The Academy Awards are over. The winners have given their speeches and been celebrated; the losers tried not to look too disappointed.
Each year millions of dollars is spent on the event that is the Academy Awards in both advertising and sponsorship. So, behind all the glitz and glamour, what are the Oscars really about?
Of course, the aim is to reward the best in the film industry for the previous year, as voted by the Academy. But, from a business perspective, it is all about marketing, and particularly branding.
Basically, the Oscars can be extremely valuable for brand awareness, as well as brand association – linking a brand to famous (or infamous) fashionable people. Let’s look at what happens in terms of Film, Fans, Fashion and, more recently, Freebies.
Film
The Academy Awards are given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so ideally the Oscars should be all about the films. This year films such as The Revenant, Spotlight, Room, The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road were nominated, providing vital publicity and generating positive word of mouth. This can be extremely valuable to smaller films like Room and Trumbo.
According to one study, a Best Picture award can add tens of millions of dollars to a film’s box office receipts, while a Best Director award can add $11 million in revenue. Best Actress is worth $2.3 million but Best Actor is worth just over $1 million. It can also add publicity to boost DVD sales, online downloads and television rights.
Fans
The Academy Awards are the Superbowl of the film industry. It is a multibillion-dollar industry and movie lovers and celebrity spotters keep a keen eye on the winners and losers of the precious golden statuettes, and which film they should see.
As for the TV coverage, the number of viewers has been increasing in the past few years, which means the higher the viewers the more advertisers will pay for advertising space. Last year in the US there were more than 43 million viewers, with a 30-second advertisement reportedly costing $1.8 million to $2 million.
Fashion
It is probably the most asked question on the red carpet: “Who are you wearing?” – at least the one female celebrities are most frequently asked, much to their growing annoyance [see video[.
However, the fashion has become an integral part of this and other Awards shows, such as the Golden Globes, Emmys and Logies. There are regular critiques on and off the red carpet which discuss the hits and misses. For designers this can be a perfect time to get their gown and brand name in front of millions of viewers at a relatively low cost.
Freebies
An aspect of the Academy Awards that is gaining more interest is the nominees gift bag. At a time when the economy is tightening and paid advertising is losing some of its appeal, companies are offering the mega-rich celebrities “freebies” in official and unofficial gift bags in a hope to gain some publicity from “reflected” star power endorsements.
For the last 14 years LA company Distinctive Assets www.distinctiveassets.com has been organising its ‘Everyone Wins’ gift bags. While it has no affiliation with the Academy, the gift bags are given to all of the losing nominees in the acting and director categories as well as presenters at the Oscars.
Over the years the gift bags have grown in popularity, value and publicity generation. This year it is reported that the total value of the bag is $US232,000 with goods.
So what was in this year’s gift bag? There was clothing, jewellery, food, travel and pampering, including a 10-day first class trip with Explore Israel ($55,000); 15-day walking tour of Japan ($54,000); a year’s worth of unlimited Audi car rental from Silvercar ($45,000); meal donation to an animal shelter or rescue group from Halo Natural Pet Food ($6,300); Vampire Breast Lift ($1,900); Joseph’s Toiletries toilet paper ($275), and Hydroxycut Gummies ($19.88).
While it’s doubtful the celebrities would put their names behind all of these gifts, having them in a gift bag can still associate the brand name with the rich and famous.
So while there can only be one winner in each Oscar category, there are many winners on the day – including branding.
This article first appeared on Mumbrella.