#Pamro2017: How the affluent engage with international media brands

30 Aug 2017

The Ipsos Affluent Study: Europe introduced a broad set of engagement scores to show how international media brands are still finding ways to engage with their audiences. Besides the more attitudinal measures, the study also looked at more behavioural aspects, such as recommendation and word of mouth. Here, Sonia Marguin, head of research for Euronews/Africanews and Nathalie Sodeike, director at MediaCT (Ipsos) in Holland shares some key insights from this study and a survey they've done on the African affluent.

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Definition of engagement

Marguin enlisted the help of Google and searched for the definition of engagement online. Now, according to Google, engagement is:

A formal agreement to get married.
An arrangement to do something or go somewhere at a fixed time.
The action of engaging or being engaged.
A fight or battle between armed forces.

Marguin says that there are a couple of elements in these definitions that we should remember. First, there's a relationship between two people. We've got the notion of commitment, the notion of meeting and involvement. And that's essentially the meaning of engagement, she says.

Marguin mentions an Ipsos subscriber meeting a year ago that focused on engagement, how you measure it and what it is actually about. She mentioned other definitions of engagement like dwell time, recommendations, frequency, completion ratio, emotions, reach, likes, comments and shares. Discussing all these, together the group identified three areas of engagement: The emotions, the attitude and the behaviour.

They also asked the question why engagement is so important. It is important for brands, says Marguin, but they were particularly looking at why it was so important for international media.

There are a number of reasons why. The first one is that international media rely heavily on the media brands themselves.
The second reason is branded content, where a programme is dedicated to a brand. And that's the target market. More and more advertisers are going for branded content.
The third one is quality over quantity. Marquin says Africa News is almost at 2 billion reach a month but it's because they reach the affluent and influential people, not because of mass media. That part of the population is very demanding but also very rewarding because they will generate growth via word-of-mouth.

Ipsos affluent survey results

Sodeike took us through an affluent survey that they ran around the world, covering Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Pacific and the United States. Spanning 50 countries globally and including 153 million high-income adults, she explained that the global affluent comes in all shapes and sizes with different wants and needs, but what unites them is an above-average spending power, which is way above their population share.

These individuals were asked about their media usage from a brand-centric perspective by treating the media as brands. "We think it's important for media planners to have a holistic understanding of how the affluent engage with media but it also makes it easy for the affluent respondent to answer questions on their media behaviour because many of them use multiple ways to access the media that they want to look at."

Who is the European affluent?

The average European affluent consumer is about 48 years old.
8 out of 10 has English as either first or second language.
The personal income is about 51,000 Euros per year.
57% university degree or higher.
Gender: 59% male, 41% female.

Not only do they have the majority of disposable income, they are also the early adopters and the influencers. The constant evolution of technology makes it easier for consumers to switch flawlessly between screens.

The European affluent are heavy media consumers. In total, they spend over 317 media minutes a day. That's over 5 hours and 17 minutes consuming media.

Who is African affluent?

This survey covered Nigeria, Uganda, Morocco, Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa.

They are significantly younger than their European counterparts; the average age is about 40 years.
40% of the African affluent are Millennials, aged between 21 and 34.
71% have university degree, or higher compared to 56% in Europe.
Gender: 66% male, 34% female.
9 out of 10 have English as their first or second language.

The African affluent are also heavy media consumers - slightly heavier than their European counterparts as they consume 319 media minutes a day.

"88% of the affluent consider international media as trustworthy"- Nathalie Sodeike, Directorpso Media CT, Holland #PAMRO2017 pic.twitter.com/JY9cSJ251m
— GeoPoll (@GeoPoll) August 28, 2017

Media brand engagement key findings (Europe)

Trustworthy

88% of the European affluent find international media trustworthy.
58% of the European affluent find national media trustworthy.

Influential:

62% find international media influential.
72% find business media brands influential.
77% total C-suite find business media brands influential.
69% find news media brands influential.
48% find general media brands influential.

Word of mouth:

20% of international media users talk about the brand they use at least once a week.
30% influential opinion leaders talk about business media.

Recommendation: Promoters (NPS scores)

16% of all international media users are promoters of the international media brands that they use.
22% of the frequent media users will be promoters of the brand that they use.

What's next?

In Europe, Ipsos is already busy in the field and they are running the affluent study and the media brand engagement study again. In Africa they are currently preparing the field work and they are going to start with the study in a few weeks’ time. The results will be released in 2018 and they are also planning to include media brand engagement data. Ipsos is hoping to share the results at the next Pamro conference.