NewMediaMetrics Inc. Releases Data Showing Mobile App, TV, Print and Other Platform Preferences for Consumers of Major Brands

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Sep 14, 2011) - Automotive marketers who want to select the best type of mobile app on which to reach female consumers, should consider choosing a social networking or music app, according to the latest data from strategic marketing and analytics company NewMediaMetrics.

The 2011 Cross Platform database, which for the first time, enables analysis of mobile app data, also found that social networking apps are ideal for a Ford brand message targeting females while music apps are the most effective mobile platform on which to reach the most emotionally attached females of the Volkswagen and Honda brands.

According to Gary Reisman and Denise Larson, who co-founded NewMediaMetrics in 2004, the annual Cross Platform database measures the Emotional Attachment, or very strong link, between consumers, their favorite brands, and the media outlets they view most intently. Marketers are three times more likely to drive purchase when they target the consumers with the strongest emotional attachment to their brands in the media outlets those same consumers are also most attached to.

Brands and media companies including Procter & Gamble, Verizon, Walmart, Yahoo!, ABC, Turner Broadcasting and others have used Emotional Attachment data to increase sales of existing products, help launch new products, and target potential advertising partners.

Other findings from the 2011 Cross Platform database include:

• Males who have a high emotional attachment to Visa, MasterCard and American Express also have a strong link to GPS/location-based apps.

• Males who have a high attachment to Budweiser, also have a high attachment to GPS/location-based apps, but that platform is preferred even more among males who have a high emotional attachment to Heineken.

• Both genders with a high attachment to Charles Schwab and Fidelity have a high attachment to GPS location apps. However, they have a low attachment to the People Magazine and Time Magazine apps for iPad.

• Those television and cable networks with the strongest emotional attachment for consumers are ABC, FOX, CBS, and then NBC, followed by cable networks Discovery, Comedy Central, History Channel, Food Network, ESPN, and USA.

• The auto brands with the strongest emotional attachment among consumers are Audi, BMW, Acura, Mercedes, and Lexus. Honda dropped from the top spot in the 2010 Cross Platform Study to number seven in 2011. Among 22 auto brands measured, Buick has the lowest emotional attachment among consumers.

• Volkswagen is the auto brand with the strongest emotional attachment among the drivers of tomorrow, 13-17 year olds. Among smartphones operating systems, consumers are more emotionally attached to iPhone than Android, while emotional attachment to BlackBerry has dropped 16 percent year-over-year.

• Emotionally attached consumers of Coke and Pepsi are most attached to football among all sports and entertainment interests. Conversely, tennis and NCAA basketball and tennis rank very low in terms of attachment for the same consumers.

• News, health and cooking link most strongly as interests of those consumers who are highly attached to Visa and MasterCard. Community activism ranks last among their interests.

NewMediaMetrics' Emotional Attachment Index, the foundation of the 2011 Cross Platform Study, is based on the most widely accepted approach to measuring the strongest human bond -- the emotional attachment between mother and child. The company applies its principles to measure the attachment consumers have to particular brands and to particular media outlets, and then quantifies the strong link between the two.

"When consumer attachment to a brand is strong and that brand is marketed through media outlets where consumers also have a strong attachment, the results of marketing programs are turbo-charged. The consumer is more likely to be intently watching, listening to or interacting with the media property and ultimately three times more likely to consider buying that brand," Reisman observed. "Emotional Attachment offers marketers a new way to view and connect media and the marketplace. Aligning brand Emotional Attachment and media Emotional Attachment is simply the most direct way to garner value, action and sales from advertising through a smart media plan."

Larson added, "Other tools focus on purchase intent, brand preference and likeability ratings but it's probably not a stretch to question whether these metrics are accurate in today's extremely fragmented and segmented world. The key to marketing success is recognizing the link between one's bond with a brand and their bond with a media outlet and focusing efforts where each is strongest."

Methodology
The 2011 Cross Platform Study is the result of an online survey of 3,500 consumers, ages 13-54, which gauges their Emotional Attachment to 330 brands and more than 350 media properties.

About New Media Metrics
Founded in 2004, NewMediaMetrics Inc. is a strategic marketing and analytics company that uses Emotional Attachment (EA) -- a highly predictive metric and approach based on proven academic theory -- to help marketers and media owners identify their strategic targets and link those targets directly to the media they most intently consume.