Oscars goodies bag: content to fill the Hollywood vacuum

Real-life content rather than the online variety this week, namely the contents of the $125,000 goodie bags given to all Oscars nominees in the categories of Best Actor and Actress, Supporting Actor and Actress and Best Director, regardless of whether or not they win.

According to movie industry bible Variety, the so-called swag bags contain a dazzling array of gifts for the star/starlet who truly has everything: the most expensive item in there is a $20,000 gift voucher for someone named Olessia Kantor, the founder of Enigma Life, to come and discuss your 2015 horoscope, analyse your dreams and teach you ‘mind control techniques’. It’s not clear if the last part has any link to the Star Wars films.

There are also $1,500 French Mediterranean sea salts, a $12,500 ‘glamping’ trip, a voucher for an $800 buffet of pudding and sweets (which presumably no actress will eat) and a vibrator.

More than anything, the list made me think ‘I’d rather have the cash’ and then ‘what, no diamonds?’.

But from a content marketing point of view, what lessons does the Oscars goodie bag contain? Firstly, that giving away your products to well-known and influential people must be worth an extraordinary amount in free publicity. Back here in the real world, getting endorsements or reviews of your products from respected people in your industry is an excellent way to create very valuable online content that is worth sharing on social media.

Secondly, the old chestnut of knowing your audience: $1,500 bath salts, a $20,000 horoscope and (reportedly an annual favourite), a $2,700 ‘vagina rejuvenation procedure’ known as the O-shot, may sound like a load of old rubbish to most of us, but to the Hollywood cognoscenti, they probably tick the boxes of being useful and desirable.

(Variety is at pains to point out the gift bags are not endorsed by the Academy, but distributed by Distinctive Asset, so I shall also make that clear.)