2014 marks the first year of Telstra’s presenting sponsorship of the ARIA Awards and it signalled to the Australian music industry that Telstra is committed to connecting through music. The ARIAs are the flagship event of the Australian music calendar and a celebration of all that is great and popular in local music.

The very first ARIA Awards were held in 1987 at the Sheraton Wentworth Hotel in Sydney, recognising excellence and innovation across all genres of Australian music. Those very first ARIAs were hosted by Sir Elton John and winners included INXS, Crowded House and a young John Farnham. Since that time the ARIA Awards have developed into Australia’s pinnacle Awards ceremony, forging careers and playing host to countless memorable moments and performances.

As presenting partner, Telstra supported the event by delivering a curated digital experience that showcased the best behind-the-scenes moments from the 2014 ARIA Awards via a digital platform called Crash The ARIAs. It’s goal was too connect music fans to the glitz and glamour of the red carpet, exclusive backstage interviews and find rarely seen candid moments with the stars.

Crash The ARIAs platform delivered exclusive, shareable and relevant behind-the-scenes content from the event including The Red Carpet, a Telstra Connected Green Room interviews hosted by Scott Tweedie (co-host of Network TEN’s The Loop TV show. We featured galleries of the best images and videos from Twitter Mirror, Instagram’s InstaBooth and 360 Vines. Candid backstage moments including interviews from YouTube star Steph Micayle and special backstage cameras. We will also connected fans to some of their favourite performances from the night with a special multi-screen edit of selected performances.

Crash The ARIAs Social response lab was launched to enhance the social viewing experience of influential music fans, and surprise and delight some lucky fans on the red carpet with the last mosh pit tickets. we used paid media including display advertising on Take 40, Vevo and ARIA Charts, Radio & Search to bring in the audience. Telstra social channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telstra Exchange were used and during thew week our internal MEDIA assets including foyer screens and 400 George VM played music content.

Lastly Telstra partnered with Apple with an integration of iTunes and iTunes Radio content into Crash The ARIA’s that delivered an exclusive iTunes playlists curated by artists attending and performing at the ARIA Awards. Live performances from the ARIA Awards were immediately made available for download on iTunes post awards. An iTunes Radio brand sponsorship also delivered an ad-free radio experience for Telstra mobile and broadband customers.

There was a 600% increase in social conversation year-on-year around the ARIA key word. Over 3.3 million impressions across Twitter while the show was on-air which is 81% share of all TV-related Tweets on the night.

Check out the Twitter heat map to see the global reach of the #ARIAs http://trendsmap.com/v2/IP6J/w