Cultural Currency – There's Still Magic in Mass - Stacey Lynn Schulman-TVB

Are you riding the Twitter feed while watching the season finale of your favorite show this month Or maybe you39re a science fiction fan debating the relative merits of the latest storyline changes on Facebook For mass media and the marketing industry that supports it social networking represents the latest opportunity to keep consumers quotengagedquot amp8211 that elusive concept of quotstickinessquot that mollifies our fears of consumer distraction and rightfully so In today39s world of digitization personalization and customization the competition for attention is fierce Consumers today have both choice and depth but the cost of satisfying our individualism is true connection Have you been out to dinner lately and watched that couple on a date at the table next to you amp8230 textingamp8230 in silence Evan at our local bistro technology keeps us connected at armslength Employees telecommute from home without the human interaction of coworkers people make friends by clicking buttons more often than shaking hands and quotsharequot is more instant publishing than it is a reciprocal experienceWhy is this relevant to media and marketing Because in this hyperpersonalized milieu it is the mass media that now provide the building blocks of interpersonal relevance In the absence of sharing an experience in physical space and time virtual social friends quotconnectquot and bond through what is easily known amp8211 the products of our mass culture industries amp8211 film music and television It is here that we begin to see how Culture becomes Currency and why there will always be a need for its mass production So while social media provide the infrastructure to connect it is the mass media that provide our common ground Together the confluence of these two media provide for a powerful platform with which to both quantify and analyze the power of cultural currency on both a national and local levelThe Television Bureau of Advertising TVB recently explored the concept of Cultural Currency in an extensive proprietary study of social media behaviors relative to consumer brands television radio and newspaper content With the help of Colligent a social media affinity mapping company social media behaviors were culled from Facebook and Twitter allowing a more global view of social media activity and the interrelationship between television and brand fans In the television landscape alone the study analyzed 570 TV stations and 4400 primetime programs in both broadcast and cable during 2012Can media investment based on Cultural Currency actually increase a brand39s fan base It can In the chart below TVB mapped the Cultural Currency values of primetime television shows and divided the map into four quadrants The quadrants differentiated the various programs based on audience size and share of engaged fan behavior across the primetime television landscape Quadrant 1 contained programs with the largest audiences and highest share of engaged fan behavior Quadrant 4 the least Not surprisingly big TV hits generated the highest degree of Cultural Currency attracting the largest audiences with significant engagement Youth oriented programs primarily occupied Quadrant 3 attracting the most highly engaged audiences on social media platforms amp8211 an affirmation that there is still a youthful bias in the social media user baseThe Cultural Currency Map of Primetime Entertainment TelevisionTo understand whether the Cultural Currency map had any bearing on brand marketing success TVB analyzed all brand spending in 2012 and isolated its analysis to only those advertisers who spent nearly exclusively 70 on programming in a single quadrant The effects were dramatic Advertisers spending nearly exclusively in Quadrant 1 generated 15 times more brand fans during their flight periods than those who advertised exclusively in Quadrant 4 These effects varied by advertiser vertical with categories garnering from 4 times to 192 times more brand fans These effects are mirrored at the local DMA level as well Clearly advertisers benefit in environments where Cultural Currency is greatestMeasuring Cultural Currency reinvigorates the way we look at mass reach media in the context of all available communication channels In our eagerness to identify and address every consumer prospect on an individual level we39ve lost some perspective on the power of common ground that only mass cultural products can deliver Maximizing Cultural Currency in media selection can help brands transcend the onair moment and gain tangible traction with consumers Broadcast television is a valuable partner in this regard from national programming that provides the common ground to make connections to local TV stations that amplify the common ground to builds communityFor more information about TVB39s Cultural Currency study visit httpwwwtvborgmeasurementculturalcurrencystudy Stacey Lynn Schulman is Chief Research Officer at TVB where she is responsible for driving insights and media research thoughtleadership about the value of Local Broadcast Television across platforms Stacey can be reached at StaceytvborgRead all Stacey39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Local MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Cultural Currency – There's Still Magic in Mass - Stacey Lynn Schulman-TVB

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