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Advertising: Oscars Broadcast to Rival Super Bowl as Ad Showcase

Advertisers are paying ABC the highest prices since 2008 for commercials during the network’s coverage of the Academy Awards. ABC, part of the Walt Disney Company, charged $1.65 million to $1.8 million for each 30 seconds of commercial time in the broadcast on Sunday; the rate five years ago was $1.7 million.

Demand was the strongest “in over a decade,” said Debbie Richman, senior vice president for prime-time ABC sales, with commercial time, “for all intents and purposes,” sold out.

Also, a recent trend of advertisers treating the Oscars like the Super Bowl — as a platform for prominent new ads that consumers will rave (or rant) about on social media like Facebook and Twitter — seems to be intensifying. Blue-chip brands like Chobani, Grey Poupon, Hyundai, Neutrogena and J. C. Penney plan to show new campaigns or new commercials in continuing campaigns.

“Consumers expect advertisers to come to the Oscars with their A-game,” said Andy McMillin, vice president for Coca-Cola trademark brands at the Coca-Cola North America Group, part of the Coca-Cola Company. For the Diet Coke brand, Mr. McMillin will introduce an American version of a commercial that has generated considerable attention since it was introduced in Europe last month.

The commercial is part of a series that features a “Diet Coke hunk,” which dates to 1994. The European version was created by BETC London, part of the Havas Creative division of Havas.

Perhaps comparisons to the Super Bowl ought not to be surprising because many advertisers consider the Academy Awards “the Super Bowl of the entertainment industry,” said Susan Sweet, general manager for Neutrogena, owned by Johnson Johnson.

A Neutrogena spot, by Roberts Langer in New York, part of the Omnicom Group, will be “the first time we’re showcasing our broad product portfolio in one commercial,” she said. The commercial, narrated by Jennifer Garner, presents a new brand theme, that Neutrogena is “recommended by dermatologists two times more than any other brand” of skin-care products.

The Oscars ceremony — broadcast live, like the Golden Globes, the Super Bowl, the Grammys, Nascar races and other so-called big-event television programs that are appointment viewing — is typically the highest-rated entertainment program on television.

Sports programs like the Super Bowl often draw larger audiences, enabling them to command higher ad rates. For instance, each 30-second spot during Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 cost an estimated $3.7 million to $3.8 million.)

For many years, the Academy Awards was heralded as “the Super Bowl for women” until gains among female viewers put the Super Bowl ahead of the Oscars in total women watching. Still, the Academy Awards usually draws the most female viewers of any entertainment show.

“A good portion of our target is women,” said Michael Fischer, chief operating officer at Coldwell Banker Real Estate, which will advertise during the Oscars for the first time with a commercial, by Siltanen Partners in El Segundo, Calif., that is narrated by Tom Selleck.

The commercial offers “a heartfelt, emotional message,” Mr. Fischer said, so “the content fits with the show.” He said being an advertiser during the Academy Awards “helps us be out in front of the spring selling season,” a crucial period for a real-estate firm.

Another first-time advertiser, Chobani Greek yogurt, also likes what John Heath of Chobani called “the business timing” of the Oscars. A giant new Chobani plant in Twin Falls, Idaho, “went live in December, and we’re ready to assert ourselves a little more and drive awareness,” said Mr. Heath, senior vice president for innovation and interim chief marketing officer.

An extensive campaign for Chobani with a new theme, “Go real,” which is being created by the brand’s new agency, Boathouse in Boston, will begin with the Oscars. Because the show is an “uplifting, positive” environment in which to advertise, Mr. Heath said, the commercial during the show is “purposely a little more celebratory to fit with the context of the content.”

Other advertisers during the Oscars will include American Express, Ameriprise, Anheuser-Busch InBev, McDonald’s, Royal Caribbean International, Samsung Mobile, Sprint, the 20th Century Fox unit of News Corporation and the University of Phoenix.

Hyundai, sold by the Hyundai Motor America unit of the Hyundai Motor Group, is expected to run the most commercials during the Oscars, with seven. Hyundai is also the exclusive automotive sponsor, unlike the Super Bowl, when the brand shared the game with other car marques.

“One thing we like about the Academy Awards is that the vibe is different” from other television shows, said Steve Shannon, vice president for marketing at Hyundai Motor America. “There’s more glamour and style and sophistication.”

And because of the large number of affluent viewers for the Oscars, he added, “we can give a little extra attention to our luxury products” like Equus and Genesis.

The Hyundai agency, Innocean USA in Huntington Beach, Calif., part of Innocean Worldwide, is writing new scripts for three commercials that “give a nod to film history, film culture, film people,” Mr. Shannon said, including one for Equus that will spoof movie trailers.

