Over the past few years, big-ticket events, including the Oscars, from across the Atlantic have become landmarks in advertising calendars the world over.
They have evolved from high profile cultural moments to events that hold a global currency.
As their reach has increased, advertising revenues have rocketed year on year, and 2016 has been no exception.
The average 30-second TV spot at the Oscars was valued at an estimated $2m and total adspend for the 2015 ceremony was valued at $110 million, an increase of more than 50% over 5 years.
The social factor
The campaigns may be TV led, but smart brands no longer treat media channels in isolation, and social platforms now play a key role in driving engagement. Increasingly, marketers are amplifying their TV presence with social activity; sharing owned content on social channels to drive second screen interaction amongst target audiences.
Social platforms, and in particular Twitter, allow brands to tap into an engaged and highly responsive audience across devices. And of course social media has the advantage of reaching across geographical and cultural barriers.
During this year’s Oscars ceremony there were more than 196,000 related tweets from a UK audience of over 358,000 users, driving 8.6m total impressions.
Almost 4,000 of these Tweets came during the single minute when Leonardo Di Caprio received the highly anticipated Best Actor award.
As the figures demonstrate, the active audience here is huge, meaning opportunities for brands to engage are almost exponential. Last year as part of Dove’s #SpeakBeautiful campaign, a 30 second spot which aired during the Oscars’ Red Capet coverage drove more than 26,000 Twitter interactions.
During the same ceremony, Cadillac launched its ‘Dare Greatly’ campaign on social simultaneously with the first TV ad going live – generating more than 10,000 Facebook and Twitter interactions during the awards broadcast alone.
The multichannel approach
These events act as a demonstration of how the media industry is adapting; the boundaries between different channels are blurring, and the rise of multi-screening means advertisers can no longer afford to treat different platforms in isolation.
It has never been more important than it is now for advertisers to consider holistic, multi-faceted campaigns that tap into heightened consumer interest to reach that highly engaged audience across multiple connected devices.
It’s true that most marketers can only dream about holding the kind of budget required to advertise at the Oscars or Super Bowl, and below are my three top tips for marketers:
- Remember the importance of a holistic approach to planning
Brands should be incorporating cross-device strategies into all campaigns
- Capitalise on the big-ticket opportunities or ‘appointments to view’
Social platforms are the perfect opportunity for brands to piggy-back on consumer interest surrounding global cultural events. It may never produce the same exposure as sponsorship or an advertising slot, but it’s a valuable chance to play in the same arena as the biggest brands.
- Prioritise hybrid measurement
As it becomes standard for campaigns to incorporate a cross device element, remember that measurement must reflect the change in delivery and greater demands for accountability for each platform’s performance.
