Even without a record-breaking film like Titanic to boost ticket sales, last year’s domestic box office receipts were the highest in movie history. For that reason, Marv Goldsmith, president of sales and marketing for the ABC Television Network, is predicting strong viewer turnout for the 72nd Annual Academy Awards, which is set to air on March 26. "There seems to be a lot of buzz around it this year," Goldsmith said.
The show’s sponsors—which include American Express, AT&T, Blockbuster, The Gap, Kodak, General Motors, McDonald’s, Motorola, New York Life, Pepsi, Sony and Visa—are betting on it. Industry sources peg 30 seconds of airtime during the telecast as costing in the $1.3 million range, up from about $1 million last year. Such advertisers as American Express, The Gap, New York Life and Pepsi are using the event—which typically ranks second only to the Super Bowl in terms of viewer turnout—to launch new campaigns.
According to ABC, the ’99 telecast drew 77.5 million Americans, while in ’98—the year of Titanic—86.3 million tuned in. "I have a feeling we’re going to be approaching ninety-million viewers this year," Goldsmith said, citing the box office record, the glamour quotient and a "changing of the guard"—the fact that many young, up-and-coming actors copped nominations this year.
The Super Bowl typically attracts about 130 million viewers and skews towards men, whereas the dominant Oscar demographic is women.
Nor are dot-coms expected to storm the telecast as they did during this year’s Super Bowl. That’s partly because Oscar sponsors are given first dibs for ad time the following year. While the same policy holds true for the Super Bowl, that event travels among networks, while ABC has been broadcasting the Oscars annually since ’76. The end result seems to be that Oscar sponsors renew year after year. Amex, for instance, has been a regular since ’93.
Like the Super Bowl, however, sponsors are reluctant to divulge their advertising plans prior to broadcast, especially at this early juncture. But through the industry grapevine, SHOOT was able to cobble together a partial list of spots that might air during Hollywood’s big event.
"We will definitely be there," said Pepsi-Cola spokesman David Dececco. Last year, the soft drink maker launched its "Joy of Cola" campaign during the Oscars. Previously, Pepsi traditionally broke new ads during the Super Bowl, but Dececco said they opted for the March event because "it’s closer to our summer selling season. It also made sense because we’re very involved with movies and music."
The original "Joy of Cola" ads, which feature child actor Hallie Eisenberg, were created by BBDO New York, and directed by Joe Pytka of PYTKA, Venice, Calif. Though not confirmed by Pepsi, word is that Pytka directed three more ads out of BBDO featuring Eisenberg, which are expected to break on March 26. It was also rumored that some non-Pytka Pepsi fare would run during the show.
SHOOT heard that Pytka directed several ads for Amex via Ogilvy & Mather, New York, which will break during the Oscars. While sources close to Amex would not confirm any details about the ads, spokeswoman Desiree Fish said, "We have always known that the Academy Awards is a marquee event for the film industry. A lot of our card members are passionate about film, so we try to support the film industry as much as possible." That sentiment extends to Amex’s American Film Institute (AFI) scholarship program, now in its third year, which consists of seven $25,000 scholarships for students of AFI’s Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies. The scholarship program is currently being promoted via "Streets," a celebrity-endorsed national print and billboard campaign that broke March 1.
As it did last year, The Gap, San Francisco, will unveil its spring campaign during the Oscars. Gap spokeswoman Anna Lonergan said the retailer hasn’t confirmed how many ads will run, but the new campaign, which was created by The Gap’s in-house agency, consists of three spots directed by Mike Mills of The Directors Bureau, Hollywood. (The Directors Bureau is a satellite of bicoastal HKM.)
Visa International will air at least one new ad helmed by director/cameraman Robert Gordon of bicoastal Flying Tiger Films via BBDO. The spot was shot on location in Sydney and is part of Visa’s Olympics campaign.
Walldorf, Germany-headquartered software company SAP will debut a :30 and a :90 during the Academy Awards. The ads, which promote mySAP. com, an Internet networking solution, were created by Ogilvy & Mather and directed by Erich Joiner of bicoastal Tool of North America.
