As well as the usually hotly-contested battles for best director and actors, the Oscars in recent years has become a competition for social media dominance as well. Social analytics provide a good indicator of where the public interest lies, and whether this diverges with the industry narrative.
The news coverage of the annual awards bonanza was dominated by the ongoing scandal enveloping Hollywood. Two studies of social media on Twitter both in the run up to, and during the ceremony itself from Kantar Media and 4C Insights give us a good insight into the focus of users.
Kantar analysed UK-based twitter activity and showed that in the run up to the ceremony it was #MeToo and #Timesup were the most popular hashtags. 4C insights, who looked at global figures, show that during the ceremony the social tags received 70,282 and 35,984 respectively.
And the winner is…
The films Get Out (whose director Jordan Peele walked away with the Best Original Screenplay) and Best Picture winner The Shape of Water were the real winners of the night, both in terms of awards and Twitter.
In the UK, Peele’s tweet ‘I just won an Oscar. WTF?!?’ was the most retweeted celebrity statement during the ceremony. When The Shape of Water won the top prize, it generated 645 tweets in 60 seconds.
In the 4C Insights figures, these two films come out well on top too. Get Out topped the total Twitter engagements with 2.328 million, while The Shape of Water followed close behind with 2.324 million.
“Twitter gives ordinary viewers the chance to be critics and social commentators, empowering them to make their views heard in a space traditionally dominated by news outlets and media personalities,” Richard Poustie, Chief Executive, Kantar Media UK & Ireland, commented.
“The Oscars brings together a vast and vocal audience of fashion and movie lovers, giving brands the opportunity to engage with fans around the world. By tapping into this event, using the right messages at the right time, brands and broadcasters can open up a valuable opportunity.
“Today, audience engagement is not limited to the broadcast window. Brands that fail to track engagement outside of this specific slot will find that they are missing out on a significant part of the conversation that audiences are having.”
