In our blog post on Friday, we speculated about whether there would be a correlation between the social media buzz surrounding Oscar nominees and the actual award outcomes. And now that all of the golden statuettes have been handed out, it seems that the noms garnering the most social media attention were indeed the big winners of the night.
Meryl Streep took home best actress for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in Iron Lady, and The Artist swept the night with wins for best director, best actor, Jean Dujardin and the most important award of the evening, best picture.
Social media seems to be the biggest winner for The Academy Awards this year. As a result of increased efforts to incorporate social media with the pre-promotion and the actual ceremony such as the new Oscar Buzz live feed and Oscar Backstage Pass app offering exclusive footage of winners and presenters, there were a total of 3.8 million social media comments about the Oscars last night. While this total may seem small in comparison to the 12.2 million comments about the Super Bowl or 13 million comments buzzing around this year’s Grammys it is a major increase for last year’s Oscars- 293% year to year growth. Another win Oscar producers and advertisers are hoping to see as a result of the social push is a younger viewing audience. The median age has been skewing up for the past few years and holding steady around 50 years old. Between the head-turning red carpet fashion (aka Angelina’s up to there slit and pose), PR stunts from presenters (aka Sacha Baron Cohen’s Dictator debacle with Ryan Seacrest) and classic comedy from A-list host, Billy Crystal (loved the Sammy Davis cameo in the opening sequence), the 84th Academy Awards didn’t disappoint and got people talking, Tweeting and posting.
So, what were some of your favorite moments from last night?