Christopher Sorgie, assistant VP of advertising at New York Life, said the financial services firm will run four new spots—a :60 and three :30s—which were created by Berlin, Cameron & Partners, New York, and directed by Gerard de Thame out of London-based Gerard de Thame Films and bicoastal HSI Productions.
Blockbuster will run a new :30 via Doner, Southfield, Mich., twice during the Oscar telecast. David Kiley, senior VP of marketing communications at the agency, said the ad consists of still photos of several Hollywood legends when they were children. The spot was assembled at Southfield editing shop Postique, and will be paired with a cover version of "Act Naturally." Kiley said a well-known vocalist had recorded the song for the ad. "Act Naturally" is perhaps best known as recorded by the Beatles on the foursome’s Help album.
Kodak will likely run three spots: two that are consumer oriented and another that targets the film industry. The latter, "Same Ending," was created specifically for the Academy Awards via Ogilvy & Mather and has run during previous Oscar broadcasts. It consists of footage from famous movies with "the same ending"—meaning that they were all shot on Kodak film. The consumer spot has also aired before; no word on which ad it is.
Over at brokerage house Charles Schwab, a spokesperson said they "hope to have a presence on the program"—as was the case last year—but could not confirm which ads, if any, would air. However, reason suggests that likely candidates include ads from the "Creating a world of smarter investors" campaign via BBDO, which has been in heavy rotation since it broke last fall. Director/cameraman David Cornell of bicoastal Headquarters helmed the six ads that have aired thus far; the spots feature various sports celebrities. One ad, featuring Denver Bronco’s tight end Shannon Sharpe, was a SHOOT Top Spot (9/17/99, p. 16).
IAM.com, a film and television casting Web site headquartered in Santa Monica, said it would run a :90 on ABC’s New York and Los Angeles stations. Spike Lee of Forty Acres and a Mule Filmworks, Brooklyn, N.Y., reportedly directed the spot, which was created by the Gardner Nelson Project, New York.
General Motors’ plans were unconfirmed at press time. Mark Benner, director of corporate communications at Campbell-Ewald, Warren, Mich. (one of GM’s agencies), said several proposals were being reviewed.
Also offering insight into which advertisers will appear during the broadcast is Oscar. com, the official Web site of the television event. Goldsmith said that several sponsors opted to put banner ads on Oscar.com this year, including Pepsi, New York Life and GM’s Chevrolet. "It’s a chance for them to extend their media buy. A large number said they’d like to do that," Goldsmith said. Additional Oscar. com advertisers include San Francisco-based FamilyWonder.com (formerly Kidfilx. com), whose partners include ABC’s parent company, Disney; New York-based Indulge.com, an upscale beauty and lifestyle site whose print advertising has been handled by the Arnell Group, New York; San Francisco-based Pets.com; and Palo Alto, Calif.-based technology firm Sun Microsystems.
While not a guarantee that Oscar.com sponsors will run broadcast ads, Goldsmith said that thus far, no online ads had been sold to advertisers who weren’t also sponsoring the telecast. Therefore, it’s likely that Oscar viewers will see more of the sock puppet from Pets.com and TBWA/Chiat/Day, San Francisco, as well as spots from the other online advertisers.
Not expected to return to the Academy Awards this year are mattress manufacturer Serta, and Sears, Roebuck & Co. Sears spokesperson Lee Antonio said there was "no special reason" why the department store didn’t exercise its option to return, but simply that "it didn’t fit into the plan."
There was no word on Revlon’s Oscar plans. Last year, the cosmetics firm aired more than a half-dozen spots directed by Herb Ritts of Los Angeles-based Ritts/Hayden, and created by Tarlow Advertising, New York. Merrill Lynch’s plans to return were also uncertain. Merrill Lynch’s agency is J. Walter Thompson, New York.
Oscar sponsors AT&T, McDonald’s, Motorola and Sony could not be reached for comment at press time.
Hosted by Billy Crystal, the 72nd Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles; a half-hour preview show kicks off the event at 8 p.m. EST.
