My wife and I just
got back from seeing the Reader and are currently, like many Americans, watching the Oscars. I wanted
to quickly post a movie related mobile tip, and then try to predict
the winners with mobile search volume via the new Google Mobile
keyword tool
.

First, the tip: if
you have a captive audience waiting for a movie to start staring at
the time in the glow of their unused smartphones, don’t show
them a URL that they have to wait to get home to access. Instead,
encourage them to access the site right there in the theater from
their unused phones. By doing so you extend the time your intended
audience is able to engage with your ad campaign, and the value of
the investment in the theater ad. There were a number of URLs that I
saw in the theater, but now that I’m home I can’t
remember any of them. The one URL I tried to access from the theater
was for a desktop site I couldn’t access from my Blackberry
that I can’t remember the URL for. NCM.com maybe? MCN? Who
knows. It didn’t work on my phone when I tried to access it, and I’m not going to try again.

Give these bored
people something to do and they will be happy to follow you to mobile
content.

Now to the show. The
idea is, the mobile searchers pick the winners through the volume in
Google’s new keyword tool, and we’ll see how the results
measure up.

First up…Best Supporting Actress

Keywords (mobile devices)

Approx Search Volume: January

Approx Avg Search Volume

amy adams

1900

1900

marisa tomei

1600

1300

taraji p henson

480

390

viola davis

12

22

penelope cruz

2900

2900

Winner: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

The mobile searchers
had that one right. Let’s see how they do during the rest of
the show. Stay tuned…

Best Supporting Actor

Keywords (mobile devices)

Approx Search Volume: January

Approx Avg Search Volume

heath ledger

6600

22200

robert downey jr

3600

2900

josh brolin

3600

880

philip seymour hoffman

480

390

michael shannon

91

91

Winner: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Actress

Keywords (mobile devices)

Approx Search Volume: January

Approx Avg Search Volume

angelina jolie

27100

22200

anne hathaway

6600

5400

kate winslet

1600

1600

meryl streep

1000

1300

melissa leo

110

36

Winner: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Actor

Keywords (mobile devices)

Approx Search Volume: January

Approx Avg Search Volume

brad pitt

9900

8100

sean penn

1900

1300

mickey rourke

720

480

frank langella

140

73

richard jenkins

91

58

Winner: Sean Penn, Milk

Best Picture

Best Director

Keywords (mobile devices)

Approx Search Volume: January

Approx Avg Search Volume

milk

49500

33100

the reader

590

320

benjamin button

480

260

frost nixon

480

73

the curious case of benjamin button

-1

73

slumdog millionaire

-1

46

Best Picture Winner:
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director
Winner: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

2 out of 5 right probably indicates that mobile search volume is better at predicting who searchers think is sexy or newsworthy than who members of the academy believe is worthy of being celebrated. Nonetheless, another good year for movies, and for movie-related mobile searches. Congratulations to Slumdog Millionaire, and all the nominees at last night’s Academy Awards.