Hyundai, possibly more than other advertisers, has standing to run such spots: the longtime narrator of its commercials is Jeff Bridges, who won an Oscar for best actor in 2010 for his performance in “Crazy Heart.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/business/media/oscars-broadcast-to-rival-super-bowl-as-ad-showcase.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Media Decoder Blog: AARP Will Embrace Life’s ‘Possibilities’ During Grammys

AARP will seek to cultivate a more contemporary image with a big new brand campaign that, to underline the message the advertising intends to convey, will make its debut during the CBS broadcast of the Grammy Awards on Sunday night.

The campaign, with a budget estimated at $25 million to $30 million, will introduce the theme “Real possibilities,” which will appear not only in the ads but also in prominent locations like the home page of the AARP Web site, aarp.org, and the front cover of publications that include AARP the Magazine.

The campaign is the first work for AARP from the organization’s new brand advertising agency, Grey New York, which was selected to handle the assignment after a lengthy review. The previous agency for AARP’s brand work was GSDM in Austin, Tex., part of the Omnicom Group.

AARP is among many blue-chip brands that will advertise during the Grammys show. Although it is nowhere near the showcase that the Super Bowl is each year, the Grammys broadcast will feature several new campaigns, like AARP’s, along with new and fresh commercials in continuing campaigns, like for candy brands sold by Mars.

The Grammys represents “a great venue to reintroduce” AARP and helps “close the relevance gap,” said Emilio Pardo, chief brand officer at AARP in Washington, by promoting the organization as understanding how the target audience – Americans ages 50 and older – lives their lives today.

“As you get older, you used to have the feeling you had fewer possibilities, for romance, for work,” Mr. Pardo said. “Now, it’s quite the opposite; possibilities should be ageless.”

AARP has addressed those issues previously, particularly when it began using the name AARP in place of what the letters once stood for, American Association of Retired Persons.

Still, there remain stigmas surrounding the words “retired” and “retirement,” particularly a perception that AARP and its members consider retirement a conclusion rather than the start of something new.

To counter that, the “real possibilities” theme will be used to suggest that AARP members are eagerly “asking what’s next,” Mr. Pardo said.

The ads will underline that by presenting the name AARP as standing for “An Ally for Real Possibilities,” and suggest that the “R” in the name stands for positive words like “reimagine,” “rewarding” and “richer.”

AARP is to run two commercials from the new campaign during the Grammys; three more are planned. The commercials, filmed in black and white by the director Tony Kaye, will be narrated by the actor Chris Noth of “Law Order” and “Sex and the City,” who, at age 58, is squarely in the organization’s demographic target.

In one commercial, depicting a man driving, Mr. Noth says: “A car has a rather small rear-view mirror so we can occasionally glance back at where we’ve been. It has an enormous windshield, so we can look ahead to where we’re going.”

“Now is always the time to go forward and imagine all the possibilities that lie before us,” Mr. Noth continues, then suggests a visit to aarp.org/possibilities to “find tools and guidance.”

In the other commercial, boots are shown walking down a porch and into a field. “Were you more interesting in your 20s, or now?” Mr. Noth asks.

“Experience makes you wiser for the wear,” he adds, “and now come the richer possibilities.”

Rob Baiocco, the executive creative director at Grey New York who wrote the campaign, said he has some perspective on the subject matter because at 49, he is “close to the AARP age myself.”

“We’re hitting a reset button with this campaign,” Mr. Baiocco said, because the definition of “what it means to be” 50 and older has changed to the point where many people now believe that “instead of running from it, they embrace it.”

“Fifty is not the new 30,” he added. “Fifty is the new 50. Lean into the knowledge and life experience that comes with it.”

The campaign will include, in addition to the television commercials, print and digital ads, radio commercials and a significant presence in social media like Facebook and Twitter.

“Our digital and social outreach might be the most ever in the history of our organization,” Mr. Pardo said, reflecting the changing media consumption habits of the target audience.

Mr. Baiocco said, “We’re trying to be provocative, interesting, cool maybe, like the people we’re talking about” in the campaign. Grey New York is part of the Grey division of the Grey Group, which is owned by WPP.

Mars plans to run two commercials during the Grammys, for its Twix and Snickers candies. They will follow the appearance during Super Bowl XLVII last Sunday of a new commercial for another Mars brand, MM’s.

The commercial for Twix will be new, another in a humorous campaign, “Try both and pick a side,” that is centered on a fanciful history of the brand. The campaign describes how the left and right sides of each Twix bar are made in separate factories.

The commercial for Snickers was introduced recently, during the SAG Awards presentation on TBS and TNT. The spot, part of the humorous campaign “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” features Robin Williams and Bobcat Goldthwait.

The Snickers and Twix commercials, like the MM’s Super Bowl spot, were created by BBDO, part of Omnicom.

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/aarp-will-embrace-lifes-possibilities-during-grammys/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Advertising: Oscars Broadcast to Rival Super Bowl as Ad Showcase

Media Decoder Blog: AARP Will Embrace Life’s ‘Possibilities’ During Grammys

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