Melodifestivalen – the annual Swedish Eurovision Song Contest – is watched by one third of the Swedish population. It’s one of the most covered media events of the year, dominating social media as well.

Telenor, a leading mobile carrier, was a main sponsor to this years’ contest. With the sponsorship, Telenor wanted to build the brand as a trustworthy provider of insights around how Swedish families use smartphones and tablets in front of the TV.

Taking inspiration from the artists’ exclusive space behind the scene, Green Room, we wanted to create something as exclusive for the media. Our solution became Telenor BlueRoom: a digital newsroom featuring real-time social media measuring and social media charts for the contests’ artists, songs, hosts, contest cities and much more. Only handpicked journalists, bloggers and key opinion leaders received personal accreditation to the site.

We knew covering the contest was hectic with tight deadlines, so the BlueRoom was designed so that anyone who wanted to grab information on-the-fly could download live charts and data – all ready to use. Over 350,000 tweets were used to create content in the Telenor BlueRoom. It resulted in over 120 media impacts in print, online and social media outlets.

Even the official Melodifestivalen site used Telenor’s content online. All in all, the total reach became over 45 million people, with an estimated earned media value of €1.000.000. Telenor showed they could deliver the best insights around families and their behaviour in front of the TV during the contest.

We started our work with the Telenor BlueRoom about two months before the contest started. The site was designed so that its users could grab everything they needed on-the-fly: charts and data were downloadable within a few clicks, all free to use.

We then identified the most important journalists/bloggers. We contacted every major news outlet in Sweden, making sure we had names and contact details for the people we wanted to target. In order to establish a personal connection, each journalist/blogger was contacted individually, and each one got a personal login to the site.

During Thursdays and Fridays we sent out the best insights from BlueRoom gathered during the week. Each Sunday (the day after the contests), a press release with the most interesting insights, trends and other highlights was dispatched.

Also, depending on what we saw was trending, we updated the charts to keep the service fresh and up-to-date.

- Over 120 media impacts in leading print, digital and social media outlets (an increase of 300% compared to the initial goal).

- 45 key journalists were accredited to the site, which resulted in stronger media relations for Telenor (an increase of 200% compared to the initial goal)

- The total reach of the campaign became over 45.000.000 people. There weren’t any set goals regarding reach, but since Sweden consists of approximately 9.5 million people, this number is pretty extraordinary.

- There were no goals set concerning earned media value. However, Sweden’s biggest independent market research firm has, based on the media impressions, estimated that the impact of the campaign had an earned media value of around €1.000.000.