For more than 20 years, Sherman Oaks florist Mark’s Garden has designed the towering greenery and blooming displays seen at the Oscars.
Getting that Hollywood awards-season work is key, particularly during the business’ typically slow first quarter of the year. And the free advertising that comes with your floral arrangements gracing the year’s biggest stage? Priceless.
“People love being associated with the florist that designs for the Oscars,” said owner Michael Uncapher. “It has shaped our reputation in a way no marketing campaign ever could.”
A report commissioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences estimated that the economic impact of last year’s Oscars and related events was $134 million in Los Angeles County, when using conservative estimates for visitor counts, average hotel rates and personal spending.
Last year, the nonprofit reported that its “Academy Awards and related activities” brought in about $147 million in revenue, which includes the nonprofit’s TV licensing deal with Walt Disney Co.’s ABC.
But despite long-term pressure on the event’s TV ratings, the Oscars remains an important driver of business for local companies.
Scores of small businesses, including Mark’s Garden, limo and car services, hotels, stylists, restaurants, caterers, security companies, designers, jewelers and others who make money from Oscars week, the related activities and events and the show itself, which airs Sunday.
Beyond small businesses, broadcast network ABC also stands to benefit from airing the show — in 2020, a 30-second ad during the telecast cost $2.15 million, on average, according to marketing data firm Kantar. Total ad revenue for that year was about $150 million.
“It is really a huge operation,” said David Offenberg, an associate professor of entertainment finance at Loyola Marymount University. “It’s not just the people onstage, but so many people behind the scenes.”
Last year’s show was watched on ABC by an average audience of 19.5 million viewers, up 4% compared to 2023, according to Nielsen data. Viewer interest in the Oscars that year was piqued by the best picture face-off between theatrical blockbuster nominees “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie,” along with a highly anticipated performance of the song “I’m Just Ken” by star Ryan Gosling.
The 2024 telecast marked the third consecutive time the Oscars saw viewership growth after an all-time audience low of 10.5 million in 2021. But it still paled in comparison to the 30 million people who once tuned in to watch the awards show. Oscar pundits have worried about ratings for this year’s telecast because so many of the best picture front-runners are relatively obscure.
But as television viewing habits have changed, so should the metric for success for the Oscars, said academy Chief Executive Bill Kramer.
This year, the show will be streamed live on Hulu for the first time, and it has garnered an increasingly international audience in 200 markets around the world. The academy also said its social media presence has increased.
“Of course, night-of ratings on broadcast television have traditionally been how we’ve defined our success in the U.S., but we reach people in so many different ways,” Kramer said. “We really have to think about our reach in a variety of ways.”
On the ground in Hollywood, more than 1,000 production workers have been at work, creating sets for the show, working on lighting and building the red carpet, he said.
Speaking on Zoom earlier this week from a hotel room at Ovation Hollywood, Kramer said the show not only supports these direct workers and the businesses that economically benefit from the show’s presence in L.A. but the entertainment industry as a whole.
That was an important consideration for the academy as it considered how to steer the glitzy awards show in the aftermath of the recent fires in Southern California.
Though there were calls to cancel or not broadcast the Oscars from people including “Hacks” star Jean Smart, Kramer said the academy decided to move forward after consultation with its board of governors, academy members and city leaders. (The academy did delay its nomination announcement and rescheduled other related events.)
“There’s a huge business impact to our industry,” said Kramer, who has led the academy since 2022. “This is an industry that’s had a complex several years with COVID and the strikes, so we thought it was really important to keep a positive energy surrounding the Oscars and our industry.”
Keeping the Oscars on track was especially important to Uncapher of Mark’s Garden, particularly because many of his January events were canceled due to the Palisades and Eaton fires. He’s also recovering from an arson attack on his business two years ago that left him operating out of a pop-up until later this year, he said.
“We have to continue on and keep the economy moving,” Uncapher said.
The Oscars represent a stable and predictable source of revenue for marketing firm Distinctive Assets, which makes swag bags for the nominees for the acting and directing awards.
The Miracle Mile-based company, which connects brands with celebrities, has put together its “Everyone Wins” bags for 23 years.
This year, the gift bags are filled with products and offers from 61 brands and include a four-night stay at resorts in the Maldives, cosmetics and hair care products from L’Oreal and 10 one-year subscriptions to a disaster recovery support firm that can be gifted to anyone.
The bags are not affiliated with the Oscars or the academy and are delivered to nominees well before the telecast airs. Company founder Lash Fary declined to disclose revenue information but said this promotion is on target and perhaps slightly above average for what he’d want to make from any promotion he does.
The “Everyone Wins” gift bag is one of two big events Distinctive Assets works in the first quarter. The other is the Grammys.
“This is the Super Bowl of awards shows, at least from a film perspective,” Fary said. “That’s what the brands are looking to be part of.”
In the past, actor Viola Davis has shown up to the resort gifted to her, and director Ron Howard hosted his son’s wedding at a resort advertised in the bag. Amy Adams was once photographed in a T-shirt from the “Everyone Wins” package while walking to the gym.
It’s these kind of celebrity associations that brands pay for, Fary said, that “instant cachet that Oscar week has.”
