• by March 20, 2001

A lot has changed since we last reported on the Race for Oscar in terms of online advertising. While Gladiator is still not plugging itself online, Traffic has virtually halted its online ad campaign. Leading Web Advertisers (LWA) recently compared trends in the online advertising strategies of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Best Picture contenders before and after the nominations were announced on February 13th.

According to LWA's findings, the nominations did not drastically affect the online ad strategy for Erin Brokovich or Traffic, thought they both slightly decreased their online efforts (Erin Brokovich's online advertising fell 18% and Traffic's decreased by 2%).

However, after the nominations, both Chocolat and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon put their online ad campaigns into full force by increasing the number of web ads by 90% and 84% respectively. 95% of Chocolat's total number of web ads and 92% of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's total were placed after the nominations were announced.

One month prior to the nominations, Traffic accounted for 54% of the total number of online ads for the Best Picture Oscar contenders with 240 ads. Erin Brokovich came in second with 29% of total web ads with 132 ads, Chocolat was third with 10% of the total or 46 ads, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon came in fourth with 7% or 32 ads, while Gladiator maintained its online advertising boycott.

In the month following the nominations announcement, Chocolat took the lead with 53% of the total number of online ads for the Best Picture Oscar contenders with 868 ads. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon took second place with 25% of total Best Picture web ads with 107 ads, while Traffic fell to third with 16 % or 272 ads, and Erin Brokovich was demoted to fourth with only 6% of ads, 107 in total. Gladiator still refrains from competing in the online advertising arena.

While Traffic seems to have abandoned its aggressive online effort and Erin Brokovich seems to have followed suit, both Chocolat and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon have entered the online advertising arena in full gear. While the online battle ensues, it will be interesting to see if the winners in the web advertising ring will prevail, or will it be the Gladiators watching quietly from the sidelines?