We just finished watching the Oscars, which may have done more to alienate the Millennial audience than last year’s Franco fiasco. The show’s intro included a cameo from Justin Bieber who was on hand expressly to “get the 18-24 demographic,” as he put it in his banter with host Billy Crystal. However, the show overall offered very little to entertain young viewers.
Crystal delivered some great lines (including our favorite, “Have fun storming the fuhrer,” an homage to his role in The Princess Bride), but he spent more time mocking Millennials than entertaining them.
A Millennial’s version of watching a movie on “the big screen” means seeing it on an iPad, according to Crystal. The show’s shallow attempts to win Millennials with a brief glimpse of Bieber and the jarring inclusion of a scene from Twilight in an montage of cinematic classics instead revealed how little the Academy understands young viewers (Bieber tends to draw a younger demo than 18-24s, for example).
Still, the Academy Awards should be of interest to youth marketers because of the trend in 3D film. For the second time in three years, a 3D film, Hugo, took home the awards for Cinematography and Art Direction. The technology may be floundering for in-home entertainment, but it’s winning at the box office (and the Oscars), particularly in children’s movies.
Melanie Shreffler is editor-in-chief of Ypulse, a youth marketing, media and research site devoted to Generation Y.
