A-list stars and popular tunes might cost the big bucks, but that didn’t stop a bunch of marketers from using both in commercials that aired during Sunday night’s Grammy Awards. (Dish Network defiantly swam against the tide.) A full 15 percent of the ads featured celebrity endorsements, a whopping 150 percent spike from last year, and 22 percent used pop music as a soundtrack, according to GreenLight, a licensing, talent and rights consultancy. (See its full report in PDF form here.) Among the brands rubbing elbows with Hollywood and music-industry elite were Target (Black Eyed Peas, Nick Jonas, Pearl Jam), Cover Girl (Drew Barrymore) and T-Mobile (Eric Clapton). Only a few marketers, like McDonald’s and Outback Steakhouse, stuck with their own jingles. Ads cost $1 million or more during the CBS show, which pulled in 25.8 million viewers for its best-rated performance in six years. It was worth the price for Target, T-Mobile and MasterCard, says GreenLight vp David Reeder, but not so much for Ford’s Lincoln and AT&T. An American Idol-inspired battle-of-the-bands ad from the former and a Luke Wilson showcase for the latter just didn’t cut it.
—Posted by T.L. Stanley