An interview with VH1 VP of Future TV Dave Perry on the Streamy Awards
The 5th Annual Streamy Awards, honoring the best in online video will become the latest awards show to join Viacom's library. On September 17th the live event will air on VH1 at 10pm Eastern. Found Remote will be covering the awards as internet celebs Grace Helbig and Tyler Oakley host. Here are the full list of nominees.
This awards show is another example of VH1's dedication to internet culture and video that has taken on a whole new level of legitimacy in recent years. Found Remote interviewed VH1 Vice President of Future TV and Cross-Platform Innovation Dave Perry about their partnership with the Streamys.
Found Remote: Why did VH1 decide to partner with the Streamys, why does this type of content matter to VH1?
Dave Perry: VH1 has always been a destination for pop culture, from Pop Up to Behind the Music to Best Week Ever and to Candidly Nicole. The Streamys honor the best digital creators, who are a huge part of pop culture now. And, we know our audience is invested in this world - we see it shared daily inside their news feeds, and enjoy taking a break from their hectic, over-scheduled lives. We all love to laugh, to learn something, and to be inspired.
FR: What will the digital and social activations be around the broadcast?
DP: We have a wide array of activations meant to allow the creators to be just that – creative. We’ll have a Vine Booth and Twitter Mirrors, as well as the newer "Challenge Mirror" which is great for fun content creation. There will be an Instagram area to capture and post portraits of the winners, and we're also planning a "self-serve" green screen so the creators can share photos and create elements the tumblr community can build upon. Behind the scenes, there will be a Snapchat story and Periscopes broadcasting additional content streams. And last but not least, we’ll be GIF’ing and meme’ing in real time to allow our fans to share and enjoy the best moments from the show in 360 degrees on any platform.
FR: How will you split responsibilities/campaigns with the Streamys team?
DP: This is the 5th year of the Streamys, but the first time VH1 has partnered with them. So we’ll go in having a well laid out content strategy, with a carefully architected plan to optimize and leverage each other teams and social footprints. But as we know, anything can happen in a live show so I suspect we’ll be adjusting things as we go. Isn’t that part of the fun?
FR: Who are some of the most interesting nominees and why?
DP: Well, not to be too PC, but all the nominees are so talented and unique there’s something to love about all of them. Sure, I have my personal favorites, but I’m most excited to see how the audience feels about the fan-voted categories - “Best Show” and “Best Entertainer” of the Year”. We’ll be counting votes in real time - up until the final moments of the show. I can’t wait to see who wins!
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