2007 Acadamy Awards Advertising Minutes Down Slightly From 2006

New York City - This year’s Academy Awards aired a total of 24 minutes of commercial time during the 3 hour and 10 minute broadcast (not including the Oscar pre-show), down slightly from 24 and a half minutes last year, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the advertising intelligence service of The Nielsen Company. Twenty-seven unique brands aired commercials that competed for viewers’ attention for a total of 38 national advertisements in this year’s broadcast. In addition, ABC aired 3 minutes and 50 seconds of promotional announcements.

Top Advertisers
General Motors was the top advertiser again this year, with 3½ minutes of commercial time, 30 seconds less than last year. Coca-Cola and L’Oreal tied for second place with 3 minutes each. J.C. Penney was the fourth largest advertiser with 2½ minutes. These four companies have maintained the top slots for the last two Oscar telecasts. Prior to 2006, Pepsi-Cola held one of the Top 3 spots as the leading soft drink advertiser. Coca-Cola took over that spot last year and holds that title again in 2007. L’Oreal became a major advertiser of the second-biggest night of the year for advertising in 2005, and continues to dominate.

2007 Top Academy Awards Advertisers
Advertiser | Number of Seconds
General Motors Corporation | 210
Coca-Cola Company | 180
L’Oreal | 180
J.C. Penney | 150
Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus

McDonald’s aired two commercials this year and American Express aired a 120 second spot, the longest running commercial of the event that featured a director shooting a film on location. These advertisers hold the distinction of being the only two companies that have advertised during the awards for the last 14 years. New advertisers to the 2007 Academy Awards include Apple (for its iPhone, a mobile telephone) and Unilever (Dove Cream Oil Body Wash). Apple aired three 30 second spots that showed movie and TV stars speaking on older model phones. Dove aired a 60 second spot created by a consumer who won a contest sponsored by Unilever, which asked women to create a commercial for the new Dove product, Dove Cream Body Wash.

Commercial Minutes
Over the last five years, the number of commercial minutes reached a high of 27½ minutes in 2005. This year’s event aired 24 minutes of commercials, the same amount as in 2003.

Year | Commercial Duration (Minutes:Seconds)
2003 | 24:00
2004 | 27:00
2005 | 27:30
2006 | 24:30
2007 | 24:00
*Commercial Minutes exclude promotional announcements
Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus

Promotional Announcements
ABC aired nine promotional announcements during this year’s event, mainly for primetime programs, including Ugly Betty, Lost and Dancing with the Stars. Spots also ran for Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live, a late night show.

Viewing the Commercials
To view full-motion commercials, storyboards and ratings that aired during the Academy Awards in previous years, visit our creative Web site at https://www.nielsenmedia.com/monitorplus/academyawards

The 2007 Academy Awards commercials will be available for viewing beginning February 28th 2007.



About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek), trade shows and the newspaper sector (Scarborough Research). The privately held company has more than 42,000 employees and is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com www.nielsen.com.