Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 16, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
GreenLight (www.greenlightrights.com), one of the world’s leading intellectual-property service providers, today published the results of its first GreenLight Study, an analysis of advertising during the 51st Grammy Awards.
The study analyzed commercials broadcast during the Grammy Awards—the music industry’s most important annual event—to identify current trends in the use of music and celebrity appearances in television advertising. During development of the study, which is intended to be conducted annually, GreenLight examined television commercials from major US industries aired during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 Grammy Awards.
The 2009 analysis shows that companies are relying significantly less on appearances by well-known stars in their television commercials. Instead, they increasingly collaborate with artists in subtler ways, using current or especially popular songs more frequently in place of traditional advertising jingles.
Key findings from GreenLight’s analysis include:
• Current or especially popular music was used in 25 percent of all commercials shown during this year’s Grammy Awards, matching the 2008 figure. Revised cover versions of both old and new hits were used particularly frequently.
• Only 7 percent featured celebrity appearances, a clear decline from 13 percent in 2008 and 21 percent in 2007.
• Only 2 percent of commercials used a jingle not based on a current or especially popular song, illustrating the now-limited appeal of this formerly essential advertising device.
• Despite the problems facing the automotive industry, Ford’s Lincoln brand, one of the official Grammy sponsors, appeared in no fewer than five commercials during the 2009 ceremony. All used current music.
• Retailers, automotive manufacturers and consumer-electronics companies advertised most frequently with stars and their music, while fashion and cosmetics showed a marked decline in this respect.
• Pharmaceutical companies, the most heavily represented advertisers at this year’s ceremony with nine commercials, continued to avoid entertainment-industry collaborations entirely.
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“As a result of the global economic crisis, a trend can be observed among major US advertisers away from booking popular stars for commercials and toward using music to establish shared cultural ground with consumers,” explained David Reeder, Vice President at GreenLight. “Companies such as Apple, Target and Absolut demonstrated in their Grammy Awards commercials that linking music with a brand can raise awareness of that brand and its significance while creating a stronger emotional connection with consumers.”
The Grammy Awards—one of the year’s most important television events—draw an average audience of about 20 million viewers. Thirty seconds of advertising costs at least US$1 million. During the broadcast, the 51st Grammy Awards achieved an average US market share of 20 percent, an increase of 3 percent over the previous year.
The winners among commercials featuring stars and music were productions for Target and Absolut, as well as Activision’s video game Guitar Hero.
“Absolut used Louis Armstrong’s popular song ‘A Kiss to Build a Dream On.’ This choice was perfectly aligned with the sophisticated, affluent audience that likes to see itself as socially engaged and involved,” Reeder continued. By contrast, Lincoln, CoverGirl and Wrigley’s were less successful, according to GreenLight’s experts. “With five commercials for the ‘Project Rising Stars: Lincoln Video Music Challenge’ competition, Lincoln attempted to bridge its core demographic and the coveted younger audience, but failed,” Reeder explained.
CoverGirl’s and Wrigley’s commercials featured celebrity couple Rihanna and Chris Brown respectively. Neither star had even appeared at the Grammy Awards after Chris Brown turned himself in to Los Angeles police over allegations of domestic violence.
“For both brands, these commercials were wasted time,” Reeder said. “Although neither CoverGirl nor Wrigley’s needs to fear damage to its image, the attention they attracted in this context was largely negative, and their investment paid off anything but well.”
All results of GreenLight’s 2009 Grammy Awards advertising analysis can be downloaded from http://www.greenlightrights.com.