Sunday night’s The Oscars was unforgettable as it showcased the official return of movies. As pointed out in last week’s post, movies have made a resurgence since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we witnessed during The Oscars, there were many excellent films to watch in the past year.
The Oscars programming is one of the most engaging of the year. In 2021, The Oscars was among the top five most engaging special event programs on national television, generating 28% more searches than the average primetime broadcast program. Our preliminary estimates for 2022 look even stronger (send us an email for more on that).
Further, the quality advertising during the special event held strong. Advertisers tend to generate a remarkable amount of additional online searches for their brands thanks to ads during The Oscars. Not only is it an engaging environment, but the quality of the creatives helps drive consumers to search.
Here are a few advertising data highlights around the best-performing category and brand winners, per EDO data.
Category Winners
Entertainment: Movies & Shows
Movies & Shows category ads that aired during The Oscars provide a prime example of the power of contextual advertising. In 2022, the 12 ads of the Movies & Shows category comprised less than 20% of the airtime, and generated approximately 50% of the share of SEV. This means that ads depicting movie or TV show trailers generated half of all searches generated during ad breaks for The Oscars, despite only receiving 20% of broadcast airtime.
Food and Beverage
What are movies without your favorite drinks and snacks to go with them? This year, the Food and Beverage category was a customer favorite, generating over 100,000 incremental searches.
Advertising brands ranged from Corona, with a spot featuring Andy Samberg and Snoop Dogg, to Velveeta living la dolce vita and Oscar Mayer keeping it Oscar, among others. In total, these advertisers had an estimated $10.7 million in ad spend and, given the consumer engagement, it was well worth the investment.
Brand Winners
Crypto.com
Crypto.com made an impact during The Oscars with its call to support Ukraine. The brand ran a total of four TV ad airings during the award show and preliminary estimates suggest the ads generated over 30% higher search engagement than its ads during the average primetime broadcast program. This means that a TV viewer was 30% more likely to search online for the brand after seeing an airing during The Oscars, in comparison to the average Crypto.com ad on primetime broadcast this year.
Grey Goose
This liquor brand may not run many national TV ad airings, but its promotion of Grey Goose Essences during The Oscars was a hit. The single ad generated approximately over 100,000 incremental online searches for Grey Goose in the minutes immediately following the TV ad airing. Preliminary estimates also show that the airing generated over 150% higher Search Engagement than the average Grey Goose airing in the past year on primetime broadcast.
Pfizer
In the pursuit of normal, Pfizer hit the target with TV viewers. The Pfizer brand spot resonated with consumers, driving an estimated 10,000 additional online searches. The spot was also successful in comparison to other Pfizer airings on the average primetime broadcast program. A TV viewer who saw the Pfizer airing during The Oscars was approximately 300% more likely to search online for the brand, in comparison to the average Pfizer airing during primetime broadcast.
That’s not all folks…
While we have called out a few category and brand nominees, these are not the only winners from Sunday night. New brands and new spots aired, and thanks to EDO’s rich data we are able to measure and capture every single TV ad airing.
Interested in learning more? Find what works for your brand and what your competitors are up to. To learn how EDO can help you generate more consumer engagement, contact us today.