Award Shows and Entertainment Marketing

I used to revere the Academy Awards. I didn’t always agree with the results, but I believed that an Oscar represented the highest recognition of excellence in filmmaking.

I became more cynical when I learned that studios and production companies spend millions of dollars lobbying Academy members for their votes. I’m not sure that anyone understands the impact of all of this schmoozing on the final vote tallies, but it suggests that votes are not cast simply based on merit.

Daytime and nighttime talk shows are part of the same marketing engine. People don’t appear on ‘The Tonight Show’ at random. They are booked to promote a specific project, a book, a movie, a television show, an album, a tour, etc. These shows are infomercials for the entertainment industry.

The most egregious marketing schmaltz of all has to be a certain music awards show, the name of which begins with the letter G.

The music industry is driven by numbers - record sales, single plays and downloads, ticket sales, and views of music videos. Record companies have a well-developed formula to maximize those numbers, and it has nothing to do with maximizing the quality of the music.

They recruit young, energetic, visually appealing performers with the potential to connect with large numbers of consumers aged 8 to 29. They pair the performer with a producer, give them a budget, and send them into studios to record songs and make videos. Another big chunk of the budget goes into a marketing blitz.

The awards show is the icing on the cake. As sales and buzz surge, this year’s Big Act does a featured performance early in the show. Later on, they win an award or two, surprise, surprise! The executives and producers involved in the project laugh all the way to the bank.

In a few years, people will wonder whatever became of Big Act. What happened was that there fortune was based more on the quality of their marketing than their ideas. The record companies move on and find new acts to fill the role of Primary Revenue Maker, and Big Act fades into the oblivion of tabloid headlines and reality TV.