So, I have to admit, I watched a few minutes of the Academy Awards the other night. It’s not something I usually care too much about, but I had a few minutes to kill before a show started. Whatever. I happened to be watching during the part where Ellen is walking through the crowd talking to the different celebrities. She stops to talk to Meryl Streep and gets a “spontaneous” idea to take a selfie with her and other celebrities around her to see if can break the record for being the most re-tweeted photo.
Me, the sucker who never mixes her social media with her tv watching, gets sucked in! I find myself getting on Twitter and re-tweeting this group shot. I have to admit, I felt a little ashamed about it, but again, whatever.
This morning, I’m scrolling through Yahoo articles and I see one about this very incident. The article goes on to say that this “spontaneous” moment wasn’t very spontaneous at all. It was all a part of promoting the sponsor, Samsung. Needless to say, I felt like a sucker! Completely fell right into their little marketing hands. But then I thought about how the landscape of marketing and advertising has changed over the past decade. I couldn’t help but change my view and think this was actually genius. It also has made me more aware that self-promotion and marketing one’s business is a constant and evolving phenomenon. I’ve gotta step up my game if I want to get noticed!