UPDATE, July 17: Read the full list of nominees and notable snubs.
Oh, snap! MTV will use its fairly new Snapchat account on Thursday to unveil this year's nominees for the Video Music Awards before they're announced anywhere else.
The nominations will appear in eight 10-second Snapchat videos starting at 9 a.m ET on Thursday, MTV told Mashable. They will feature Austin Mahone, Fifth Harmony and Becky G as well as stars from MTV shows in order to leverage their enormous fan bases.
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"We could have used one person to announce all of them but this is really going to buy us a lot of reach," Tom Fishman, vice president of content marketing and fan engagement, told Mashable. He added that the cameos will "excite great pockets of fandoms."
In the past, many fans have taken screenshots of MTV's snaps and shared them elsewhere. Teen Wolf's Tyler Posey, for example, will reveal the Video of the Year contenders. MTV hopes Teen Wolf fans, in turn, will discuss the VMAs on other social networks.
Last year, MTV announced the nominees via Instagram and Vine videos designed by Khoa Phan, a popular stop-motion animation creator. Here's one example from 2013:
This year, the eight Snapchat announcements will be available for MTV's 150,000 or so followers before the wider 10 a.m. reveal on other online platforms.
The Snapchat pieces will have a vibe similar to the way Snapchat videos normally look -- with the front-facing camera view, a.k.a. seflie style, of these previous creations on MTV's account, of which fans took screenshots and posted to Twitter:
Ahhhh my favorite screen shot from @MTV snapchat yet!!!! ❤️ @edsheeran pic.twitter.com/h5bw0ftcSz— Halle (@hallehemmings) June 12, 2014
bae on MTV snapchat story pic.twitter.com/mm3HILD8BX— rosie. (@ddlftbxtera) July 3, 2014
The VMA-related snaps will be viewable on MTV's Snapchat story for 24 hours.
Other celebrity guests who will appear in the Snapchat videos will be Awkward's Jillian Rose Reed, Girl Code's Carly Aquilino and Guy Code's Charlamagne Tha God.
When asked whether he thinks other awards shows will try similar nomination rollouts in the future, Fishman said, "We've seen a lot of flattery in the form of imitation in the past and we expect this to be no different."
Historically, major awards shows like the Oscars and Emmys have avoided moving to digital announcements, particularly with winners' envelopes staying in print rather than on tablets, even as new technologies and social media continue to digitally transform awards season around them. The partial reason? To avoid leaks and security breaches.
The Emmys, for example, recently revealed nominees on TV and in a live stream.
The VMAs will air live on Aug. 24 from inside the Forum in Inglewood, California.
BONUS: 22 Snaps That Feature Epic Emojis
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