Hashtag Oscars

Orchestrating Social Media Success

The Oscars have long been an American institution for the celebration of one of our most beloved mediums, the movies.

For 86 years people have been glued to the Oscars waiting to hear the names of their favorite actors or films called to take home that most prestigious golden statue.

From the glamourous red carpet to the exclusive after parties, the Oscars exemplify all of the grandiosity of Hollywood culture.

Last night was very different.

The red carpet became a conveyor belt for commentary, the stars seemed to shine a little less bright and the awards seemed to have become somewhat of a backdrop to something much bigger and seemingly more important.

It was one of those moments in culture where I think we all felt a tectonic shift of what was really being showcased at the Oscars.

We are blessed to live in a country where there is relative peace. We don’t face societal unrest or uprisings, we enjoy the stability of being a country that prides itself on over consumption and finding comfort in the movies we watch.

At the same time we are the innovators and the architects of the new social platforms that are meant to equalize the voice of the masses and give amplification to what used to be the silenced.

Platforms and tools that are used to broadcast change and to capture history as it happens.

Our own uprisings are mostly cultural. They are the causes and concerns of the first world and are arguably less important than say what is going on in the Ukraine. However as a nation we also crave the need to react to things that are happening in real time so that we can feel like we are a part of our own history and the unfolding of cultural events.

Last night was one of those moments where something else was definitely going on.

Ellen Degeneres, who hosted the Oscars, and is as socially savvy as anyone in Hollywood seemed to have been extremely calculated in her approach to how she ran the show.

Those of us who understand the nuances of social moments clearly knew exactly what Ellen was doing and she did it brilliantly.

Ellen seemed somewhat removed from the actual Oscars themselves and more focused on orchestrating Twitter like a grand maestro knowing exactly when and how to elicit reaction and how to provoke social engagement.

It seemed like Ellen cared little for the stars around her, mocking them at times. It felt like the evening was about her and the billions of people on social media waiting to pull the trigger on a witty response or to comment on her antics and social media worthy fodder.

It felt like Ellen had a social media playbook written before the show and she executed it flawlessly. You could almost see how intensely her eyes were fixated in her awareness that she was hosting a much bigger show than the Oscars. The selfie retweet record was just icing on the cake.

Her pizza order which seemed like nothing more than comic shtick was actually an important precedent for how brands can more natively become a part of a live event in a way that can only be supported through social media.

Ellen ran a clinic for how live events should be hosted knowing that a larger audience not only needs to be engaged in the show but also wants to engage on social media.

Ellen used the Oscars like her own personal social experiment and it was a huge success.