And the Oscar Goes To . . . Real Time Advertising

By Molly Galler

March 5th, 2010

Any movie buff could tell you that the Academy Awards telecast is scheduled for this Sunday March 7^th. They have seen the nominated films, they have watched the awards shows all season, and they are eager to view the most coveted validation of film success – the awarding of the golden man we call Oscar.

What they might not know, is while they are surfing the web for real time updates, photos and behind the scenes videos, E! Entertainment and Google will be teaming up to capitalize on their interest with real-time updates to E’s internet advertising.

Emily Steel of the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, “If a celebrity makes a red-carpet appearance wearing outlandish attire or an award winner makes a newsworthy speech, E will alter its Oscars-related ads within minutes. The media company’s goal is to make sure consumers searching for the subject on the Web find their way to E’s online photo galleries, live blogs and fashion-police critiques.”

Suzanne Kolb, president of marketing, news and online for E! Entertainment, says “The live updates to search ads will help position our online coverage at the top of the Google search results for people seeking Academy Awards-related content,” and really, nothing beats landing at the top of the Google results.

Despite their strategic efforts to optimize results during the Oscar telecast, E! is not broadcasting the show, ABC is.  Not one to be outdone, ABC is turning to the web to take advantage of real time, web based interaction as well.

Steel reports, “New features this year on the Walt Disney network include tie-ins with microblogging site Twitter, interactive games and a live video stream from the red carpet, where hosts will interview nominees. Through a partnership with social-networking site Facebook, viewers will be able to submit questions live.”

While television spectacles like the NFL’s Super Bowl tend to attract major television advertising dollars, it seems the Oscars advertisers are more interested in the web.

If this trend continues, could we have commercial free awards show broadcasts in our future? A girl can dream.

Entry Filed under: Branding & Advertising,Facebook,Google,Mainstream Media,Social Media,Twitter