Delivering Entertainment That Resonates Across Audience Identities & Screens

In these modern digital times, the media and entertainment industry is rapidly evolving. New platforms emerge and consumption habits change, but pop culture icons remain and are a comforting constant in this continual state of digital transformation.

Just as culture is being consumed more rapidly across TikTok, YouTube, connected televisions and more, videos from pop culture's beloved musical artists prevail in today’s multi-platform attention economy.

Brands understand the rapid pace of these shifts, and savvy marketers are building awareness and enhancing relevance by aligning with media brands that are embedded in the cultural zeitgeist.

Enter Vevo, the world’s leading music video network. From cultural icons to emerging tastemakers, our network is home to more than half a million music videos from artists of every part of the musical spectrum. We are talking about icons that span generations and cultures – from decades, like the 70s, 80s and 90s, to genres, such as Pop, Country, R&B, Hip-Hop, Reggaeton & everything in between.

CTV Gives Music Culture an Added Pop

Everyone in the media industry understands that culture is being consumed more rapidly within the connected TV (CTV) environment. And when it comes to music videos, fans especially love streaming content from their favorite artists on the big screen.

While the migration of a media library to the TV may seem daunting, once digital-first media companies are well suited for the linear TV-style format. Beginning on YouTube, Vevo’s channels have always been programmed in a 24/7 fashion, and within the past few years, we have launched more than 70 linear TV channels worldwide.

From established names such as The Weeknd and Doja Cat, to burgeoning superstars such as Lil Nas X and Olivia Rodrigo, we have seen artists push the boundaries of creativity and storytelling, and subsequently witnessed that content thrives in the living room.

New CTV audience habits include our audiences co-viewing together on TVs at parties and family events. The data shows Vevo’s CTV viewers are less likely to be “channel flippers” and more inclined to lean back and spend significantly more time tuned into music videos without changing the dial.

People love watching their favorite content via FAST (free ad-supported TV) platforms. What this has meant to our business, like so many others, is that our CTV ad inventory has skyrocketed.

We and our media counterparts have been pleasantly surprised to see audiences stick with their FAST content through commercial breaks. 

In our case, viewers are willing to watch a few (contextually relevant) ads in order to get to their next beloved music video, proving the value of a strong artist-to-fan connection.

Original Content Built for the FAST Lane

As the single largest distributed FAST network in the world, our music videos are our programs, with primetime level reach across generations, genres, and cultures, every single day. We reach mass audiences at scale, while also catering to more niche groups, serving them the content that matters to them.

This is achieved through careful collaboration with several hundreds of artists annually to create original content for our slate of franchise series: Vevo Official Live Performances, LIFT, DSCVR, CTRL and more.

"Vevo offers the most diverse content set, reaching the most diverse audience"

Each original content series captures artists at different stages of their careers – like DSCVR, which features the world’s newest emerging talent. Artists like Billie Eilish and Sam Smith were first covered in this program. Another example is our series Ctrl, which highlights the hottest Hip-Hop artists at various stages of their careers, and its sister series, ROUNDS, which focuses on the growing European scene. LIFT covers up-and-coming artists who are just about to break into the mainstream, providing them with bespoke performances in distinct settings.

Vevo Official Live Performance is our flagship original series, showcasing unique live performances from the biggest stars today. With record-breaking performances from Ariana Grande, captivating performances from Justin Bieber and a host of other artists, each year brings a new slate of Official Live Performances that launched on the Vevo network.

Of course, across each unique original programming series, brands can take part through sponsorship.

A More Diverse Future

As the population increasingly diversifies, the term “multicultural marketing” is not enough. Instead, marketers need to ask themselves: “Is my marketing strategy inclusive of all identities?”

Vevo’s programming is. Vevo offers the most diverse content set, reaching the most diverse audience. Vevo reaches 24 million Black American viewers, and an additional 31 million Hispanic viewers – every single month.

In 2022, we also launched API Amplified, featuring Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and catering to an entirely new subset of viewers. Back in 2021, we introduced Afro Pulse, with a specific focus to surround and elevate Black artists.

In all of these instances, Vevo’s value extends far beyond the traditional, endemic networks, providing viewers with a constant stream of celebration and cultural pride. As a result, our programming experience connects brands with valuable, loyal viewers, placing each brand’s message within content that our audience not only has turned on but is deeply engaged with.

More Programming Innovation to Come

Looking ahead, we have plenty of programming innovation planned.

We’ll be enhancing the viewing experience on CTV with more long-form content, in addition to some never-before-seen live performances and full-length concert features.

Also, all this CTV talk is not to say that our audiences do not continue to consume our content across a range of screens, because they do. This means we’ll continue to grow our presence on other emerging platforms, and when a brand aligns with Vevo, they can set up a campaign that extends to target hard-to-reach audiences across devices and platforms.

Moving forward, we’ll be carefully crafting compelling content experiences that blur the lines between programming and advertising – giving brands opportunities to show up alongside the most culturally relevant artists permeating the zeitgeist across screens.