Luxury Swiss watchmaker Rolex integrates itself with Hollywood talent and Oscar’s glitter with its long-running multimedia sponsorship, which has many facets.
The Rolex logo — the four-pronged crown — is intertwined with the Oscar statuette in a cavalcade of interconnected marketing initiatives with the Academy Awards organizer, including:
* Film-critic darling Martin Scorsese and the late Alfred Hitchcock (via his estate) are paid presenters in Rolex marketing messages. Others are Jim Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow and Alejandro Gonzales Iñárritu. In addition, Orlando Blum, Brad Pitt and Mark Wahlberg seem to be general brand ambassadors.
* Scorsese and Cameron were seen onstage winning Oscars in Rolex TV commercials telecast during the 2021 Oscars. This felt like a product placement with Oscar images and the Rolex logo mingling. ABC Television charged $2 to $2.9 million per 30-seconds in 2021.
* Rolex commercials in ABC Television’s Oscar telecast in 2021 include scenes from movies “The Last Emperor,” “La La Land” and “Lord of the Rings.”
* Since 2016, Rolex sponsors the Oscars ceremony Greenroom where celebrities lounge before going before TV cameras, allowing the watchmaker to say it is literally “behind the scenes”. The Greenroom “prominently featured a gallery of legendary screen stars, each wearing an emblematic Rolex watch,” wrote one journalist.
* Rolex is a founding financial supporter of the mammoth new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures that is scheduled to open soon in Los Angeles.
* Since 2002, the watchmaker has funded its philanthropic Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative having Hollywood pros educate aspiring talent. “The Initiative’s film mentors include Academy Award-winning directors Martin Scorsese, Alejandro González Iñárritu and 2016 mentor, Alfonso Cuarón,” says a Rolex press release.
* In years past, Rolex sponsored official awards parties in New York and London where invited glitterati wash down sumptuous dinners with espresso martinis. In 2017, the parties were in the skyscraper restaurant the Rainbow Room in Midtown New York and the Soho district’s trendy Ham Yard Hotel in London.
* The current multifaceted Rolex sponsorship dates back to 2017.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) did not respond to questions about its Rolex sponsorship, while Rolex pointed to its extensive content online (see links below). AMPAS presents itself as an arts organization and as a registered non-profit reports its Oscars awards generates about $130 million annually. However, TV audiences are falling for the Academy Awards — including a severe 56 percent drop for the ABC Television telecast in 2021.
Despite audience erosion, the academic/business book “Marketing to Moviegoers” notes that “the Oscar telecast audience is skewed to females — who are drawn by the fashions and hair styles of glamorous movie stars — and so the telecast is sometimes referred to as the ‘Super Bowl for women’ because of its huge audience. … As a live event, viewing tends to be in real time and less so for delayed viewing when viewers record at home; advertisers are eager to embrace such must-see-live programs. Luxury personal care, jewelry/watches, lifestyle, and clothing brands pursue sponsorships and product placements in the Oscar season awards shows, seeking a rub-off from Hollywood glitz.”
A Rolex promotional post adds, “Discrete is probably not a word associated with Rolex. Over the years, models from the Swiss watch company have been used deliberately in films.” Another Rolex online post celebrates NBA players sporting its watches, no doubt to impress pro basketball’s bling-loving audience.
The Hollywood connection is not a contrived association for Rolex. Hollywood celebrities are conspicuous buyers of Rolex timepieces over the years from the late Marlon Brandon (a GMT-Master was said to be his favorite watch) to Paul Newman. Newman’s actual personal Daytona-model watch sold for a staggering $17.8 million in a 2017 auction and helped reignite sales today for the gadget-ity series that is priced $13,100 and up.
Rolex, which is the Swiss watchmaker that also owns the Tudor brand, generates annual revenue in excess of $5 billion. Rolex is believed to manufacture over 800,000 timepieces a year, which is a large output for a luxury product. So marketing is essential to keep sales brisk amid high output.
Luxury watches and other prestige brands including cars are big sponsors of film festivals, which draw sophisticated audiences that are target demographics for marketing. Other wristwatch brands are product-placements in films, most famously Omega in the James Bond agent 007 thrillers.
Related content:
- Rolex Video: Rolex and Cinema
- Press Release: Rolex Will Be a Proud Sponsor of the 89th Oscars
- Rolex Promotion: Rolex and the Oscars – How Rolex Conquered Hollywood
- MarketingMovies: Cinema Stirs Amid Oscars Debacle
- The Watch Club: James Cameron’s Rolex Watches
Leave a Reply