MTV - COVID Strategic Learning - Alone Together
(Ed: Please review the following strategic lessons learned and shared by MTV from its Alone Together initiative. If you have questions or observations please share by email reply or on the platform. Thank you.)
Learnings from MTV Shuga: Alone Together:
70 daily scripted episodes filmed during the global lockdown in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, Botswana and the U.S to highlight global health messaging about Covid-19 (handwashing, social distancing, quarantining, ever-changing lockdown rules) as well as the more nuanced side of lockdown: mental health, increased GBV, misinformation etc. Distributed digitally (YouTube, Facebook, Instastories and to be broadcast on terrestrial tv channels from October) with a reach of over 9 million to date. Partnered with Facebook on expanding our audience, and polling (13% of random FB audience polled in Nigeria & South Africa had watched Alone Together, and of those 89% said that they'd learned something about Covid-19 from the show.
Lessons learned (in no particular order!):
The challenge of being editorially current and working within realistic production times.
The importance of 'leaning in' fully to digital. Airing on digital first (rather than broadcast)gave us the opportunity to review the data in real-time and adapt, e.g. audiences were switching off with a long title sequence so we cut it down to 3 seconds, regularly changing it, highlighting a 'coming up' in the episode, and getting as quickly into the story as possible.
The importance of balancing localised audience interests within a property which is international in scope – remembering that representation matters.
We had to invent an entirely new way of working – for everyone, and particularly for our cast. Our cast had to open up their homes and their wardrobes to our producers on zoom; they had to be their own make-up, sound, camera, cheer leader! So understanding the pressure we were putting on the cast was important – we had to ensure that we briefed them early, gave them scripts 'early' (scripts were written 10 days before premiere, so there was very little time), and supported them where needed (especially those carrying the difficult messages of gbv, and death).
Embracing variety in the story – don't forget to entertain your audience, have larger than life characters, characters that make mistakes – all the while, keeping our Theory of Change top of mind.
Champion quality – innovate to pursue highest production quality even when budget is tight – don't accept that poor internet is the only way you get your content in time – push to use the best quality device you can get to your cast, get dongles to your cast, ring lights, (within budget obvs)...
... but the quality of production (TV content vs digitally-generated content) definitely impacts on how much people engage with us on social media.
Short-form content as storytelling is powerful but perhaps felt more didactic than the longer made-for-tv episodes where messages are given more of a chance to breathe.
Content is King. Data is Queen. The Queen rules the house. (Data was an overall challenge for engaging, production, uploading and I imagine for our viewers as well).
It's amazing what you can do given 1/5 of our usual budget and 1/10 of the time to produce the content. Alone Together has shown us what we can do along the entire spectrum of content-making that we wouldn't necessarily have been brave enough to try if circumstances (Covid!) hadn't forced us to.
Despite Alone Together being different from all the other MTV Shuga's ever shot; the numbers, strong comments & engagement do show that the impact was still powerful (especially from our female fanbase). We touched lives, comforted souls and had our #ShugaFam laughing and crying with us all the way until the end and that makes us proud of all the collective work we put into the show.
Georgia Arnold
Executive Director, MTV Staying Alive Foundation
Senior Vice President, Social Responsibility, ViacomCBS Networks International
Comments
Guinea pigs for a vaccine
As the world braces for the Covid-19 vaccines, it is interesting to see how this powerful short form storytelling can contribute in getting communities, especially young people, ready and willing to participate in vaccine trials and uptake of the Covid-19 vaccines, especially also given the level of distrust and misinformation already doing the rounds. This is more critical in Africa, where Africans perceive themselves as "guinea pigs" for a vaccine they don't need as much as the West and probably won't have access to given the worldwide demand and cost.
Looking forward to this engagement
MTV - COVID Strategic Learning - Alone Together
The COVID-19 Communication and Community Engagement HUB
The Network for Shared Knowledge and Active Dialogue in Support of Effective COVID-19 Action
Great
Ah that's great! Thanks for sharing!
Présentation du Kit de communication de l'OOAS
Hi Georgia,
We are going to release a communication kit on Covid-19 for Africa that includes 3 animated videos, 3 ITW videos, billboard posters, posters, etc., in French, English and Portuguese. You will find below an invitation to the French presentation of it. We will also set up an English one in the coming days.
Best regards,
Bernard Seytre
Question - Theory of Change
Responds to: Learnings from MTV Shuga: Alone Together from Georgia Arnold
If you wouldn't mind, are you able to share what theory of change you used? The target age group of the majority of your content? The average age or age group of your actors in the videos? Thank you!
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