Golden Globes - The Recap

Like any good pop culture enthusiast, I spent the evening last night watching The Golden Globes.  It is, after all, the kick off to the biggest pop culture season all year.  From this we go to the Super Bowl, then the Grammies, the Oscars ... with a lot of stuff in between.  It's high season!

I of course also hosted one of my Twitter parties, which is such a blast to be commenting, sharing, and observing while we all watch live.  So much fun.  Now we are supposed to be commenting on the marketing, because that's my "brand," but we can't help ourselves for an event like this.  The conversations go all over the place.

So what's my recap of the evening?

First of all ... I will never understand why these accomplished, trained actors can't give a decent acceptance speech.  They drone on and on, with barely a message buried in what feels like fake surprise.  It kills me because they each have an opportunity to say SOMETHING in front of a worldwide audience.  Why don't they say something meaningful!  I don't get it.  The closest we got to anything substantial was Anne Hathaway's show of respect to Sally Field for the trail she blazed in covering a variety of roles.  It was still buried in a lot of noise, but at least there was a message in there.

Secondly ... brands need to be aware of wear out.  By the time we had seen the same Diet Pepsi spot over and over, we were all over it.  Our desire to seek out the brand faded with each repeat.  Brands have to know that fans are watching most of the show, so we get sick of the same message over and over.  Keep it fresh.  Target had a few executions of their campaign, so they were headed in the right direction.

Thirdly ... how about some new content.  I can't tell you how many brands ran the same old same old that they've been running for a year now.  Events like these attract a huge audience and offer a huge opportunity to represent your brand in a fresh way.  Go for it. This was particularly true of E's coverage of the red carpet.

The hosts ... Tina and Amy, we amazing.  I've never laughed so hard at an awards show ever, so I've got to give them major props for turning the boring into the truly engaging.  Great great work!

And finally ... need I say anything more than than just:  Jodi!

What's your experience?  Jim.

Jim Joseph
President, Cohn & Wolfe NA
Author, The Experience Effect series
Marketing Professor, NYU