With the continued rise of various companies integrating social media into their marketing strategy, it wouldn’t be long before we saw award shows like the Oscars venturing in that direction. As the 82nd Annual Academy Awards approaches, the Academy is revamping and pursuing social media marketing strategies to attract younger viewers.
The last few telecasts have sunk to all-time lows in rating. Last year’s telecast was only 13% above 2008 and ranked as the third lowest-rated broadcast in the televised history of the Oscars. According to Andrew Hampp of Advertising Age, some thought that the nominated films were targeted towards the older, more sophisticated audience. Of course, all the blame can’t be put on just the nominated films. The Academy Awards are starting to realize that without the use of social media, they have yet to reach their full potential. In fact, the Academy has shown little to no online presence on Twitter, Facebook, and even its own website.
However, the Academy is going through a complete overhaul this year. The Academy hopes that this year’s nominees (like District 9, Avatar, and Up), media-friendly agency partners, and their aggressive social media strategies will attract a broader audience. There are both positive and negative reactions thus far, but the Academy is going to embrace it. Janet Weiss, the Academy’s director of marketing, hints that there will be many surprises to make for an entertaining show, thus the tagline, “You’ve never seen Oscar like this.”
Last week was the Oscars first jump into the pool of social media marketing: the Academy nominees were broadcasted through a live stream announcement on both their official webpage and Facebook page. The Oscars is also venturing into the mobile market with their Oscars iPhone app, due later this month. Included with the revamp are exclusive content, widgets, and behind-the-scene videos.
Though full social integration of Twitter and Facebook is unlikely to happen before the show airs in March, the Academy producers are hoping to integrate at least 50%. However, social media analysts are believe the Academy should walk before it runs into complete integration. Joseph Jaffe says,
“One of the biggest mistakes being made is this idea that leaning forward is better than leaning back,” he said. “All I can say is, it’s not too late for the Academy to achieve three goals with social media — one, to drive live tune-in; two, to enhance the experience; and three, continue the conversation afterward. It’s an elementary strategy, yet people are still neglecting the pre-, neglecting the post-, and butchering the during.”
With the recent success of the latest movies, Weiss hopes that both this and their social media strategy will have a halo effect on the awards.
“We believe the Oscars is about movies and watching movies in the theater. Our marketing campaign is going to seek to remind those moviegoers it’s for them. With this field of 10 nominees, we have such a broad range of films nominated in best picture category, we really hope there’s something for everybody this year.”
Written by Chris C.