Hello, Gorgeous!

In less than 24 hours Oscar will  waltz into our lives again, and this year’s big winners will be the newest toast of the industry.

Filmmakers, actors and other industry insiders won’t be the only ones on edge tonight however.   Several advertisers have put millions of dollars on the line, hoping for a significant return from tonight’s big event.

WILL PEOPLE WATCH?

Several major advertisers have paid on average $1.5 million per 30-second spot to advertise on tonight’s telecast.    The price is roughly the same as what was paid to advertise on last year’s telecast—reflecting some skepticism regarding the likelihood that the Academy’s aggressive efforts to increase viewership and impact of the show will yield the hoped-for spike in Nielsen ratings. What has the Academy put into motion?

Structural Changes

• The number of Best Picture nominees  doubled, from 5 to 10, to increase the likelihood that blockbuster (or at least more populist) films would be nominated.

• Duo-hosts (Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin) coupled with new producers and others were hired to make the show more lively and entertaining.

Marketing Moves

• The telecast was given a new tagline: “You’ve Never Seen Oscar Like This.”

• A revamped website, Oscar.com, with more video, exclusive content from nominees, widgets for Oscar pools, and so on went live.

• An Oscars iPhone app (e.g., where fans can use it to see how their Oscar predictions stack up against others’) was released.

• Nominations were streamed live online for the first time at Oscars.org and on the Academy’s Facebook page, facebook.com/TheAcademy.

Keep in mind, even if viewership is flat with 2009 the Academy Awards remains one of the few marquee platforms for reaching a very large audience (with more than half being female).  And in addition to providing vast reach, the Academy Awards is a relatively-uncluttered environment.  On an hourly basis, advertising accounts for 8-10 minutes of air time each hour, compared with 13-14 minutes for the Super Bowl and 14-16 minutes for a typical hour of primetime network programming.

Nonetheless, it is in the Academy’s (and Oscar broadcaster ABC’s) best interest to juice viewership and set the stage for better pricing in 2011.  If the social media aspect of the Academy’s strategy works well, it will drive many more viewers to tune in, but will also enhance the experience and continue the conversation afterward.  Advertisers this year will be looking at both measures, as they increasingly include social media metrics in their post-hoc assessments of advertising in marquee settings such as the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

WHO IS ADVERTISING THIS YEAR?

Over the last ten years (2000-2009) slightly over two-thirds (67.3%) of the advertising revenue has come from five industries—financial services (18.9%), beverages (17.2%) automotive (14.8%), department stores (9.6%), and cosmetics & hair care (6.8%) according to Kanter Media.  While over that decade the core lineup of advertisers changed little, we did see a shake-up in 2009 as GM and L’Oreal dropped out completely to cut costs.  Hyundai took advantage of GM’s departure, and has been at the top of the leaderboard in both 2009 and 2010.

1. Hyundai – this year is the leader with 8 commercials (one during the red carpet walk, 7 during the show).  They’re spending about the same as what they spent on the Super Bowl…and counting on reaping the continued benefits of their multi-year marketing blitzkrieg.  One interesting aspect of Hyundai’s advertising tonight will be the absence of their standard voiceover spokesperson (Jeff Bridges).  Since he is nominated for an Academy Award, rules stipulate that he cannot be part of Hyundai’s advertising.  Instead, they are using a lineup of famous actors such as Kim Basinger, Richard Dreyfuss, David Duchovny, Catherine Keener, Michael Madsen, Mandy Patinkin and Martin Sheen.

2. Coca-Cola

3. Ameriprise

4. CBS Films

5. The Hershey Company

6. JCPenney (with a significant presence, 7 ads, all leaked ahead of time on their Facebook page)

7. Kimberly-Clark

8. McDonald’s

9. Microsoft

10. Church & Dwight’s OxiClean

11. Samsung

12. Summit Entertainment

13. Sprint

14. Walt Disney Pictures

WHAT TO WATCH FOR TONIGHT (besides Fashion Disasters)

1.    Will the broadcast be truly different—funnier, and more entertaining?

2.    Will Hyundai’s ads seem strange without the usual Jeff Bridges voiceover?

3.    Which advertisers will do the best job,  integrating with social media efforts?

4.    And of course!  THE drama of the evening – will James Cameron or his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, score bigger tonight???

JOIN THE DISCUSSION DURING TONIGHT’S TELECAST AT #OSCARADWATCH!

We will be tweeting with others on Twitter in real-time during the Oscars at #oscaradwatch, and hope many more will join us!  For those who still may be unfamiliar with TweetChats, here are the instructions you will need to participate.

(Note, I recommend doing this earlier, before the Oscars, so that you can get acquainted with the speed and general interface.  Particularly once the show begins things can move really fast and become hard to follow if one is inexperienced.)

1. You should use your Twitter login to log on to http://tweetchat.com/.

2. Enter #oscaradwatch into the search bar up at the top (i.e., in the box that follows the hashtag).

This will get you into the chat.  Then, Happy Tweeting!