Awards Season as it is known, runs annually between November and February and includes award ceremonies like the Grammy’s, Golden Globes and tonight…the 92nd annual Academy Awards. Oh, and although not a true “awards” show we may as well include Super Bowl Sunday in there too as all of these highly televised events attract companies to spend big bucks on commercial spots during these months.
The 92nd annual Academy Awards.
Each thirty-second spot during the Academy Awards earned ABC around $2.8 million this year, a bargain as compared to the $5.6 million commanded by Fox for the same amount of time during the Super Bowl. 102-million viewers worldwide tuned in to watch Super Bowl LIV through cable or streaming services, more than three times the number of viewers that tune in for the Academy Awards. However, the 30-million viewers watching the Oscars are spread amongst 225 countries as opposed to the 180 that received the Super Bowl broadcast which could mean a greater ROI for advertisers.
The four major sponsors of the Oscar’s ceremony this year are Cadillac, Google, Rolex and Verizon. Other brands buying time during the event include McDonald’s, Quibi, Postmates, Adobe, Colgate, M&M’s, Hulu, Turbo Tax, Microsoft, Heinz and Peroni. An interesting trend amongst the ads this year is the creation of commercials designed specifically for the event and target audience.
The four major sponsors of the 92nd annual Academy Awards.
Cadillac, which bought four minutes of airtime, will debut their new campaign “Make Your Way” and includes a spot specially created for actress Regina King to introduce the 2021 Cadillac Escalade during the broadcast.
Regina King for Cadillac.
McDonald’s will run two, thirty-second spots for its Quarter Pounder and is offering an Oscar special that will give you a free ten-piece Chicken McNuggets with your meal when you order $15 or more from Uber Eats during the ceremony.
M&M’s has designed several 15-second spots to run during the ceremony that will play as real time commentary to events that just happened in the show.
M&M’s Oscar campaign.
Heinz is offering free ketchup to fans who share Heinz ketchup film appearances on their social media pages.
Peroni is taking advantage of product placement at the event as well as running its commercials. Specially designed gold Peroni bottles, made to look like similar to Oscar statues will be placed at tables at the event with select influencers to be seen during the live telecast.
Special Oscar edition Peroni beer bottles.
After the last statue is handed out ABC stands to make in the ballpark of $149-million from ads that ran during the 210-minute ceremony. While Super Bowl ads reach far more people, Academy Awards ads reach more markets. So, in the end, if a brand had to choose which one is the better use of resources?
References
Brown, L. S. (2020, February 10). 2021 Cadillac Escalade Makes an Entrance in Oscars Commercials. Retrieved from https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a30837312/cadillac-escalade-oscars-academy-awards-commercial/
Cadillac Uses Oscars For Brand Effort, Spike Lee Unveils Escalade. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/346772/cadillac-uses-oscars-for-brand-effort-spike-lee-u.html
Staff., A. A. (2020, February 7). Oscars 2020: Here’s what brands have planned for Hollywood’s biggest night. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/oscars-2020-heres-what-brands-have-planned-hollywoods-biggest-night/2235356
Wohl, J. (2020, February 7). M&M’s creates in-the-moment commercials for the Oscars broadcast. Retrieved from https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/mms-creates-moment-commercials-oscars-broadcast/2235151?CSAuthResp=1::5268795:0:24:success:9F7623272C6874680BA01BE3399CE61D
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danafeldman/2020/02/04/oscars-2020-by-the-numbers/#37aa773f34ef
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