The Oscars is not just a TV event for the company working to sell the commercials that support it.
With the annual awards show slated to stream live on Hulu for the first time, alongside its regular broadcast on ABC, Disney devised packages that took sponsorships well beyond the program itself. Ads tied to Oscar sales also include sponsorships of “Good Morning America” and “Live With Kelly and Mark” the following day (L’Oreal and Eli Lilly are among those that will appear in the latter), and even an international deal that has Christian Dior sponsoring a flight of movies on Disney+ in both France and the U.S.
“We are seeing people and brands really want to attach themselves to cultural currency and cultural conversations,” says John Campbell, senior vice president of entertainment and streaming solutions for Disney Advertising, during an interview. Disney saw “this flurry of demand coming out of our upfront last year. We had significant numbers of units sold. And we had the vast majority of our units sold weeks in advance of the show.” The company’s two final Oscars-related sales were to Wingstop and pharma giant GSK.,
Disney announced official sell out of all commercial inventory tied to the event — TV, streaming, social and more — Friday morning. The company had been seeking $1.7 million to $2.3 million for 30 seconds of commercial time on the TV broadcast, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Top sponsors of the Oscars include Rolex, supporting the show for an eighth year, as well as Prudential and T-Mobile. These advertisers have been able to appear next to tune-in messages that have run on various Disney properties, and some of their commercials may look a lot like an awards program.
Other Oscars advertisers include AirBnB; Allstate; Ancestry.com; Audi; Audible; Boehringer Ingelheim; Carnival Cruise Line; Charter Spectrum; e.l.f. Cosmetics; Eli Lilly; Emirates Airlines; FX Networks; H-E-B; Henkel’s Schwarzkopf; Hiscox Insurance; Homes.com; Hyundai; Invisalign; Johnson & Johnson; Johnsonville Foods; Kenvue; Kiehl’s; Lionsgate; L’Oreal Paris; Lufthansa; Mazda; MNTN; Molson Coors Brewing Company; Novartis; Otsuka-Lundbeck; Planet Oat; Poise; Samsung Galaxy; Sanofi; Skechers; SkinnyPop Popcorn; Snack Factory; Starbucks; TurboTax; Ulta Beauty; Unilever; Verizon; Visa Inc.; Visit California; Volkswagen of America; Walmart; Walt Disney Studios; and Comcast’s Xfinity.
Many of the ads, says Campbell, are “playful and bold” and “very product forward,” portraying a scenario in which “the brand is really the hero.” Viewers are likely to see some commercial messages turn up in the program itself, and some “custom creative” that plays off the glitzy event.
