Are the Oscars copying the Golden Globes’ cyber strategy?
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‘Why are the Oscars going so crazy using social media to promote the show?’ another Oscar reporter asked me yesterday. ‘Are they just trying to reach a younger, hipper audience?’
Yes, that’s part of it. James Franco and Anne Hathaway are young, sexy hipsters who love to communicate with fans via Twitter and Facebook, so why not let the Oscarcast cohosts run amok in cyberspace to help promote the event?
But, take note: doing so does set up one twist. If most pundits are correct and ‘The King’s Speech’ wins best picture, then that means ‘The Social Network’ -– the movie about Facebook and, well, social networking will lose the top award even while the academy is going wild on Facebook and Twitter and other social networking venues to lure viewers into tuning in to watch the Facebook movie lose.
Ah, well, that’s showbiz. The more likley reason the Oscars is tapping social media so much is because of the success experienced recently by the Golden Globes, which credited heavy digital promotion for
helping to pull in 17 million TV viewers on Jan. 16.
Below are some stats issued by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.:
• On Twitter: More than 730 million impressions for the Golden Globes topic were created and 466,000 tweets sent. These tweets reached more than 39 million accounts. • HFPA’s @goldenglobes account was the No. 1 mentioned account on Twitter. It received nearly twice the mentions of the next most mentioned account (@JustinBieber)• HFPA’s @goldenglobes account was the No. 1 retweeted account • The number of messages from the HFPA’s @goldenglobes account that were retweeted were more than the other top nine accounts -– combined• On Facebook: After only a two-month period, the HFPA was able to add more than 144,000 fans to its official Facebook account.
• Over 7.2 million impressions of posts made to the Golden Globes fan page were created. Over 50 million impressions of Golden Globes information were created. • The Golden Globe Awards gift bag sweepstakes produced over 10,000 entries from fans • Official Website goldenglobes.org: From last year, the number of site page views increased by 32%, the number of visitors went up 18%. • Page views: 6.5 million • Total page views (including international center server locations): 32.6 million • Visits: 2.4 million • Total visits (including international center server locations): 12.1 million• Golden Globes News/Blog: Nominations page had 1.1 million views. Total News/Blog pages views within the last 30 days: 7.9 million ‘We reached these numbers with the dedicated participation of the HFPA’s journalists, whose professional contribution to all social media platforms was crucial to its success,’ notes Erkki Kanto, IT Director, HFPA. ‘Thanks are also due to our partner of eight years, Bump Networks, led by Arben Kryeziu, who redesigned the website, integrated all HFPA social media channels into it, and – as every year, made sure that the goldenglobes.org remained operational throughout the event. In addition, thanks to Michael H. Carter of mhCarter Consulting, who worked endless hours developing our social media platform strategy. Of the numerous other contributions, special mention must be made of Randi Zuckerberg’s participation in creating unique content for fans on the night of the Golden Globe Awards.’
-- Tom O’Neil