Canvs Report: The 2020 Billboard Music Awards

Following a 5 month delay due to the pandemic, the 2020 Billboard Music Awards kicked off earlier this week to massive success. The awards were dominated by superstar performances from BTS, Alicia Keys, Bad Bunny, and many others, celebrity presenters such as Cher and Lilly Singh, and of course the award winners themselves. With such a massively star-studded night, we decided to take a closer look to see how the 2020 Billboard Music Awards compared to other top award shows of the year, what Emotional Reactions took place over the night, and what artists were able to drive the highest levels of engagement.

Although the audience shrunk year over year, fans were more engaged during the 2020 Billboard Music Awards

• The 2020 Billboard Music Awards is the third-highest performing award show of the year, behind only the MTV VMA’s and the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in Emotional Reactions within their respective airtimes
  • The 2020 Billboard Awards was also the third-highest performing award show of 2020 in Reaction Rate

Source: Canvs Explore, Top Award Shows of 2020 ranked by Emotional Reaction in Airtime window + / - 3 Hours

• Total Tweet volume decreased heavily from 2020 to 2019 for the Billboard music awards from 5.2M in 2019 to 1.8M in 2020, a decrease of 65%

• Emotional Reactions also decreased in 2020 from 1.9M in 2020 to 946K in 2020, a decrease of 51%
• Despite the lower performance in both Total Tweets and Emotional Reactions, the 2020 Billboard Awards increased in Reaction Rate in 2020 from 36% in 2019, to 51% in 2020, a 15% increase
  • Higher Reaction Rates indicate a more emotionally engaged audience year over year

Source: Canvs Compare, 2019 & 2020 Billboard Music Awards Airtime Window + / - 3 Hours

Fans were congratulating their favorite artists throughout the night, and excited for the performances

• Overwhelmingly, fans were extremely pleased with the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, with 99% of Emotional Reactions being positive, a trend that has held steady year over year
• The highest performing Emotional Reactions for the 2020 Billboard Awards were ‘congrats’ (36% of all Emotional Reactions), ‘excited’ (35% of all Emotional Reactions), and ‘love’ (19% of all Emotional Reactions)
  • Verbatims:
    • Congrats
      • “@bts_bighit AAAAAAA CONGRATS LEGENDS YOU DESERVED THIS!”
      • “Way to go Luke Combs, Post Malone, and Lauren Dangle on the Billboard Wins!!”
    • Excited
      • “@aliciakeys @BBMAs Can’t wait for one more historical performance! 🙃🎹”
      • “Kelly Clarkson gets me so hyped!!!! I love this woman so much!!!! @BBMAs @kellyclarkson #BBMAs”
    • Love
      • “Bad bunny won best Latin artist on billboard ayeee 🔥”
      • “Doja Cat’s outfit is EVERYTHING!!! #BBMAs”
• Total Tweet volume decreased heavily from 2020 to 2019 for the Billboard music awards from 5.2M in 2019 to 1.8M in 2020, a decrease of 65%

• Emotional Reactions also decreased in 2020 from 1.9M in 2020 to 946K in 2020, a decrease of 51%
• Despite the lower performance in both Total Tweets and Emotional Reactions, the 2020 Billboard Awards increased in Reaction Rate in 2020 from 36% in 2019, to 51% in 2020, a 15% increase
  • Higher Reaction Rates indicate a more emotionally engaged audience year over year

Source: Canvs Compare, 2020 Billboard Music Awards Airtime Window + / - 3 Hours

The BTS Army drove massive rates of engagement, and fans were showing love to Doja Cat, Post Malone and Bad Bunny

• Beyond winning the Social Artist of the Year, BTS was the largest driver of Emotional Reactions at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards, with over 85% of Emotional Reactions showing ‘excitement’, 7% showing ‘love’, and 4% showing ‘congrats’
  • Testimonials:
    • “BTS TAKING THAT TOP SONG SALES ARTIST NEXT YEAR OMG 👀”
    • “@BBMAs @BTS_twt BTS LEGENDS BTS WORLD DOMINATION BTS EVERYTHING 🔥😌✨”
• NBC was also able to draw virtually 100% positive Emotional Reactions, with most of the audience expressing excitement for the awards
  • Testimonials:
    • “DON’T MISS THE BILLBOARD AWARDS TONIGHT!!️#BBMAs on NBC”
    • “@kellyclarkson @BBMAs @nbc Can't wait to see it, set the DVR just in case I catch a run since I'm at work.”
• Other top artist drivers for the 2020 Billboard Music Awards include Doja Cat (.8%), Post Malone (.6%), and Bad Bunny (.5%)
  • Testimonials:
    • Doja Cat: “@DojaCat is the greatest performer !!! She give us a whole show”
    • Post Malone: “POST MALONE WITH THE RED SOLO CUP IS ICONIC”
    • Bad Bunny: “Ignorantes by Bad Bunny hit different when you remember the good old days”

Source: Canvs, Top Emotional Drivers for the 2020 Billboard Music Awards Airtime Window + / - 3 Hours

Takeaways

• The 2020 Billboard Music Awards were able to drive massive levels of Emotional Reactions, and despite falling year over year, fans were much more heavily engaged with this year’s awards
• Most engagement around the award show involved fans reaching out to share congratulations to their favorite artists and express excitement about the performances
• The BTS Army was able to drive extremely high levels of engagement, with fans expressing love towards Doja Cat, Post Malone, and Bad Bunny as well

Canvs, the leading emotion measurement technology company, connects consumer input to research insights with patented semantic AI technology to help companies deeply understand and empathize with their audiences

Interested in learning more about what fans think of your shows, advertisements or brand campaigns? Get in touch with us today!