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A Corner of the Web for Studios to Promote Their Oscar Hopefuls
Do not be surprised if some of the winners at the next Academy Awards ceremony take time during their acceptance speeches to thank their Webmasters.
Hollywood has been slow to shift advertising dollars to the Internet from the print media. According to a study released last week by eMarketer, the studios spend about 3 percent of their ad budgets online, compared with 5.7 percent for the average industry. The lag is also evident in ads aimed at influencing the outcome of the Oscar races, which appear predominantly in newspapers and magazines.
Beginning today, The Hollywood Reporter, owned by VNU, hopes to provide studios with an online alternative for those ads. The Reporter Web site will add an advertising portal called For Your Consideration Studio Showcase (hollywoodreporter.com/fyc), named after the discreet advisory, “For your consideration,” that typically appears atop Oscar-season ads.
Studio sponsors can use the portal to offer visitors so-called rich content that includes watching trailers, downloading screenplays or songs and even sending R.S.V.P.’s to screening invitations. Another feature of the portal, Tale of the Trophy, will keep a running tally of the nominations received by a sponsor’s films for various awards bestowed before the Oscars.
Sponsorship fees are in the mid-five figures, said Michael Laur, vice president and group advertising director at The Reporter in Los Angeles. Three or four studios, including the Paramount Pictures unit of Viacom, have agreed to be initial sponsors, and by the time the awards season is in full swing, Mr. Laur said, he expects seven to nine studios to have signed up.
