Following last week’s much anticipated and talked about nominations launch, the BRIT Awards with MasterCard website has seen record numbers of visitors as music fans log on to http://www.brits.co.uk to find out the latest news and information about next month’s ceremony.
The brand new website, which featured exclusive video content from backstage on the night the nominations were announced, saw more visitors than ever before in the days following the nominations launch.
Daily traffic to the site since the nominations were revealed has consistently been more than double the corresponding day of last year while the average time spent on the website has also increased by around 50% since last year. The volume of traffic was so unprecedented at one point that the site temporarily went down while emergency servers were brought in to cope with the demand. The unprecedented numbers were reflected on Twitter where followers of the official BRIT Awards feed increased by 50% on the Nominations Launch Day.
Nomination voting this year is also available via the first ever BRITs iPhone app. The BRIT Award 2012 with MasterCard app, which is available as a free download from Apple’s App Store, features news updates and competitions and will also allow fans to vote directly for the three award categories voted for by the public, namely British Single, British Group and British Breakthrough Act. Mobile users will also be able to view photos from the event and buy their favourite performance directly from iTunes after the show.
The app was downloaded over 12,000 times in the first week, with approximately 95% of people voting via their phone. News and updates on this year’s event are also now reaching over 1 million people via Facebook.
The BRITs website is hosted and supported by Acquia, whose cloud infrastructure enables clients to rapidly scale their web sites in response to surges in site traffic. As Jim Shaw, VP of Europe at Acquia, explains: “The BRIT Awards site is an excellent resource for music fans – providing dynamic up to the minute news, nominee and ticket updates, video galleries and the chance to vote for their favourite artists online. We are delighted that Acquia’s Managed Cloud was able to support the exceptional growth in visitors and enhance their online experience.”
Content creation agency Somethin' Else took over running BRITs' digital this year. The team is responsible for the site redesign, the content strategy and production as well as managing the BRITs social media accounts. Michelle Feuerlicht, Executive Producer at Somethin' Else said:
"When we started running the BRITs' site and social media, we said we wanted to give the BRITs a digital personality and make it the centre of the online conversation around the awards. We're delighted to see this strategy has paid off, with a doubling of daily traffic to the site and social media accounts year-on-year."
The BRIT Awards with MasterCard will take place on 21st February at The O2. Fans can vote directly on the BRITs website or via the official mobile app for the three awards voted for by the public, namely British Single, British Group and British Breakthrough Act.
The full nominations can be seen on http://www.brits.co.uk
To download the BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard app go to http://www.itunes.com/brits
The Awards will be broadcast live on ITV 1 on the 21st February.
Emeli Sande's performance from the Nominations Launch can be seen below:
