With consumers seeking respite following two unprecedented years of a global pandemic, the media & entertainment industry topped the Brand Intimacy 2022 Study, the largest study of brands based on emotions from marketing intimacy agency MBLM, now in its 12th year. The enhanced study combines the firm’s Brand Intimacy model with the power of AI to analyze more brands and data, assessing how consumers bond with the brands they use and love.
Disney ranked first in the industry, followed by YouTube and Netflix. These three brands were also in the top 10 brands in the overall study, with Disney ranking first overall. Through its advanced tech-enabled analysis, MBLM found that the top keywords for Disney were Endorse, Love, Anticipation, and 😊.
The remaining brands in the top 10 for media & entertainment are: Amazon Prime, ESPN, HBO, Hulu, Peacock, SHOWTIME, and beIN SPORTS. Consistent with previous years, MBLM also found that top intimate brands outperformed Fortune 500 top brands across profit, revenue, and stock performance.
“With issues ranging from societal turmoil and Covid to political unrest plaguing the world, our collective need for escapism continued to be a dominant force in 2021,” said Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM, in a news release. “Media & entertainment remained the top industry in our study due to its ability to distract us and provide a quick avenue for enjoyment. Brands across the space are creating more shows, movies and videos and promoting more user content in order to retain and attract audiences.”
Media & entertainment has an average Brand Intimacy Quotient score of 51.6, well above the cross-industry average of 36.8. The category has improved its Quotient score performance by three percent since MBLM’s last study. Fulfillment, which means to exceed expectations, is the dominant archetype, a pattern or marker that is consistently present among intimate brands, for the industry.
The firm also released an article analyzing YouTube’s rapid rise in rankings in less than 10 years. “YouTube and Streaming Brands: The platform of and for escapism, education, and delight” also focuses on Netflix, which has had a difficult year, and looks into the challenges the brand has faced. MBLM concludes that in comparing the two, YouTube is emerging as the stronger brand and appeals to both Gen Z and millennials and also has a strong business model for future success.
Download the full report here.
See the study methodology here.
The Brand Intimacy 2022 Study contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion. The scale of the study included more than 600 brands and more than 1.4 billion words analyzed over 2021.
