• by Aaron Baar , April 13, 2010

People may complain about the idea of watching advertisements before movies. But even they admit the medium commands more emotional attachment than other types of media, such as television, print and out-of-home, according to the Cinema Advertising Council (CAC).

A survey of 3,000 people between the ages of 15 and 34 conducted by the council, used an 11-point scale (0-10, with the top two responses as the highest) to rank consumers' emotional attachment (defined as something they care deeply about and were not willing to give up) to both brands and media. The findings showed that across several categories, consumers who were emotionally attached to certain brands felt the same way about movies, according to Steve Siegel, chair of the CAC's research committee.

"For a lot of key categories, [consumers] are going to be very emotionally attached to the moviegoing experience," Siegel tells Marketing Daily.

According to the research, 45% of health and beauty consumers (consumers who used products in the category within six months of the study) said they were emotionally attached to movies, compared with 29.6% who felt the same way about television, 21% for radio and 21% for print advertising.

Among consumer packaged goods and food consumers, 44% were emotionally attached to the movies, while 29% had the same reaction for television, 21% for radio and 19% for magazines. Similar numbers (43%, 28%, 20% and 19%, respectively by media) followed for restaurant consumers, according to the study.

"It mixes and matches," Siegel says. "We can show that people who are emotionally attached to brands in other categories are emotionally attached to [certain] media."

The survey also found that movie advertising has a higher emotional attachment rating (42%) than live televised sports and entertainment, including the Super Bowl (40%), Summer Olympics (26%), Oscars (16%) and Grammy Awards (15%).