Brands and Hollywood back together after GFC

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JCPenney.pngDuring this year’s Oscars, advertisers dramatically increased the number of celebrity endorsements by 500% over last year’s show – 24% of 2011 ads featured celebrity endorsements – according to the GreenLight Ad Gauge of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

The annual report analyzes TV advertising during the Academy Awards as a barometer to identify trends in how brands are using celebrities and licensed music in their TV commercials.

While some stars were fortunate enough to win an award onstage at thisyear’s Oscars, dozens of others reigned supreme offstage during thecommercial breaks of the live telecast, cashing in on endorsements forbrands like JCPenney (Cindy Crawford), Diet Coke (Temper Trap), Nokia(Daniel Johnson and Brie Stoner) and Hyundai (Jeff Bridges and JasonBateman).

One out of every three ads in this year’s show featured a celebrity endorsement or licensed music, according to the GreenLight Ad Gauge of the 83rd annual Academy Awards. And while the night’s ads had a 500% increase in celebrity endorsements over last year, GreenLight experts found that brands integrated celebrities into their TV commercials in more simple and understated ways to avoid competing with what is generally the most star-packed awards show on the planet.

 

“Brands and Hollywood are back in bed after the recession, but they are going about it in noticeably simpler and more understated way,” said David Reeder, VP, GreenLight. “With so many stars featured during the show itself, brands decided not to try to compete and focused on more subtle integrations like voiceovers and existing footage of celebs rather than bombastic endorsements.”

Thirty-second spots during the Oscars reportedly sold out a month before the show and cost $1.7 million, up from $1.5 million in 2010. About 41.3 million people in the United States watched the Oscars ceremony in 2010, a 14 percent increase from the year before.