The BRIT Awards with Mastercard today highlight the strong engagement across digital and TV following its first-ever Saturday night show which took place last week, with the highest share of 16-34 year olds in over ten years for the ITV1 broadcast.
The show broadcast on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK from The O2 arena in London on 11th February hosted by Mo Gilligan and featuring exclusive performances from Cat Burns, David Guetta & Becky Hill & Ella Henderson & Sam Ryder, Harry Styles, Lewis Capaldi, Lizzo, Sam Smith & Kim Petras, Stormzy and Wet Leg, with winners including Harry Styles, Wet Leg and Beyoncé.
Viewing figures for the ITV1 broadcast peaked at just under 4 million on the night - the highest figure in three years - with 54% share of 16-34 year olds, the highest in a decade, and over 1.2million streams achieved to date on ITVX. The individual audience share, at 25.7%, was the highest in over five years.
YouTube Music were the Official Digital Music Partner once again and brought fans closer to the BRITs than ever before: from #BRITsUnseen, YouTube’s campaign took fans on a journey to the BRITs through exclusive content with 2023 nominees and winners FLO, Sam Smith and Wet Leg, alongside a bespoke YouTube Shorts red carpet moment on the night hosted by Amelia Dimoldenberg who was joined by Unknown Vlogs for coverage across The O2 arena. YouTube also hosted the livestream of the BRITs for non-UK viewers for the tenth year.
The BRITs YouTube channel has seen over 5 million views so far following the awards, with 69% of the viewers consuming the content under the age of 34. Performances and highlights from the show are now available on the BRITs’ official YouTube channel, with 29 million views across all performances achieved to date and with Sam Smith and Kim Petras (10.4 million on TikTok) and Harry Styles (6.4 million on TikTok) performances gaining the most views overall.
Ahead of the show, the BRITs Red Carpet Live Stream was hosted on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter with highlights across Instagram and TikTok, which saw presenters Nella Rose and Michelle Visage interviewing nominees, performers and guest presenters as they arrived on the night, resulting in 453K views. Radio 1 presenter Jack Saunders also returned on the night of the Awards, hosting a backstage area bringing fans all the latest gossip and news with Sam Ryder, Ella Henderson and exclusive interviews with winners including Wet Leg, Becky Hill, Aitch and Fontaines D.C.
On the day the BRITs content received over 75 million video views across all social platforms. Content published with the #BRITs hashtag on TikTok has had a massive 1 Billion total views to date. The BRITs for the second year partnered with TikTok to power the public vote for the four new genre categories, which saw millions of votes cast in the two-week voting period.
It had already been a significant campaign for BRITs digital ahead of the main event, with official BRITs YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter accounts being home to the nominations live stream in January, which saw over 1 million viewers watch Vick Hope announce the 2023 nominations, along with help from Jack Saunders and an influencer fronted campaign featuring Tom Daley, Jack Saunders, Yung Filly, Jill Scott and Joe Baggs, alongside his brother George Baggs.
The BRITs were also introduced to the youngest audiences through a curated playlist on YouTube Kids, put together by three-time nominee Cat Burns. Vevo also provided editorial support across their connected TV partners, and performances from the Awards are now viewable across the Outernet complex in central London following the show.
The night saw 500 BRITs Parties in homes across the country, thanks to Come Round, the marketing agency dedicated to harnessing the power of real people going about their everyday lives recommending the products and services they genuinely love.
For the first time, fans at home were able to get involved with the Awards through fan engagement platform Filmily, which saw user-generated content integrated into BRITs social media activity.
On the midweek Official Albums Chart, the winner of Mastercard Album of the Year, Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, has moved up to No. 3 from No. 6, with total chart sales (i.e. combination of purchasing and album streams) up 68.1%. His first two albums also see gains; Fine Line up by 28.7% from 31 to 22, and Harry Styles moving from 111 to 73, an increase of 32.9%. ’As It Was’ – winner of Song of the Year with Mastercard - has moved up to No. 18 from No. 34 in the midweek Official Singles Chart on the back of a 43.4% increase in consumption.
