Despite its lack of a host, the 91st annual Academy Awards went off without a hitch last night on ABC — and even grew the audience year-over-year. Notable moments included a humorous presentation from Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, an absurdly dressed Melissa McCarthy and Brian Tyree Henry (on hand to announce the Best Costume Design category) and a powerful duet from Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.
It may be Hollywood’s big night, but it’s also a big deal for major advertisers — and so we worked with iSpot, the TV ad measurement and attribution company, to uncover some insights into the night’s sponsors. (Note: Data below is as of 3:30 p.m. ET Monday, Feb. 25. Numbers may be updated as new information becomes available.)
Overall, 25 advertisers spent an estimated $132 million on 51 spots that aired 68 times and generated over 1.2 billion TV ad impressions, for a total of 38 minutes of commercials. ABC promoted its own properties for nearly 8 of those minutes, while Cadillac had the second highest airtime (about 4 minutes); the auto maker was also the top spender during the evening. Its spot 'Rise Above' featuring music by Childish Gambino aired three times and had the most spend for any ad during the night (est. $11 million).
Related: New Data Sheds Light on Value of Oscar Ads
When it came to viewer eyeballs, ABC and Walmart won the night:
Nike also made waves during the show with a minute-and-a-half commercial titled “Dream Crazier.” This spot helped Nike take first place (42.7%) when it came to digital share of voice* (DSOV), while Samsung took a distant second (9.1% DSOV). Google owned fourth as well as fifth place.
1. Nike TV Spot, 'Dream Crazier' - 42.69% DSOV
2. Samsung Galaxy TV Spot, 'The Future' - 9.10% DSOV
3. McDonald's Cheesy Bacon Fries Super Bowl 2019 TV Spot, 'Fry Show' Ft. Ken Jeong, J.B. Smoove - 7.41% DSOV
4. Google Pixel 3 TV Spot, '#HeyGoogle: Psycho' - 6.38% DSOV
5. Google Pixel 3 TV Spot, '#HeyGoogle: Lady Bird' - 5.76% DSOV
We also worked with Inscape, the TV data company with glass-level insights from a panel of more than 10 million smart TVs and devices, to look at viewership trends around the show.
Predictably, the Oscars Red Carpet show was the most popular choice before the awards got underway, with 47% of Oscars viewers tuning in. In second place was The Big Bang Theory and Ellen’s Game of Games.
Here’s a breakdown of what people flipped to during the awards ceremony:
For households that skipped the Oscars entirely, The Big Bang Theory and The Walking Dead were popular choices.
*Digital Share of Voice/DSOV= a scoring of all earned views, actions and searches across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, iSpot and search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo), added up and weighted based on significance of action to a brand (a view or share > “like”). Can also be called digital activity rankings.
