We are an hour into the 85th Academy Awards and already, at least six brands are hard at work attempting to recreate what Oreo and Tide did during the Super Bowl blackout. With 273,000 tweets in before the Oscars have actually begun, it is no surprise that brands want to take advantage of this social media-driven night.
Let’s take a look at which brands are participating in the Oscars conversations and what kind of real-time content they are creating. I also took a look at the impact of these activations on brand engagement and have assigned a letter grade to each brand for their efforts.
JC Penney: The retailer giant is advertising during the Oscars tonight. They also changed their Twitter Handle biography to accommodate the Oscars and have created real-time content about red carpet moments. Instead of simply pushing out promotional messages about their store, they are delivering content that’s relevant to the Oscars and is of entertainment value. The tweet that has received the highest engagement rate also happens to be their Promoted Tweet, which is how I discovered it. The rest of their tweets are not supported with any paid media—these are also not getting as nearly as many “retweets” and “favorites.” Because the activations have little relevancy to the brand and are only garnering attention with the support of paid media, I give JC Penney an A-.
Pantene North America – This P&G brand has been posting during E’s Red Carpet LIVE event both on Facebook and on Twitter. The brand is only posting about their nominated spokespeople—Naomi Watts and Bradley Cooper. On Twitter, the brand hijacked the organic #bestdressed trend, supporting it with a Promoted Tweet campaign. Their Promoted Tweet is one of a behind-the-scenes photo of Naomi Watts. Pantene is using hashtag #WantThatHair for tonight’s tweets. I love the fact that Pantene is integrating their spokespeople into the Oscar conversation, giving the brand credibility to associate with tonight’s event. I also love that they’ve hijacked an organic trending hashtag. However, the posts are a bit too promotional and they’re not actually creating any new and fun creative that is based on real-time conversations. For this reason, I give Pantene North America a B.
Colgate Optic White – This brand is live tweeting about the Oscars together with influencer, Jeannie Mai who is a makeup artist, an actress, and a TV personality. All of the tweets are related to the actors’ beautiful, bright smiles. They are using hashtag #brilliantsmile. The brand is also repurposing a Twitter giveaway (rules originally written for an August 2012 promotion), asking users to tweet a photo of their own red carpet smile and which actor/actress has the most #brilliantsmile. Ten lucky participants will get an Optic White kit. What I love about this campaign is that the brand is actually engaging viewers with an interactive, user-generated giveaway. However, the brand is only partially wave branding because they are only using pre-planned activations, but are not integrated any real-time content. However, because the Optic White Twitter account did pop on my Topsy Pro list as one of tonight’s most influential users, I will give it some extra points. I give this brand a grade of B+.
Skinnygirl Cocktails – Earlier today, Skinnygirl Cocktails launched their first TV spot during E’s Red Carpet LIVE show, featuring Bethenny Frankel. They also tweeted throughout the day, posting photos of Oscar cocktail recipes using their product. Tonight, the brand is hosting an Oscars Twitter Party with a number of different beauty and fashion influencers. The icing on the cake is their $2,500 donation to charity, Dress for Success, for each red dress worn at the Oscars tonight. The brand is donating at least $7,500 to charity—Sally Field, Kerry Washington and Paul, the monkey who makes Oscar predictions have all worn red. This brand deserves the best grade for their wave branding efforts—the launch of a TV ad during the Red Carpet show provided the brand with credibility to own the night. Their tweets were not only relevant to the Oscars, but they were relevant to the brand without being pushy or overselling. Congrats Skinnygirl Cocktails, you get an A.
American Express – This credit card brand is also live tweeting tonight, but very sporadically. They are weaving in promotions for the synced Amex Card, small business (stylists and designers), and products that consumers can purchase via Twitter. Two weeks ago, AMEX announced their partnership with Twitter—now consumers can purchase products simply by tweeting. Today, the brand is leveraging the Oscars to heavily promote a wide variety of products that can be purchased via Twitter. They are also leveraging the organic #bestdressed hashtag. However, since Pantene has bid more dollars on the same hashtag, the AMEX tweets are not appearing at the top of the Twitter timeline. Although I deeply respect AMEX for their innovating social media marketing efforts, I am just as disappointed about their Oscars activations tonight. I give them a C+; at least they tried, right?
Samsung Mobile – This brand was one of the sponsors of the E’s Red Carpet LIVE show. They also have a Promoted Trend running on Twitter, which means they spent at least $200,000 to part take in today’s Oscar conversation. The Promoted Trend is used to promote Galaxy Note 10.1 although the brand is rotating a wide variety of tweets. The way Samsung is aligning Galaxy to the Oscars event is by showing off the product’s sketch features. The brand is showing Twitter users sketches of actresses’ dresses, creating truly real-time content. I love the way the brand is using the product to create interesting, real-time Oscars content without being too promotional. I give Samsung an A-.
Which brand do you think did a superb job riding the Oscars wave?
Leave a comment or share this blog and your selection with hashtag #oscarsRTM. The social media industry is keeping a close eye on which brands use real-time marketing during the Oscars with this hashtag.
Social Media Drive-Thru 