As promised, a slew of new ad campaigns made their red carpet debut during the Oscars telecast Sunday night on ABC and in local markets. Below, check out new campaigns for Samsung Mobile (starring director Tim Burton and a unicorn), Kristen Chenoweth for Royal Caribbean, Jennifer Aniston for Aveeno, Naomi Watts for Pantene and more. Then tell us which (if any) you think deserve best in show—and which marketers should have saved a million dollars or so.Continue reading...

Little do the stars know, by the time it comes to Oscars night, the most important performances are on the little screen, not the big one.

During the "Super Bowl of the entertainment industry" on Sunday evening, the ABC telecast of the Oscars, Hyundai and a handful of other advertisers will be leveraging the big stage in big ways for their brands. The prospect of the largest TV audience for the Academy Awards in several years would make achieving their goals easier.

Hyundai, for instance, will be running seven commercials during the telecast—the most of any advertiser—and it has the sole automotive rights to the automotive ad category during the show. Keeping with the show biz theme, it's fitting that Hyundai's voiceover talent is, once again, its longstanding brand voice: Academy Award-winner Jeff Bridges. At a time when Hyundai continues to dimensionalize the brand along both luxury and performance lines, the Oscars are at least as important a forum for the carmaker as for any actor or director.

"We're bullish on the chances for ratings this year, with the combination of films that were critically acclaimed and that also did big box office," Steve Shannon, CMO for Hyundai of America, told brandchannel. "We just like the feel of the Oscars."Continue reading...

The University of Southern California's Annenberg Innovation Lab has conducted a groundbreaking social sentiment analysis of the 2012 Academy Awards race. The project, in collaboration with IBM and the Los Angeles Times, illustrates how organizations and brands — from media & entertainment, retailing, sports, and politics — can apply advanced analytics tools in order to learn and report on new trends.

As it has done for the past three Academy Award ceremonies, jcpenney will hit the Oscars red carpet by promoting its recent "brand refresh," showing off that it's had a little work done (new logo, single-monikered lowercase name) and is making a comeback in true Hollywood fashion.

New brand face Ellen DeGeneres will be featured in five 30-second commercials (watch "Changing Room" above and a sneak peek at others set in the Wild West, Victorian England and ancient Rome, below) that will air in North America during ABC's telecast on Sunday night.

Other brands debuting new campaigns at the 84th annual Academy Awards include Hyundai's new Wes Anderson commercials, and a glamorous spot for the sixth-generation SL roadster by Mercedes-Benz.Continue reading...

Hulu will air its first TV commercial on ABC during the Oscars telecast Sunday night. Starring one of the channel's own stars, Eva Longoria of Desperate Housewives, it touts Hulu Plus and brings back Will Arnett, whose character was introduced during the Super Bowl — and whose Up All Night airs on NBC.

Expanding on its Super Bowl Game Day campaign with America's animated icons that picked up at the Grammy Awards, MetLife will run the spot above ("5 Cents") during the Oscars telecast on Sunday night.

The old gang (the Peanuts crew, featuring Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and Woodstock) are shown sitting in a conference room being pitched on an insurance deal that they know they can do better on, reiterating the brand's new tagline: "MetLife. I can do this."

Diet Coke, as one of the sponsors of the 84th annual Academy Awards, will debut "Credit," a commercial on ABC on Sunday that celebrates the behind-the-scenes heartbeat of Hollywood: the unsung heroes, such as the writer who crafts a great screenplay, the stunt performer who puts the action in "action movie," and the sound effects artist who creates memorable audio experiences for the big screen. Check it out above.

Like one-third of the Super Bowl advertisers this year, Tide is partnering with Shazam in a first for a P&G brand to offer a free download of a tune: Savoir Adore's cover of Men Without Hats' Pop Goes the World, a nod to the new Tide Pods tagline, "Get ready to pop your laundry." The yet-to-be released commercial will debut during the Oscars telecast on ABC Sunday night.

Find out more about how the dissolvable detergent packs work below.Continue reading...