Re: Kitty Brucknell or Meade Skelton - You Vote
Date: October 02, 2011 07:20PM
Earlier this month, The X Factor drew its biggest audience to date, outside a final, when 17.7m viewers tuned in to watch Cher swagger, Katie weep and Aiden pull some mightily unpleasant faces, then cry 'fix' when voted off.
While not everyone will admit to being a fan of the talent show, its appeal spans generations, gender and socio-economic backgrounds. Nintendo says The X Factor presents a mass-marketing opportunity in the UK akin to that of the Super Bowl in the US; but just which consumers are represented in this audience, and how do they engage with the show and those brands who advertise in the prime ad spots?
A survey of 1500 viewers of The X Factor, conducted this month by research firm Brand Driver exclusively for Marketing, found that the show's viewers can be broken down into three categories: 'passive viewers', 'fan voters' and 'fan social networkers'.
According to Brand Driver, this is the first in-depth glimpse of The X Factor audience, beyond its demographic composition.
Limited recall
'Those "fan" viewers who are the most engaged with the show have a better chance of remembering the ads,' explains Brand Driver managing director Karen Wise. 'The more engaged that people are with The X Factor, the more responsive they are to the ads. This will be reassuring to advertisers, who are looking to grab every opportunity to reach their audience.'
Overall, spontaneous recall of ads during The X Factor is low, however. While about half of viewers across all groups were able to recall TalkTalk as the programme's sponsor, other advertisers proved harder to remember - even Nintendo, which has used stars including 2008 X Factor runner-up JLS to front its ads, scored only 0.1%.
In fact, it appears that the popularity of the show could be what makes ad recall harder.
'The scale and momentum of The X Factor mean that a lot of advertisers are attracted to it,' says Wise. 'As a result, they may lose impact amid the other brands, despite the large audience numbers - they need to fight harder to stand out.'
Yeo Valley's comparatively high recall rate of 2% reflects the 'talkability of the brand' at the moment, says Wise, adding that the 'rapping farmers' in its ad have created content that some viewers will look out for specifically, giving it 'extra currency'.
While the prime-time ad spot is enticing for advertisers, the findings suggest that it may not be right for all brands.
'Advertisers should be looking at buying airtime according to when their core target market has real engagement with a TV show,' suggests Wise. 'Just because there's a bumper audience watching, doesn't mean your ads will cut through. Advertisers should look for programmes that their audience really connects with, which may mean lower audience figures, but greater engagement.'
In addition, brands that advertise around the show should consider whether their target audience is participating in other media, be that The X Factor website or magazine, or talking about the show online.
As Wise points out: 'Recall of online ads on the show's website is better than for TV. Where the viewers' interest spills over from watching the TV show, these are the people who remember your advertising the most.'
WHO'S FRONTING YOUR NEXT CAMPAIGN?*
Cher Lloyd - Primark 20%, iPod 14%
Matt Cardle - Levi's 32%, Audi 28%
Mary Byrne - Fairy Liquid 46%, Paxo 34%, Clarks 23%, Harvester 20%
Wagner Pot Noodle 21%, National Express 14%
One Direction - Disney movies 22%, Pepsi 20%, iPod 16%
Rebecca Ferguson - Innocent 21%, Audi 14%
Katie Waissell Disney movies 16%, Primark 12%
Fairfaxunderground rules: Lilliputions, not ok. Midgettville ok. I got it now.