The Center for Media Research deposits an email in my box via the very useful MediaPost a few times a week with research briefs from different sources that I occasionally find interesting.
One caught my eye today, from the Cinema Advertsing Council (CAC), involving emotional attachment people have to movies. Now, the “NewMediaMetrics 360 Cross Platform Study” is a product of the CAC, which, according to its Website, “serves cinema advertising sellers, the theatrical exhibition community and the advertising community, acting as a central source of information for the industry.”
So — surprise! — the study has found that movies have a higher emotional attachment rating (between about 43 to 45%, depending on the category) than TV, radio, magazines and the Internet, which range from about 20 to 30%, for consumers of various types of goods and dining services.
Additionally, the study notes that the 41.5% rating for movies is also higher than watching major televised sports and entertainment events, including the Super Bowl (emotional attachment rating of 39.7%, Summer Olympics (26.3%), World Series (22.8%), Oscars (16.1%) and Grammys (15.1%).
The full report, including methodology, is available here.
It’s easy to be skeptical of a report whose results so clearly benefit the group that commissions it, but I think that within the general consumer population there is some truth to it.
But here’s the issue I have with the study. The sporting events listed in the televised category are the largest viewed by “casual” sports fans; they are once-a-year happenings, whereas NFL or MLB or NBA fans who watch their favorite teams and others dozens of times a year may have a larger emotional attachment, just as Kanye West fans have a greater attachment to his music than to the Grammys and dedicated “Lost” fans are closer to that show than to the Emmys.
The goal of the study is to show that the cinema is a viable environment for marketers to connect with consumers. Fair enough. But I think the way it was structured underestimates the emotional attachment that sports, music and TV fans have to those respective categories.
