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How harnessing technology at speed is creating an engaging fan experience

In just eight weeks, EY and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame created a digital platform to capture the votes of millions of fans.
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Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora perform at the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee ceremony
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The better the question

How do you put the rock and roll into voting?

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame needed a world-class solution to engage the global fan base of potential new inductees.

Jon Bon Jovi & Richie Sambora perform at the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee ceremony. Photo credit: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Rock Hall) is one of the best-known institutions in music, and for a prized few, being inducted to the Hall of Fame is the pinnacle of a music career.

How EY can Help

Inductees for the Hall of Fame are selected every year, with nominees announced in October. From that announcement, millions of passionate fans get to take part in the selection process by submitting a fan vote for their favorite artist before inductees are announced in January. The Induction Ceremony normally held in April, a celebration of each year’s new inductees, is Rock Hall’s highest profile event. Due to COVID-19, the ceremony will be held this year on 7 November 2020.

 

With only eight weeks until the start of the vote, Rock Hall needed to build a new digital platform to facilitate the vote and give as many fans as possible the chance to get involved.

 

Rock Hall needed a solution that provided a simple user experience for fans, combined with the capability to verify each vote and manage huge spikes in voter traffic.

 

With a high-stakes, fast turn-around project, Rock Hall trusted our ability to have the right diversity of skill and the capacity to deliver in such a short time frame.

EY had a clear plan and were able to assign a lot of resources to the Fan Vote digital project. They were accessible nights and weekends as the deadline approached.

Tim Parnin

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame VP of Digital Technology

Business woman having a video call with coworker using a digital tablet, while working from home
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The better the answer

A cloud-based solution that scales to meet demand

EY supported Rock Hall in designing a seamless user experience that’s built to last.

Designing the solution

EY brought together specialized talent from across the firm – including user designers, developers, cloud architects, and cyber experts – to work with Rock Hall in developing a world class solution.

Creating an engaging experience for fans

As one of the most prominent touch points of the Rock Hall brand, it was vital that the user experience be world-class. The EY team designed the functionality to work seamlessly across multiple devices and browsers, giving fans the opportunity to vote by tablet, desktop, or mobile. We also refined the user journey by asking fans to vote before completing their personal profile to minimize drop-off.  Once the vote was submitted, fans were taken to a real-time interactive leader board and by integrating with social media platforms, fans were able to share their vote and build support for their favorite artist.

Verifying each vote

Sometimes, a very passionate fan may try and rig the vote by setting up a bot to vote for their favorite artist over and over again. To tackle the challenge of verifying that each vote was genuine, EY designed email authentication, checked all emails against known blacklists and automatically flagged suspicious votes.

Managing big spikes in voter traffic

Fan vote traffic varies significantly. At the opening of the vote, Rock Hall’s promotion drives huge spikes. While this is foreseeable, Rock Hall can’t predict when the nominees themselves might encourage their fans to vote via their own social media – creating large, unforeseen spikes in traffic. To manage this fluctuating load, EY built the digital platform as a cloud-based solution with servers automatically made available when needed. By only using additional servers when necessary, Rock Hall was able to save on hosting costs with a solution that could be used for future years.

We built a stateless system that was built for durability, that would not only meet the needs of the 2020 vote, but be the platform they could use going forward.

Bob Rullo

EY Design Studio Chief Architect

Expanding access through partners

To further expand the reach of the vote, Rock Hall partnered with a leading search partner to embed the fan vote within the search results page – enabling a quick and seamless process for fans to register their support without ever having to leave the search environment. EY and Rock Hall built an integration that fetched the vote data and aggregated it in real time to keep the leaderboard fully accurate. 

Top view mockup image of a woman holding a black mobile phone with blank screen in cafe
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The better the world works

A digital platform that delivers value – for fans and business

Rock Hall fans get closer to the artists they love at the induction ceremony and beyond.

Designed with fans at the center, EY created a platform where fans could celebrate the artists they love via a simple and engaging experience.

Bringing cloud expertise and data knowledge from the financial services and applying it to a solution in entertainment, EY was able to roll out a fully tested platform, nationwide, in just eight weeks from the project start.

Increase in fans voting
Expanding the vote from 3 million to 8 million.

Overall, Rock Hall expanded the reach of the vote from 3 million to 8 million fans, building passion and excitement among fans in the lead up to the induction ceremony. What’s more, Rock Hall can now build an engaged audience that goes beyond one annual interaction by leveraging the verified emails from the vote for all future marketing campaigns.

Fame and red carpets seem worlds away from the lives of many, but with Rock Hall’s world-leading voting platform fans now have a chance to engage first-hand with one of the biggest events in entertainment. By harnessing cloud solutions and integrating directly with social and search, Rock Hall and EY created an accessible platform that built excitement and support around Rock Hall’s own brand, and the artists it celebrates.

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