Lucid Motors Drives to Oscars as Many Car Advertisers Stay Away

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorOne of the automobile sector’s newest players is making a big bet on the Oscars at a time when many other car manufacturers are staying away from the glitzy event.Lucid Motors, a manufacturer of luxury electric vehicles that believes it can compete with traditional auto companies like Mercedes-Benz, has typically spent most of its TV-advertising money for  around sports and news programming.

On Sunday, it will sponsor the Oscars, an entertainment program, for the first time, part of a bid to get its name out to a broader audience.

Disney’s ABC has been seeking between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second ad in the show, according to media buyers and executives, and announced this week it had sold off all its commercial inventory around the event. “We just felt there was a moment happening around entertainment and film again,” after consumers spent the last two years hunkering down during the coronavirus pandemic, says Jeff Curry, Lucid’s vice president of marketing in an interview. “There are a lot of people now looking to go back to the movies.”The company won’t find much traffic in its way.

General Motors, which has sponsored the Oscars for the past few years, isn’t making an appearance on Sunday. And the only other auto advertiser that has disclosed its Oscars affiliation is Stellantis, which owns Chrysler, Dodge and Peugeot, among other brands.