the event provides a unique twist that sticks out from traditional awards coverage.  

Example: The Hollywood Reporter Golden Globes 2017: Michael Keaton Calls ‘Hidden Figures’ ‘Hidden Fences’ on Stage

*Retention Rate: The percentage of video viewing experiences that result in at least one additional in-stream video view.

**Video Lift™:  The percentage increase in video views resulting from IRIS.TV’s programmed video.