Survey Confirms Entertainment Marketing Increases Consumer Sales

Why We Decided To Create A Monster Of A Survey

When we speak with new clients, the first thing they ask us is for proof that entertainment marketing works, and for us to share any analytics on the business model.  It's a tough question to respond to, as we do know from experience that it works, but it's often harder to prove. In short, the entertainment media influence on consumer purchases is huge.

But now, thanks to our survey, we have an endless amount of data to share!  We take a look at not only the survey results but the processes that went in to the creation.

Why We Know It Works

Our clients stay clients, and see an impact in their business based on our work. Whether that impact be better recognition when they are selling in to a new business buyer, or if their retail store sells out of a product after a placement airs or a celebrity posts their passion for the product.  And really, the best reason why we know it works? Our clients keep coming back for more!  

This doesn't mean they run internal reviews to see exactly how sales jumped, and it doesn't mean they track their website traffic rise every time a new entertainment campaign is implemented. It would be fantastic if they did, but they often have so much else to concentrate on, that reporting analytics on their end get lost in the daily struggles of keeping the other thousands of job duties they are tasked with going strong.

The founder of our agency, Stacy Jones, has overseen thousands of campaigns in her career, and our team at Hollywood Branded works to bring new campaigns to fruition daily - whether that be a single product placement or a comprehensive brand integration supported by celebrity endorsement and media advertising.  In all those years of activity, we have hundreds of case studies, for brand categories fitting almost every vertical.

The only thing we didn't have was a blind study that wasn't compromised by a client wanting to tell us what we wanted to hear. So we got the (we thought it was bright) idea last year to create a survey that focused on brand marketers, their agencies and consumers to find out what people truly thought, when they weren't just talking to us in person.

The Process

Our team sat down, and brainstormed, and brainstormed some more, to come up with what questions are most often asked, and what our own team wondered about. Everyone wants to know that what you are doing as a job is worthwhile to someone other than your boss, and hearing that our work matters and actually moves the needle makes a big impact on our day.

After weeks (literally weeks of team hour get-togethers here and there) of going through questions, looking for holes, and seeing what needed to be tweaked, we learned how to post a survey using www.research.net, the 'professional' parent option to www.surveymonkey.com.

There are options to pay people to take your survey, quickly getting results - often overnight. But no, we decided we could canvas our thousands of brand and agency contacts in our databases and email lists, and magically get consumers to respond as well through Facebook and favors and random Google postings on survey sites and... well the list goes on.  In the future, we would suggest you pay.  It takes far less time, and at the end of the day, we did that too.

Some questions we asked were answered by all three survey groups:  brands, agencies and consumers. But most questions were customized by the type of respondent. Which meant that at the end of the survey completion time period, we had so much data it was mind boggling.

The Result

We sifted and sorted, summarized, laid out various logic, created graphics matching out chosen report color schemes, and eventually (in our free time not working on client accounts) created a PowerPoint masterpiece so brilliant (and overboard), you will be stunned by the contents - or at least you will have most of your questions answered about entertainment-related marketing tactics.

So take a look at our graphs, our graphics, our text and even our customized infographics (yes, those too)...  And if you find you still have a question we missed, let us know - as we are going to repeat this process all over again in a year's time or so, to make sure our data remains relevant.

The survey results are (can we say it?) astounding, frank in commentary, and have provided us with more facts than any single brand marketer will ever want to read.  But the bottom line is... the survey results state that entertainment marketing is a practice that is here to stay, and one which works to increase consumer sales.

The result?  Well, check it out for yourself.  Our survey has been completed, our press release is here!

What are the key consumer findings we like the most from our survey?  

• 98% of consumers reported noticing product placement in television and film.
• 80% of consumer respondents favor product placement and see it as a form of ‘organic’ marketing.
• 51% of consumers reported being aware of making a purchase decision after viewing a TV or feature film product placement.
• 43% reported being aware of making a purchase after viewing a celebrity endorsement.

We only wish we could find out the percentage increase of consumers who where not cognizant of the association.  

What was most interesting to hear from brand and agency marketers?  

• 72% of brands and agencies use entertainment marketing in tehir current marketing mix. Entertainment marketing strategies include product placement, brand integration, celebrity endorsement, and entertainment co-promotional partnerships.
• 52% of marketers state TV is the most utilized platform, followed by digital.  Film is used by 29% of marketers, celebrities by 23%, music by 20% and gaming by 11%.
• 85% of marketers stated that entertainment marketing works to boost sales.

Check out the infographics with more detail on the survey in our blogs, including this one on how to create organic product placement in movies and TV shows.

Download the survey report and check out our data yourself!