And the winner is....

The 'big one' in American TV events took place at the beginning of February, with SuperBowl TV advertising costs reaching an astounding level, but last night another TV ad-spend bonanza took place, as the 87th edition of the Oscars was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

As time shift viewing continues to nibble away at the live TV market and reduce audience sizes, these huge live events (and the social media response they create) are becoming more and more significant for major brands in America such as AT&T, Samsung and JC Penney; but then, so are the accompanying pricetags. 

30"ads during the Oscars in 2014 sold at circa $1.8 million each, whereas this year they were pitched at a cool $2 million (11.11% increase YoY).

To contextualise this - a spot in the final of the X-Factor last year (one of the most expensive ad breaks on UK television) was valued at somewhere between £150,000 and £200,000, which would only be enough to get you 4-5 seconds of an Academy Awards ad.

The sheer audience sizes are a major reason for this; the Oscars offers a global audience of about 47 million and the SuperBowl 114 million, whereas the X-Factor...well, at c. 8 million it's not on the same stage. 

As we've recently pointed out, there is a massive shift towards digital spend in the UK, whereas this has yet to be entirely replicated in the US; only 28% of spend is on digital, compared to over 50% in the UK. Moreover, advertisers still pay premium dollars for the few spots remaining they are sure will draw big 'live' audiences, and major sporting and film events are top of the list for US advertisers.

These huge sums bought the advertisers an audience of about 47 million on Sunday evening, with a considerably higher proportion of females in comparison to the 114.4 million people who watched the SB. 

The balanced audience leads to the Oscar ad breaks traditionally having a more heart-warming feel rather than the stereotypical aggressive humour of the SuperBowl ads. 

The collection of celebrities at the Oscars also offers opportunities above and beyond spot-and-space, which Samsung famously took advantage of last year through product placement of Ellen DeGeneres' selfie, which has now been re-tweeted nearly 33 million times!

#PurePoint