Buzz for the wrong reasons
The Oscars are driven by buzz…who can market their film, get it in front of the voters, get people talking about it. It has a TV audience of billions for its extended glorification of the movie business, a business that has marketing down to a fine art. But what the Academy don’t get is the web. Clips of the funnier moments (and for nearly 4 hours there were not too many of them) turned up on YouTube and other video sites pretty quickly and racked up lot of views, until the Academy issued a DMCA notice to get them taken down. And they were…until they were all put back up again so the lawyers are preparing yet another list. This cat and mouse game can go on for a while.
If oscars.com were hosting their own clips I could understand it, but they are not. They have a 5 minute highlights show and some backstage chat. They do not release the show in any other format, so the only way to see it is to be there, not legal way to share your enjoyment, to create watercooler moments about how good it was and point people to the clips. If you weren’t there you can’t comment, according to the Academy. They are even going to take down the highlights clip to “whet people’s appetite for next year’s show.” So if I missed the TV show and can’t watch it on the oscars site, how can I have any appetite to whet? You don’t like it on YouTube (and yes, it’s of dubious legality) put it on your OWN SITE!!!!
All I see at this moment is a group of people who are being left behind in the evolution of entertainment and are trying to be Canute as the tide comes in. They’ve created buzz, just not the kind they may have wanted. (There’s a good take at the Social Media Club)
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POSTED IN: Buzz Marketing, Video Content
1 opinion for Buzz for the wrong reasons
behindthebuzz.com » Blog Archive » Oscar vistors
Mar 5, 2007 at 9:17 am
[…] Numbers from comScore today provide a perspective on the decision of managers of oscars.com to pull clips from YouTube. […]
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