The Academy Awards proved once again to be one of the hottest social media moments, thanks in part to politics. While host Jimmy Kimmel, presenters and winners delivered anti-Trump messages, Trump supporters had their own plans. According to international social media analytics firm Talkwalker, more than three million social media posts mentioned the Oscars between 6 and 11 p.m. eastern, peaking with 1.2 million posts between 9 and 10 p.m.
Just moments into the Academy Awards ceremony, two of the top trending hashtags were #WinnerisDJT and #TrumpWins4USA, part of a campaign by Trump supporters to get the president trending and perhaps to counteract any anticipated negativity during the Academy Awards telecast. As the end of the broadcast approached, #MAGA (with 44,000 mentions), #WinnerIsDJT (43,000 mentions) and #TrumpWins4USA (with 41,000) trailed only #Oscars2017 (247,000 mentions) among all trending hashtags.
Best Supporting Actor winner Mahershala Ali saw his name spike in social just after his win, with 36,000 mentions between 8:45 and 9 p.m. And with her win as Best Supporting Actress, Viola Davis burst into the social media sphere, peaking with nearly 9,000 mentions at 10 p.m. eastern, including a nod to Davis’ weekly series How to Get Away With Murder.
Talkwalker CEO Todd Grossman talked to DIVERGE about the trends they saw:
What trend surprised you on social media?
I think the sort of hijacking of the Oscars by Trump supporters came as a surprise as this hadn’t really happened in response to political ads around events thus far such as the super bowl. not surprising necessarily but interesting that political ads remained popular following super bowl. Brands like 84 lumber and airbnb had success then and other brands have clearly caught on. Will be interesting to see if this trend carries on with other major tv events this year and whether audiences will continue to respond as they become accustomed to this form of advertising.
Any data on red carpet trends?
Ruth Negga wearing a blue ACLU ribbon on the red carpet seemed to be
the event that got most attention, with around 8400 mentions. Also
receiving a lot of attention were Star Wars Rogue One star Felicity
Jones (around 4300 mentions), and Meryl Streep (3600 mentions) linked
in part to the Lagerfeld, Chanel dress argument.
Top Red Carpet trends:
– Mahershala Ali
– Christine Teigen
– Emma Stone
– Viola Davis
Were any of the ads trending?
Trending ads:
– Rolex
– Samsung
– Walmart
– Cadillac
– Adtech
Donald Trump preemptively tweeted about the New York Times running a TV spot, in advance of the Oscars. Surprisingly, the NY times spot wasn’t a top trending topic.
Overall trending celebrities?
– Viola Davis
– Mahershala Ali
– Casey Affleck
– Emma Stone
– Asghar Farhadi — This is noteworthy considering the Iranian
director chose not attend the award ceremony, citing solidarity with
the other 7 Muslim-majority countries that were banned from travel to
the US under Trump’s executive order. When he won the award, a note
was read on his behalf.
Will the “Best Picture” moment continue to trend on social media?
I would imagine the trend will die down quite soon unless we get some new, controversial information about exactly what happened. I would predict that social media will then focus on the winners and perhaps the political element of speeches and ads especially if Trump or other media respond in some way.
What was the conversation around Kimmel tweeting Trump?
Essentially Kimmel was calling out certain things Trump had done during his monologue and used social media to see if he was watching.
Additional thoughts?
Will be interesting to see if Trump supporters continue to react to perceived anti-trump ads around other events and whether this will impact how brands advertise – will they pull back so as not to get involved in a political argument or will they stand their ground? Also, will be interesting to see whether discussion around ads and politics will detract from discussion around the movies themselves or if attention does eventually shift back to the movies, actors and actresses.
