TORONTO – The only way to describe Bell Media’s relaunched MuchMusic is as a collision between the old and the new.
Today’s iteration of MuchMusic, first launched on July 7 with content driven by the team behind the TSN site BarDown, banks on nostalgia, but it is also centred around what is new and popular right now. In a way, it is about breathing new life into an established brand and stirring up memories for those who watched MuchMusic on TV in the 80s and 90s, but it is targeted at 13 to 20-year-olds – people who were not alive in the 80s or 90s.
Nostalgia has been important for the relaunch of MuchMusic because there is “an affinity for this brand internally here at Bell Media, which is very much alive and well,” and because it has gotten their partners and clients excited, said Stewart Johnston, senior vice-president of sales and sports at Bell Media in an interview with Cartt.ca.
There is some “strong affinity and nostalgia from a certain group, but it’s not our target group,” he said. “So, we’ve got to make sure we’re conscious of that, that we are reinvigorating the youth brand in a way that meets today’s youth… we think it’s applicable to today’s youth but delivered in a reimagined way.”
Finding balance between the old and new, MuchMusic’s TikTok feed features “VJs” – a nod to MuchMusic’s TV days – who are all “digital creators”, which is probably a more apt descriptor for what they are doing now.
The content on the feed includes clips of the VJs (Kwesi Kwarko-Fosu, Teddy Tong, Georgia Kolev, Myah Elliott, Verda Ansari and Sadé Powell) freestyling over FaceTime, playing quiz games together and doing TikTok challenges. It also includes updates on what is happening in the music industry, clips from concerts and interviews.
“We want to become the most followed brand in Canada on TikTok,” Johnston said. “We’ve been very pleased with our success so far in just these first few months.”
As of Friday afternoon, MuchMusic had over 402,000 followers on Tiktok and a growing presence on Instagram and Youtube.
Johnston mentioned MuchMusic’s first livestream of Intimate and Interactive, which featured Coi Leray (right) as being indicative of their success so far. The livestream had “300,000 unique viewers tuning in,” he said.
Another way they are seeing success is in the response from the advertising community.
“They said, we get it, we see what you’re doing,” Johnston said.
“We’ve had great relationships with a number of sponsors already through the summer with some big success.” He mentioned their partnership with Roots on a MuchMusic collection of Canadian music inspired designs that sold out.
Johnston did not say much about the partnership arrangement Bell has with TikTok but did say advertisers have approached them for everything from custom branded content to sponsorships and “integrations in the content that we’re creating.”
“We’ve got great influencer marketing potential here,” Johnston said. He talked about the VJ’s, who all have digital skills, social skills and personality and said while there can be a risk with influencer marketing in terms of brand safety, MuchMusic falls under Bell Media’s purview and can therefore be seen as being brand-safe while also being “on the forefront of what youth are looking for.”
For those wondering about the Bell’s Much specialty channel, it will stay the same. “It’s still extremely popular,” Johnston said. “It’s evolved to continue to offer programming including scripted and… cutting edge comedies, that sort of thing.”
Where there is crossover between the digital MuchMusic and linear broadcasting is with Bell Media more generally.
“For example, we had VJ’s planted in Osheaga that were positioned as part of our Bell sponsorship of that festival,” Johnston said. They rolled out a bunch of content on Instagram and Youtube, “and we had the VJ’s acting as special correspondents for ETalk.”
The future of the relaunched MuchMusic is not set in stone. Their goal has been to focus on the 13 to 20-year-old audience, so they will follow them wherever they go, Johnston said.
Screenshot taken from of Coi Leray’s appearance on Intimate and Interactive.
