The benefits of dressing an Oscar attendee

The 86th edition of the Academy Awards, which took place on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles saw a number of celebrities dressed in designer gowns grace the red carpet ranging from fashion houses such as Versace, Christian Dior, Prada, to Elie Saab, and Alexander McQueen.

A moment in the spotlight on the red carpet and award acceptance not only means all eyes around the world are focused on the celebrity, but also on what the celebrity is wearing. According to a recent report published by Kantar Media “a select group of marketers will also be looking to take home prize, paying hefty prices to be associated with this marquee franchise and woo its viewers.”

"The

red carpet is a huge marketing opportunity" for designer labels

Designers and fashion labels are all eager to dress a celebrity for the Academy Awards, as they benefit from attaching their names to the attendees and enjoy free publicity that goes dressing Oscar personality. Ashma Kunde, apparel and footwear analyst at Euromonitor International believes that “it is evident that the red carpet is a huge marketing opportunity for designer fashion brands. Obviously the choice of celebrity is important: it’s not just picking winners, but also knowing who are in vogue with their target consumer.”

“For example, Dior’s choice of Jennifer Lawrence. Her ‘girl-next-door’ attitude has resonated well with millennial consumers and hence lends the brand a youthful image. In fact, consumers have come to appreciate her imperfections – for example her infamous fall at the Oscars last year was well-documented across social media platforms, making the Dior gown she wore even more memorable.”

With nearly a million online social media mentions according to Salesforce Exact Target Marketing Cloud, plus numerous red carpets photographs, articles, in addition to 75 seconds of air-time that included Lawrence's Dior trip during the 2013 Oscars, by dressing the actress the French Fashion house managed to tap into a world of free advertisement. This in addition to the three and half hour event reaching an estimated 40.3 million viewers in the US, as well as viewers tuning in from 200 countries, equals a lot of almost free publicity.

Dressing a celebrity more beneficial than paid ad time during the Oscars

According to Kantar Media, on average a 30 second advertisement slot during the Oscars ceremony in 2013 costed 1.65 million dollars. If Dior had opted to pay for advertisement the same length as Lawrence's air time, it would have cost the company over 4 million dollars. Stylelight.nl estimated the cost of creating and altering a custom couture gown for the Oscars averaged 30.000 dollars. By lending out a gown for the event, fashion houses are able to enjoy the benefit of free marketing for a fraction of the cost.

This

year's award ceremony saw Lawrence named as the most tweeted about celebrity according to Twitter, and the Oscars Insider best dressed poll currently has her listed in third place with 17 percent. Although Lawrence did not go home with an award this year, her deal with Dior meant she will wear Dior garments to all public events and stars in its latest ad campaign, which was released just ahead of the Oscars.

The French fashion house declined to disclose the amount paid for its agreement with Lawrence, however according to recent reports the group witnessed sales of 16.2 billion euros for the six months to December 2013, with Dior Couture reporting first-half sales of 758 million euros, up 20 percent in constant exchange rates.

“Obviously the content will differ between the two,” adds Kunde. “Oscar gowns are very often custom-made, whilst content of an advertisement is part of the seasonal collection. Nonetheless, images from high-profile events such as the Oscars generate a significant amount of buzz and photo-sharing opportunities across social media, compared to traditional advertising, making it a very effective brand-building tool.”

With advertising slots for the 2014 Oscars sold for an estimated 1.8 million dollars per 30 seconds, according to external reports, dressing a celebrity seems to be the more beneficial and cheaper option for designer labels, and has lead to a number of fashion houses developing capsule couture lines such as Gucci Premiére and Armani Privé, which both found their way onto the Oscars red carpet this year.

Photos: Oscar nominees, Jennifer Lawrence in Dior at the 2013 and 2014 Oscar ceremony.