Oscars scoop ad premium over Super Bowl despite record low audience

The gold-encrusted advertising premium of the film industry’s premier event comes attached with a gold-encrusted price tag, a Forbes report proves.

Advertisers paid more to reach the disappointingly low 34.6m TV audience of the Oscars than the 114m strong Super Bowl crowd.

Down from a 43m strong audience in 2014 – 2015’s results could mark the third-lowest viewership in Oscar history, ahead of only 2003 and 2008, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings.

To advertise during the show, brands paid ABC $1.95m per 30 second slot – working out at 22.6 viewers per ad dollar compared with the Super Bowl’s 25.4 viewers.

Thus advertisers will pay in the neighborhood of a 12% premium for the Oscars over the Super Bowl, reports Forbes.

 

Why?

According to an article from USA Today – 31.1% of viewers who watched last year’s Oscars said they were more likely to buy the brand after seeing its Oscar show compared with 6.9% of viewers of the Super Bowl, according to a study by Extreme Reach.

“Simply put, the Oscars is a much better brand lift than the Super Bowl,” says Ryan Pamplin, vice president of digital at Extreme Reach.

According to Pamplin there are three reasons behind the higher ad spend at the Oscars; Category exclusivity, a more targeted audience (mainly women) and less competition compared the Super Bowl off field frenzy.