The 2024 Golden Globes: Lessons in Marketing

I don’t know about you, but I love it when famous people get in a room together.

And this past Sunday, Hollywood had a party, with its most dazzling stars in attendance.?

Now, the Globes are a historically dull and thoroughly predictable award show. And yet they actually had their best year in some time, with viewership of the live telecast jumping 50% (according to CBS).

However, there were some ~critical~ errors and good marketing reminders that I took away.?

Here are three:

1. Don’t alienate your target audience.

Jo Koy hosting the Golden Globes was a choice. And it was a bad one.

That’s not to throw shade at his stand-up comedy. Simply to say that on Sunday, he didn't bring the funny.

Koy managed to alienate Hollywood’s A-Listers in under two minutes; with bad jokes, reducing our beloved Barbie movie to gently sexist jokes, and blaming his writers for flop after flop.?

Yikes.

My takeaway…

Your messaging needs to attract your target audience - not repel it.?

Your target audience is the heartbeat of your marketing, and everything you do should be aimed towards them and what they’ll find engaging - or in this case, funny.?

Having a host who doesn’t understand the target audience, and is actively offending them, will not get them on side. If anything, it might make it harder to encourage engagement from them in the future.

The only thing “positive” thing you’ll get are some meme-able moments for all of us marketers to use for months to come. Many thanks Jo Koy x?

2. Don't ignore consumer feedback.

For years, the Globes have been WAY too long.

So when the awards were acquired by Penske Media, and transformed into a for-profit event, I was hoping they’d listen to feedback and make the programme significantly shorter.?

My hopes were not answered. The three-hour show draggedddd - especially the last hour - with dumb comedic bits, endless commercial breaks, and mind-numbingly slow pacing.?

My takeaway…

Listen to consumer feedback and act on it.

If you don’t listen to feedback, you risk frustrating your audience. And what do people do when they’re frustrated? They disengage and change the channel. Or scroll. Or swipe.?

This is more critical than ever, given today’s media landscape. With shortening attention spans and millions of pieces of content fighting for our attention, it's unwise to blatantly ignore valid feedback.

If it’s in your power to actively fix your product based on consumer feedback, why wouldn’t you? @Golden Globes, that one’s for you.

3. Don't sleep on the power of cultural relevance.

This year, the Golden Globes introduced two new award categories, one being the award for “Cinematic and Box Office Achievement in Motion Pictures”.

On the surface, this seems like a “who made the most money” award. And I’m sure, on some level, it is. But it’s also a reward for being culturally relevant.?

Nominees in the category included Barbie, Oppenheimer and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, with Barbie taking home the gold. Now, what do all these movies have in common? They left a significant mark on movie culture and culture more generally.?

My takeaway

Cultural relevance is key to marketing and long-term company success. Without creating culturally relevant content, you risk being left behind.

In my opinion, this is one thing the Globes made a start at doing well.

Even though this new award is stupid at face value (sorry), it gets famous people, like Taylor Swift, in the room.

It celebrates movies and moments like Barbenheimer; movies people went to see and cultural moments people will remember for years to come.?

Celebrating movies that have made a mark on culture encourages engagement with the show.

At the end of the day, you're more likely to watch if your favourite movie or tv show of the year has a chance to bring home the gold.