Oscar Night Is "The Female Super Bowl" For Advertisers

Oscar Night Is "The Female Super Bowl" For Advertisers

The 73rd Annual Academy Awards® are the "Female Super Bowl" for advertisers, say marketing professors in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration.

"The Oscar ceremony, with approximately 70 million domestic viewers, is traditionally the second most-watched television show of the year behind the Super Bowl so it is a great opportunity for advertisers. And, since the television audience is 60 percent women, it allows companies to run commercial spots tailored to that demographic," says Andrew Bergstein, instructor of marketing in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration. "That's one of the reasons Oscar night got the nickname 'The Female Super Bowl' from advertising firms. The Super Bowl attracts more male than female viewers, while this event attracts more women than men."

The Oscars may very well be the next Super Bowl of advertising since the program also reaches viewers in over 100 countries.

"Like the Super Bowl, people talk about the Oscars. The event generates a lot of buzz. People have presumably seen some of these movies and have opinions about celebrities. People throw Oscar parties. It's an event," says Jennifer Chang, assistant professor of marketing in Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration.

In some ways, Bergstein and Chang feel the Academy Awards is a more effective venue for advertising than the Super Bowl.

"The Oscars reach fairly involved movie goers or celebrity spectators. There are likely to be correlations between certain types of movie goers and their preferences for brands of clothing, needs for financial services and so on," says Chang. "The Super Bowl, however, reaches everyone under the sun, not just football fans. Ad coverage is often wasted on large chunks of the 130 million Super Bowl viewers who come from all different walks of life and have divergent needs, desires and frames of reference."

Bergstein notes that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has 100 percent approval on all spots that air during the ceremony, which is broadcast on ABC. In addition, viewers shouldn't expect to see any advertisements for films on the broadcast.

"There's no question that the viewing audience is heavy with movie lovers and studios would love to showcase movies, but the Academy governors prefer that the Academy Awards broadcast focuses attention on the art, rather than the business, of motion pictures," says Bergstein.

While Oscar night draws a large number of viewers, the sheer glitz of the evening makes it harder for advertisers.

"The Oscar ceremony itself may be the biggest competitor to commercials. After all, the show is eye candy," says Chang. "People are drawn into the glamour and the intrigue of who's walking down the red carpet with whom, what the stars are wearing and wonder what awards their favorite movies will win. They are preoccupied with and distracted by the glitz. During the Super Bowl, the neatly stylized ads create a contrast from the rough and tough images of the game."

The show in itself is like a series of marketing messages stringed together, Chang points out. "You have not only the film clips that publicize the films, but also the music performances that publicize the CDs, the clothes and jewelry that publicize their designers, and the actors marketing themselves instead of their roles."

While films and the ceremony itself have changed greatly over the past 73 years, Bergstein feels Oscar night is one of the few remaining "shared" viewing experiences.

"U.S. citizens used to have more 'shared' experiences through the media, whether it was radio or television," says Bergstein. "The proliferation of cable channels and now the Internet, mixed with ever fragmented households and busy lifestyles, has led to far fewer such nationally 'shared' experiences. The Oscars are one of the last remaining such programs. Another, of course, is Survivor."