Academy Taps Social-TV Check-In Service, GetGlue, for Oscars Promotion

AdaptiveBlue, the company behind the social-TV check-in service, GetGlue (note: the company recently announced that it had raised $6 million in a third round of funding that was led by Time Warner), recently teamed with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and with Mercedes Benz USA on a promotion for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards.

According to the company, it worked directly with the Academy to create a unique set of GetGlue stickers for the Oscars: among other things, GetGlue users could unlock a "You're Invited" sticker in advance of the event; and could earn a "Best Picture Challenge" sticker that AdaptiveBlue said was designed to encourage users to "check-in to the Oscars between now [Thursday] and the end of the telecast and name their pick for this year's best picture." Users could check-in either via GetGlue's mobile apps or via Oscars.com--according to AdaptiveBlue, the promotion marked the first time that a major event has integrated entertainment check-ins onto its Web site.

According to a posting on AdaptiveBlue's corporate blog last week, the stickers for the GetGlue Oscars promotion included branding and promotional messages from Mercedes Benz, which was one of the sponsors for this year's awards ceremony. The Mercedes Benz advertising was presented as a layer that GetGlue users had to "peel off" each of the Oscars stickers they earned, the company said, in order to see the sticker itself. According to the company, this represented the first time that GetGlue has had a sponsor for its stickers. (Note: As this issue of [itvt] was going to press late Sunday, we noticed that AdaptiveBlue's blog posting covering the partnership with Mercedes appeared to have been rewritten and now no longer includes mention of the automaker.)

AdaptiveBlue also said Friday that it had partnered with E! Entertainment television on a special set of stickers for the latter's "Live from the Red Carpet" Oscar coverage, as well as for the post-Oscars edition of "Fashion Police." In addition, the company partnered with "Jimmy Kimmel Live" to offer stickers for the latter's post-Oscars show. The company, which is based in New York City and whose backers include Union Square Ventures and RRE Ventures in addition to Time Warner Investments, claims that GetGlue has over 900,000 users who collectively generate 12 million unique monthly check-ins. The company claims to have formed partnerships with over 50 top entertainment brands, including over 30 major networks and eight major movie studios.