BRIT Awards revealed as biggest digital show in event's history

The BRIT Awards 2015 was the biggest digital show in the event’s history, according to data unveiled today.

The Mastercard-sponsored event saw a huge increase in numbers across social media – based on figures which follow hot on the heels of powerful post event music sales too.

A total of 7.8m global tweets were posted about the show on the night, compared to 4m in 2014 (an increase of 95%), driven by chatter about artists including Madonna, Kanye West, One Direction, Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran.

The numbers were also boosted by the British Artist Video of the Year, which was decided by a live social vote during the show for the second year in succession. The hashtag associated with the award was used 5m times, 150% up on the 2m uses in 2014.

In addition, 24m-plus music fans have watched content (a combination of live views and VODs) on the official BRITs YouTube channel over the past 90 days. Views peaked during the show when One Direction were announced as British Artist Video of the Year winner. The live show was most popular worldwide in the US, followed by Poland, Brazil, Germany and Mexico.

Other BRIT Awards social stats (up to 27 February 2015) include:

• Reach of 15m on the BRIT Awards Facebook page
• 1.53m followers across all social channels
• 30% increase in followers across all key platforms since November 2014
• 5m uses of the hashtag associated with the social vote for British Artist Video of the Year– won by One Direction
• 11.1m uses of the 10 hashtags for the social vote in the knockout phase (15th January-20th February)
• 150,000 extra followers to the @BRITaward Twitter account from launch show to date (up 20% compared to the same period last year)
• More than 24m watching BRITs content on the official YouTube channel over 90 days
• 8.2m views on the BRIT Awards YouTube channel between 25 February - 1 March 2015 - including 2.2m views to date of Taylor Swift’s opening performance of Blank Space

Terrestrial TV audiences also saw a jump in 2015 - viewing on the night peaked at 6.8 million, settling at an average of 5.8 million viewers across the ITV show.

Click image to view full interactive infogrpahic

Release of the stats follow a powerful Brits sales week, with the Top 5 positions in Sunday’s Official Albums Chart all taken up by BRIT Awards performers - Sam Smith’s album sales up 121%, Ed Sheeran’s X up 18%, Royal Blood’s up 451% and Paloma Faith’s up 368%.

BRITs Committee chairman Max Lousada says, "The audience engaging with this year’s BRITs show is bigger than ever, which is a great reflection of the excitement surrounding British music right now, as well as the popularity of the artists who featured on the night.

“The fact that so many of them went on to occupy top spots in the charts this week as well as creating such widespread commentary and conversation shows the BRITs continues to be the UK’s most important showcase for outstanding music talent and an important fixture in the global entertainment calendar."

BPI and BRIT Awards Chief Executive Geoff Taylor adds, “This year’s spectacular BRITs not only captured the palpable mood of optimism surrounding British music following an exceptional 12 months by our home-grown talent, it also gave more fans here and around the world the chance to engage with the awards than ever before.  At peak, 6.8 million viewers tuned in to ITV to enjoy the live performances, while a staggering 7.8 million tweets were posted - almost double year on year - helping to make the BRIT Awards 2015 the biggest digital show ever.”


 Image: JMEnternational