Award Season PR with Variety Editor Steven Gaydos

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Award season is fun when you're young and single. I represented the Pussycat Dolls back in the day, escorting them on many a red carpet.

But award campaigning has changed quite a bit since then, my guest Steven Gaydos explains in this exclusive interview about how entertainment PR people launch campaigns to improve their client's prospects of getting nominated and winning.

What hasn't changed is the awards season is an source of advertising revenue to Variety.  

Variety executive editor/international managing director Steven Gaydos was the newspaper's first managing editor of special issues. He was named executive editor of Variety/Daily Variety and in that capacity he helps oversee the work of the largest entertainment news staff in the world.

Gaydos took on the additional role of international managing director of Variety, overseeing the global business operations from the London office. Gaydos is author of the Variety/Putnam book, The Variety Guide to Film Festivals, and is also coauthor of Movie Talk from the Frontlines (McFarland) and Cannes: 50 Years of Sun, Sex and Celluloid (Miramax/Hyperion). 

Gaydos has been the regular feature presenter of the “Loose Talk” segment on BBC London's Saturday Morning Breakfast Show. He is also a regularly featured guest on CNN, BBC's Liquid News, World Service, Five Live, among others.  

SHOW NOTES:

08:13 – How Oscar campaigns are changing as a result of the internet and its interactive nature.

09:15 – How online chatter in blogs are affecting advertising decisions and how much people inside the business pay attention to these blogs.

09:48 – How surprising the copyright infringement action taken by the Academy Awards.

10:32 – How realistic he believes the online copyright actions by the Oscars are.

11:51 – How major sites like YouTube and MySpace help show how the internet is growing as a platform for entertainment and information.

13:13 – What traditional media outlets are in major trouble due to the onset of new media.

14:17 – Whether or not he believes the new LA Times section called The Envelope infringes on Variety’s territory.

15:25 – How important a source of revenue the advertising leading up to the Oscars are, compared to all the other areas.

16:33 – What trends he has seen in Oscar ads since the onset of new media and how this year is performing compared to the expectations.

17:31 – How big of an impact the huge numbers of awards shows have had on advertising for the Oscars.

19:49 – Whether or not he thinks there will be any interactivity like there was with Justin Timberlake at the Grammys.

20:53 – Impact that social media has on his job and how strongly he feels about that change.

22:35 – How digital has impacted the way Variety reporters cover Hollywood.

23:48 – LA Times and what the paper needs to do to save itself.

25:15 – Gaydos on whether or not the IRS crackdown on gift bags at the Golden Globes or the Oscars has truly had an effect on the amount of swag celebrities are given.

26:30 – End.