The 5 best real-time marketing moments of the Oscars

1. Ellen’s star-studded selfie
Ellen DeGeneres was a solid host — but her big moment of the night required a little help from her friends. DeGeneres  gathered a who’s who of A-listers from the audience around her — Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Jared Letto, Lupita Nyong’o and her brother, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Kevin Spacey, Meryl Streep and Channing Tatum — snapped a self-portrait with them and promptly tweeted it out. Before the evening had ended, the selfie became the most retweeted photo ever — surpassing even President Barack Obama’s “four more years” tweet. DeGeneres had wracked up 2.5 million retweets by this morning and more than a million favorites — the tweet even caused Twitter to briefly crash. It was also a much needed boost to Twitter itself, which could use some more mainstream appeal.

Of course brands couldn’t resist piling on:

You got this, Ellen! RT @theellenshow If only Bradley’s arm was longer. Best photo ever. #oscars pic.twitter.com/22E0oonzHA

— 16 Handles (@16Handles) March 3, 2014

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) March 3, 2014

2. Arby’s continues Pharrell hat buzz
Pharrell Williams’ much-buzzed-about Vivienne Westwood hat from the Grammy’s went up for auction in late February. In a stroke of lucky timing for the food chain, the auction wrapped on Oscar day — and guess who won. Pharrell thanked Arby’s in a tweet, which responded by wishing the Oscar nominee luck on his big night. The $44,100 that Arby’s spent for the hat will go to the charity. But Arby’s itself was the beneficiary of more than 6,100 retweets and more than 4,000 favorites.

.@Pharrell You’re welcome. We’re HAPPY to support a great cause & get our hat back. Good luck at the #Oscars tonight! pic.twitter.com/2oA7qDPX9z

— Arby’s (@Arbys) March 3, 2014

3. NASA’s real-life gravity tweets
“Gravity” was awarded a handful of Oscars, and no brand was a bigger cheerleader than NASA. The space agency spent the night cleverly tweeting out real facts and cool images relating to gravity using the hashtag #RealGravity — totally on-brand for NASA. The tweets generated a good amount of engagement, like this tweet which got more than 8,100 retweets and more than 3,900 favorites.

Congrats on another win at #Oscars2014 #Gravity for cinematography. Here’s the #RealGravity – Earth from #ISS pic.twitter.com/CZHA2HZde9 — NASA (@NASA) March 3, 2014

4. Big Mama’s & Papa’s Oscar moment
The local pizza joint got major free publicity when Ellen decided to order delivery pizza for hungry attendees — regular folks like Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford. The pizza place tweeted out a simple thank you tweet to Ellen, which has gotten more than 460 retweets and more than 400 favorites. We’re guessing Big Mama and Big Papa will be fielding a lot more big orders soon. Oh and if they want some help with their real-time marketing efforts, MRY has offered its services.

#Oscars #BMPP, Thank you Ellen! pic.twitter.com/IHmtjW39qg — Big Mama’s & Papa’s (@BigMamasNPapas) March 3, 2014

5. Chobani threw some shade
Chobani prefers to keep its tweets as authentic — and its buzz as organic — as its yogurt. Rather than fawning over celebrity outfits and pandering to Oscar winners on Twitter, the Greek yogurt brand did a little sly anti-Academy marketing. It even used the trending #oscars hashtag, just to troll the awards show.

Fake is only good in Hollywood. #howmatters #oscars pic.twitter.com/otU7SSBjyR

— Chobani (@Chobani) March 1, 2014