Wet Leg - who won two BRIT awards for Group of the Year and Best New Artist - also saw a significant increase in sales. Their debut eponymous album has seen an increase of 164.6%, going from 112 to just outside of the Top 20 at 21, with single ‘Chaise Longue’ new at 74 on the midweek Official Singles Chart, an uplift of +110.3%.
Other winners and performers to see increases include: Lizzo, whose album Special is in the midweeks at No. 74 having not been placed in last week’s top 200; Becky Hill, whose midweek position for Only On The Weekend is 51 up from 58; and three-time nominee Cat Burns who sees her hit single ‘Go’ increase by 32.8% moving from 88 to 63.
The BRIT Awards 2023 was led by Chair of the BRITs Committee, Damian Christian, Managing Director and President of Promotions, Atlantic Records (Part of Warner Music UK), and the digital campaign was led by Anya DuSauzay, Head of Marketing at Parlophone Records and BPI Director of Digital Giuseppe De Cristofano who jointly co-chair The BRIT Awards 2023 Digital Committee, working with content agency Somethin’ Else Creative Studio led by Executive Producer Darren Struwig.
Damian Christian, Chair of the 2023 BRITs Committee: “We’re delighted to see such amazing engagement and viewing figures from this year’s BRITs. To grow a live TV audience in today’s world is a tough ask - but the move to a Saturday night, along with our social and digital engagement, has meant we’ve been able to tap into a new audience and grow our viewership. Our aim from the start was to showcase incredible British talent to as many people as possible and I’m so pleased to see such a big audience tuned in and enjoyed the show. The BRITs remains an important night for the music industry and such a big part of British culture.”
Sophie Jones, BPI Chief Strategy Officer and Interim CEO: “The innovations we have introduced in the past few years mean the BRIT Awards with Mastercard are now a truly multi-platform event, and with billions of impressions across the BRITs digital channels and conversations for this year’s show pointing to a rise in younger followers as well as an increasingly global audience, and an ITV audience of just under 4 million at peak the highest in three years, we can rightly feel encouraged that The BRITs remain as relevant and engaging as ever as the ultimate showcase for British music and new talent.”
Giuseppe De Cristofano, BPI Director of Digital said: “I am delighted with the results from this year’s social campaign. We continue to strive to bring fans closer to the BRITs and the artists they love, we continue to see remarkable growth in engagement across our social output. I’d like to thank my BRITs Digital Committee co-chair Anya Du Sauzay for her incredible work in leading and shaping this year’s BRITs campaign, along with the team at Somethin’ Else Creative Studios for executing it so well.”
Anya DuSauzay, Head of Marketing, Parlophone Records said: “The post show results really speak for themselves and are a testament to the hard work and passion of the incredible team at the BPI and Somethin’ Else Creative Studios. They continue to push the boundaries of social content strategy, creator and talent collaboration and truly understanding how to speak to a music fan. It was an absolute pleasure to have been part of this year’s BRITs campaign.”
The 2023 ceremony marked 30 years of ITV as broadcast partner, 25 years of Mastercard as headline sponsor and 13 years with the show held at The O2 arena. All three long-standing partners have supported The BRITs’ ambition to host an unforgettable and far-reaching evening of live music and entertainment that, additionally, helps raise money for The BRIT Trust, the charitable arm of the awards, who distribute funds to charities that promote education and well-being through music, including The BRIT School and Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy.
Mastercard returned as headline partner of The BRIT Awards for the 25th year, bringing cardholders closer to their passion for music through a range of BRITs experiences. This year, Mastercard continued to partner with The BRIT School to celebrate and give a platform to the next generation of creative talent and once again sponsored the much sought after Mastercard Album of the Year award, as well as Song of the Year with Mastercard.
YouTube Music was the Official Digital Music Partner and brought fans closer to the BRITs than ever before. As the home of the official livestream on YouTube, audiences around the world were able to watch the whole journey of the BRITs unfold, from the nominations, through the run-up, to the awards themselves and will be able to watch the performances back on demand. Fans were also able to watch exclusive behind-the-scenes footage on the night on YouTube Shorts, a short-form video experience right on YouTube, as well as listen to their favourite artists' playlists on YouTube Music.
