VEVO: WHERE IT’S AT

Hard to believe, but this December will mark the third anniversary for the Rio Caraeff-helmed joint venture music entertainment site between majority owner UMG, Sony Music and the Abu Dhabi Media Group, currently available in U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and New Zealand.

VEVO SVP Programming, Talent & Content Operations Doug McVehil insists he doesn’t look at the original music video channel as a role model, even though he worked with them in his previous post as head of digital for Epic. “We look at how we need to grow, and a key piece to that is bringing value beyond the average music video to our user. We’re trying to tell stories with music at the core of everything we do.”

The company is now the #1 music platform in the U.S., according to comScore, generating between $150-200 million annually, according to sources. Since February, video views on the network are up 20% with clips per viewer up 40% and minutes viewed up 38%. Worldwide, VEVO delivers nearly 3.5 billion video views per month and 42 billion video views a year. More than 50,000 music videos, live concerts and original programming from over 11,000 artists are represented.

President/CEO Rio Caraeff is bullish on VEVO’s future: “We will relentlessly pursue our mission to connect every person on the planet who loves music to the highest-quality videos, live concerts and original music programming—through more platforms, and in more countries. We want to continually improve our product experience, grow our distribution and expand the breadth of our programming, whether through a deeper catalog of official music videos or through the creation of more VEVO-produced original entertainment programming. We listen very closely to our viewers and adapt and grow as needed to give them what they want, which is ultimately very good for artists and the industry overall.”

Since integrating with Facebook in March—a relationship which it has been rumored might supplant the one they have with Google’s YouTube—VEVO’s registered users are up 110%. More than 700 brand marketers are now partners, including American Express, AT&T, bing, HTC, McDonald’s, Starbucks and Starburst.

The VEVO platform now includes free mobile and tablet apps (iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7) and connected television (Xbox, Boxee, Google TV), while syndicating programming across the web to partner sites like AOL, BET, CBS Interactive Music Group (Last.fm, MP3.com), Fuse.tv, Univision, Viacom and Yahoo Music, among others.

“We’ve already made great strides in putting music video back on TV and letting a generation which hasn’t really experienced it to see them on the big screen,” says McVehil of the site’s future on the living room set. “We’re really focused on taking the VEVO experience to as many platforms as we can.”

VEVO just launched a “Certified” program to award those music videos reaching the 100 million views milestone, accompanied by specialized programming. The first batch from the initial 34 honorees includes Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, LMFAO and Selena Gomez.

“Reaching that threshold is a huge achievement that merits recognition,” says McVehil. “‘Certified’ was born to salute these artists and the most popular videos of all time in the same way audio releases are awarded for sales achievements.”

There are also a number of new original programming initiatives, including Sound + City, which uncovers the people, places and things that are currently influencing the music of a particular city.

Upcoming original series include Cover Stories and You Play Like a Girl, which premiere in July, joining current programming such as Go Shows, Area Codes and the fashion show Stylized. VEVO continues its live event partnerships with American Express and YouTube on American Express Unstaged, AOL Sessions and Live on Letterman.

VEVO’s ongoing “Lift” program, sponsored by McDonald’s, spotlights up-and-coming artists, including One Direction and Rita Ora, with the latest entry RCA act Walk the Moon. As an example, 54% of Walk the Moon’s “Ana Sun” video views (1.1m out of 2m total) came from someone clicking on a VEVO promotional placement pushing the band somewhere on the VEVO platform.

“We’re very happy with how people have reacted to it, and the way we’ve been able to make an impact on breaking acts over the past year,” says McVehil.

Another promotional initiative with UMe, “Watch and Win,” will feature three questions on vintage music videos, encouraging users to return to VEVO’s vast catalog for the correct answers to win iTunes gift cards.

“We already do a number of sweepstakes on a regular basis,” says McVehil. “Our social presence on Twitter and Facebook is a major focus for us to engage the audience on a daily basis, letting them know that there’s new content available. Music discovery is very much key to what we do. We’re taking what the users want in terms of a pull experience, and placing a major push around that.”