Ramping up toward Oscar

Now that it’s November the preparations for the next Academy Awards have begun in earnest, both at the show production and industry campaigning levels.

Most notable is, of course, the announcement that next year’s event would be co-hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Martin has hosted the Oscars before (and I think did a great job) while Baldwin is a newcomer and, as Patrick Goldstein points out in that story, is one of those evil Hollywood liberals the Conservative media loves to rail against. So that should make for an interesting evening. The two are also co-starring in It’s Complicated, which is being released this Christmas, and so the announcement – and the subsequent press over the next few months – comes as a nice bit of marketing for that movie.

AMPAS, the organization that puts on the Academy Awards, is also prepping for the big day by hiring Media Storm for its new media marketing needs (MediaPost, 10/29/09). While specific media plans have not been laid out, the selection of a smaller and less traditional agency by the Academy says it’s trying to reach people across a variety of media platforms.

Finally, the movies themselves are making more appeals for nominations through social networks and other online platforms (Variety, 10/28/09), looking to build buzz on Twitter, Facebook and more in the lead up to the contenders being selected. That’s especially being embraced by smaller studios and distribution labels, as well as the talent that are on those status networks themselves. What’s going to be fun to watch is the analysis of what, if any, impact such campaigns have on the traditional “For Your Consideration” ad buys that trade pubs like Variety are increasingly dependent on. A shift to more WOM-focused efforts has the potential to cause some rethinking of that spending, especially if after this year there’s evidence that it has actually been effective.