Smooth move Samsung

I love the Oscars. I love Ellen DeGeneres. So I was in heaven Sunday night watching her host the Oscars on ABC. The glitz, the glamour, the tweeting! I couldn’t wait to log in to my Twitter account and help her break it by retweeting the “selfie” she arranged. It was so funny watching her try to fit all those stars into the shot. “I wish Bradley Cooper had longer arms,” she said as he maneuvered the smartphone into place. Later, she bought pizza for the house. Hilarious! There’s Brad Pitt throwing money into the hat for his share, and passing out paper plates so Meryl Streep wouldn’t get sauce on her ball gown.

Oscar night selfie by Ellen and company.

Turns out the “selfie” was not the spontaneous romp it appeared to be. Samsung paid Ellen to use their mobile phone. How was I was so easily duped? According to the Wall Street Journal, it was part of Samsung’s ad strategy. The company spent about $20 million on five minutes of ads to run during the TV breaks of the Oscars. They negotiated the product placement of the Galaxy Note 3 in Ellen’s hands during the broadcast. During rehearsals, Samsung execs trained Ellen how to use the Galaxy. She took several “selfies” during the show, and each was woven into her delivery like it was part of her comedy routine. I remember thinking that the phone she was using didn’t look like an iPhone (which she apparently was using backstage to do personal tweets), but it never occurred to me that the maker of the phone she used on camera was a sponsor of the broadcast.

Product placement isn’t new. It’s common to see in movies and TV shows. American Idol prominently features Coke products and Ford vehicles throughout the show and during commercial breaks. I give ABC credit for pulling it off so smoothly during the Oscars, although it didn’t go without a hitch. Remember the pizza I mentioned that Ellen ordered to be delivered to the Oscars? The boxes carried a Coca-Cola logo, even though Pepsi was an Oscar advertiser (Vranica, 2014).

References
Vranica, S. (2014, March 3) Behind the preplanned Oscar selfie: Samsung’s ad strategy.    Wall Street Journal.