By Linda Forrest
I’ll admit it – I look forward to the Oscars all year. I’m an ardent movie fan, and so I look forward to seeing which movies are the most celebrated at the annual awards ceremony. This year was no different but I did feel highly skeptical going into it about the hosts that had been selected in an attempt to lure in a younger demographic to watch the show. I also had a bad taste in my mouth from last year, where the hosts did a surprisingly middling job and, in my opinion, the wrong folks took home the top hardware. Still, I couldn’t wait to watch and see who would win what.
Having stayed up on Sunday way past my bedtime to watch the Oscars, my worst fears were realized when the show proved to be a poorly written, disjointed affair that only shone when it harkened back to awards shows of times gone by. Early ratings suggest that viewership was down 7 percent from last year. Roger Ebert Tweeted: “The worst Oscarcast I’ve seen, and I go back awhile. Some great winners, a nice distribution of awards, but the show? Dead. In. The. Water.”
As disastrous as it was to watch (the audience in my house alone went from four to one over the course of the program), some marketing lessons can be gleaned from the 2011 Academy Awards.
If it has worked for others, it might work for you
As of the start of the program, the hosts had every opportunity to prove my skepticism wrong. I’ve been wrong before: I had very little confidence that Hugh Jackman, the host from two years ago, was the right choice, but he proved to be a very versatile entertainer who could more than hold his own and left viewers more than satisfied at the end of the program.
This year, the pre-recorded opening skit saw hosts Anne Hathaway and James Franco traipsing through the top movies of the past year.
This year’s Oscars borrowed heavily elements from other awards shows that had worked well in the past. In fact, so similar were the openings that last year’s MTV Movie Awards trended on Twitter during the Oscar’s opening skit. Having watched the 2010 Spike Scream Awards myself, I was disappointed when the Oscar’s hackneyed Back to the Future reference ended much less spectacularly than had the Delorean making its smoking entrance on the Scream Awards‘ stage.
These tactics had worked for other awards shows, so they could have worked for the Oscars. Lesson: what has worked for others in your field could very well work for you. In the same way, there are several reliable ways to market a movie to boost its chances of winning an Oscar. The much celebrated, highly creative film Inception bucked these proven methods. Some might say the movie ended the night with just one of the perhaps many awards it could have won had it marketed the movie more closely to how winners in the past had.
Good writing matters
In my opinion, the writing for the show was terrible. Poorly conceived jokes, obscure references, and a treacly, sycophantic tone that saw the hosts behaving as if they were superfans who had won a contest to host Hollywood’s biggest night, fawning over the presenters and nominees. Nothing can save poor writing – not good delivery, not strong imagery, not bold creative concepts, nor fancy gowns and tuxedos.
Know your audience
As noted by the New York Times, the Oscars’ attempt to attract younger viewers came off as desperate and contrived. The lame attempts to capture the Internet age, interspersed with throwbacks to the first Oscars, the first televised Oscars, and nods to early winners and iconic films like Gone With the Wind just didn’t gel. Who is your audience? When you try to be all things to all people, you end up being not enough for anyone.
Give credit where credit is due
An always poignant part of the ceremony is the In Memoriam segment where Hollywood fetes those who passed away in the last year. But, in recent years, this segment has inspired vitriol and solemnity in equal parts as inevitably some stars have been left out of the montage. Last year, Bea Arthur and Farah Fawcett were left out, and this year, Eddie Fisher, Rue McClanahan and Corey Haim were not included. Having grown up in the 80s, when Haim’s star shone brightest, I did notice and was surprised that he wasn’t in the video, especially when the Academy was trying so desperately to appeal to younger watchers. The response from the AMPAS, the organization that puts on the awards, is insufficient: if you can’t include everyone, don’t be selective in your inclusions because you’ll end up making your audience upset. As marketers, we can learn that it’s important to be inclusive. It will be interesting to see how a bold move like Dr. Pepper‘s, where they’re promoting their low-calorie soda as for men only, will fare, especially given that women are responsible for 85% of household purchasing decisions, and the low-calorie drink market is predominantly female.
Get to the point
It was heartwarming to see Kirk Douglas, aged 94, presenting the best supporting actress award several years after a debilitating stroke had impacted his speech. It was he that generated some of the few genuine laughs of the night. But, the law of diminishing returns kicked in and his ad-libbing went on for longer than was appropriate. Had I been one of those nominees, quaking in my seat as he had the winner’s name in his hand and he waxed poetic, I too would have likely dropped the “f” bomb that winner Melissa Leo did when her name was finally called. A little bit of levity is fine, but when people are waiting for important information from you, don’t dilly dally, or risk alienating your audience.
There may be another opportunity to get it right if you didn’t this time
Long time Oscar winners will talk at length about how certain actors have been awarded for the wrong movie; while they received the trophy one year, it was in fact in recognition for a previous role. When a host flames out spectacularly, as this year’s did, there’s the chance to hire someone else to do it better next year.
The lesson to be learned here is a hopeful one: if you goofed or got it wrong before, there could be an opportunity to right a previous wrong, put right something you misjudged or fix a past error. Look at companies that have come back from the brink of failure, having endured significant public gaffes, recalls or scandals. Some have managed to get it right the next time around, while others have disappeared from the market altogether.
Newer is not necessarily better
With as long-lived a brand as the Academy Awards – Sunday was its 83rd annual iteration – your market comes to expect certain brand attributes. In the case of the Oscars, it was for a long time, the lighthearted humour of Bob Hope. Later, it was the verve and talent of host Billy Crystal. These two immeasurable talents left an indelible mark on the psyche of the longtime Academy Awards watcher. When Crystal took to the stage halfway through this year’s show, the stark reality couldn’t have been more apparent – I really, really wanted him to commandeer the program and get it back on track. Was this nostalgia? Or just recognition that the modern product was nowhere near as good as its earlier incarnations? It’s simple but it’s true: product quality is of paramount importance. If the quality of your offering slides, people will notice and they’ll talk about it, never more so than in our Internet age.
Face the music, or face the consequences
James Franco was apparently supposed to host a post-Oscar party at his restaurant but so embarrassed was he at the bomb that was his hosting engagement, he instead skipped town, much to the chagrin of those in attendance. If you did your best and it didn’t measure up, or if there are legitimate criticisms that you should answer to, buck up and answer the tough questions. Otherwise, your audience (customers, prospects, watchers) will question your commitment, your values and your reputation.
