MTV launches interactive tool for viewers

Viacom's music channel MTV has unveiled MTV Canvas - an interactive online tool that gives the audience freedom to create their own content and engage with the brand.Taking cues from pop culture, fans can make their own visual art with music, backdrops and more via this newly launched platform co-created with an online tool called To.be.  This activation is part of MTV's rebranding strategy launched earlier this year. The pre-loaded content will be refreshed on an ongoing basis, starting with MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA)-themed assets. Found on MTVbump.com, users can share the Canvas video spots they’ve created on Facebook or Twitter, and submit them to run on-air on MTV’s international channels.Videos that have been selected to run on-air will also be featured alongside #MTVBump content on the site. Users can submit directly on Instagram or with Vines shared on Twitter, or go to MTVbump.com, where they can also view the “bumps” that have made it on-air around the world.All spots will give credit where due, featuring users’ social media handle. #MTVbump connects the Internet to the network’s linear broadcast system, allowing social media videos on Instagram or Vines shared on Twitter with #MTVbump to be up on-air in as little as two hours.MTV collects the videos using a custom content management system (CMS) developed together with B-Reel Creative that allows MTV teams to curate the content, filtering for local relevance, pop culture topicality or number of fans, and then seamlessly scheduling it to be up on-air and across platforms.Numbers vary by market, but in total - #MTVbumps are airing an average of nearly 1,200 times a day across participating markets combined.“When our international channels evolved from ‘I want my MTV’ to ‘I am my MTV,’ we knew it would be critical to give our audience different entry points to play with the brand and truly make it their own,” said Bob Bakish, president and CEO of VIMN. “It’s fitting that we launch this tool on one of our biggest nights of the year, and we hope our audience uses MTV Canvas to continue the pop culture revelry in the wake of this year’s show.”