It’s true media and entertainment brands bring a lot of fun, excitement, and glamour to the table. But staying top of mind with consumers is still a challenge – as it is for all brands.
The NetBase Media & Entertainment Industry Best Practices Guide shines a light on the brands meeting this challenge head on, and how they use social sentiment to do it.
Audience-driven Content Is Key
You might have a great idea for a new movie, TV series, or eSport – a.k.a. competitive online game – but if no one wants to watch or play, you’ll lose anything you invest.
The smarter move is to start with your audience, and what they actually want – then deliver.
Activision is a brand devoted to this strategy, and their success is unquestionable. Their Overwatch League netted more than 10M views in its first week, and more than 200K per session.
So how do you do the same? By understanding the audience you’re targeting.
When we look at social sentiment for gaming audiences, a few things stand out on the content front:
1. News – There’s a lot more news, and particularly political news, than you might expect. But on the predictable side, the topic of #NetNeutrality is the number one issue – discussed by gamers 3X more than the general population.
2. Movies – Comic book movies dominate, and that may not be a huge surprise, but you always want to confirm with social analytics rather than assume anything.
3. Sports – eSports aren’t the only ones gamers care about. But which sports do they like best? Turns out the NBA is preferred, with the conversation equaling that of baseball and football combined.
This is just one aspect of our gaming segment’s personality, and we already have a lot to talk to them about, and to potentially bring into game design.
What foods, music, and other brands do gamers care about most? You’ll have to read the full best practices guide to find out!
Trends, Logos, and Location Insights Impact Sponsor Success
Why do other brands mentioned by gamers – or any audience – matter? Because collaboration with another brand is a great way to put yourself in front of a new audience – one you have reason to believe might just love you.
Here are two important tactics to apply to measuring sponsorship and live event results:
1. Analyze before, during and after events to understand how your brand is being perceived.
For example, analysis of the UCL Final reveals conversation was at its peak during the game. But engagement peaked after the game, as the winning players from Real Madrid began posting. Also of note, discussions throughout the game were mainly text-based, but after the game there was a spike in image and video posts.
2. Look to image analysis for “logo mentions.”
Logo mentions for the UCL Final had 30X the engagement of text posts. Adidas benefitted from 4X the logo mentions of other brands. Considering several posts never mentioned them by name, they’d likely want to know about logo mentions to accurately assess ROI on their $1 billion sponsorship investment.
You cannot stop at analyzing keywords – it just isn’t enough to give you accurate data.
Shout-out to sponsors, but not mentioned by name
3. Use geographic analysis to plan for future events
In addition to the conversation happening in the location of your sponsorship event, you want to be on the lookout for any other geographic areas that over-index – indicating an interest you might be able to accommodate for your next event.
It’s also important to look at areas immediately surrounding your event, which might provide additional sponsorship opportunities. For instance, conversations about the UCL Final didn’t stop at the stadium.
Posts in the Fan Zone drove 10X the amount of engagement and 7X the total number of impressions versus posts in the stadium. And bonus: Sponsorship opportunities at these locations – like local bars, restaurants, shopping areas – are less expensive than at the stadium!
Look for the Love and You’ll Always Know What to Do
When you apply sentiment analysis to the picture of mentions, engagement, location and more, you identify your best bets for reaching the audience you seek.
Consumer interest and passion is never just about one thing – which means you need to use a variety of tools to understand all that’s driving the love for your brand at every level.
And this doesn’t apply only to media and entertainment brands. All brands can use these best practices to succeed in their own industries. But sometimes it helps to see how other brands do it so you know exactly how.
To learn how Deadpool 2 activated influencers to generate extended buzz for their movie, download the NetBase Media & Entertainment Industry Best Practices Guide today! Or reach out for a sentiment analysis demo of your own brand!
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