• by Steve McClellan , September 12, 2011

For those who don't think that the media world has changed much in just the last three years, a glimpse at some new data from NewMediaMetrics might convince you otherwise.

The New York-area firm, which matches brand loyalists with the media channels and platforms they love the most, has just updated its brand-media cross-platform database with some surprising results.

Case-in-point: Campbell's Soup. Back in 2008, traditional media outlets, including the four major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox), Discovery Channel and the Super Bowl (considered its own platform, given the hundreds of millions that tune in worldwide), accounted for six of the top 10 channels that Campbell Soup lovers identified as the ones to which they were the most emotionally attached.

Fast-forward to the present, and the same Campbell's group (loyalists between the ages of 18 and 49) identified just one channel from traditional media as being among the top 10 channels: ABC. Google Search was the top choice (as it was three years ago), followed by Amazon, YouTube, Facebook, Movies.com, eBay, Google Maps, MapQuest and AOL Mail.

That said, Gary Reisman, principal and founder, NewMediaMetrics, noted that while clients may shift some dollars to those newer media that are high on the go-to list for their best customers, traditional media remains an important part of most media plans.

"TV viewing is not being replaced," he said. "People are making more room for additional consumption of more media across more channels." However, when consumers that are fiercely passionate about a brand get messages from a media they have a strong bond with, they are three times more likely to buy the product, Reisman said.

"Impressions are almost useless," he said, in plans designed to reach consumers who are already emotionally attached to both the brand and the media being used to communicate about the brand. And there's a multiplier effect for message credibility when marketers communicate to loyalists via their favorite media, Reisman said.

The NMM database has more than 300 brands currently and an almost equal number of media channels. The company tracks and updates the media preferences of brand loyalists each year via a panel of 3,000 consumers.

This year, the firm added a new wrinkle and began analyzing preferences for tablet computer applications. Among the findings: Males with a high emotional attachment to Visa, MasterCard and American Express also have a strong link to GPS/location-based apps.

Females with a high emotional attachment to American Express also have a strong bond to weather apps, while female Visa lovers are linked most strongly to social networking apps.