Consumer Engagement Building Sustainable Brands in 2020 and Beyond

The 20,000 Foot View:  Brands have an ongoing engagement problem. No matter how much data they use or how targeted they go, competition is fierce, consumer attention is saturated, and all usage comes at the expense of time spent elsewhere. With the ubiquity of advertising, brand choices are as much a personal statement by the consumer to their peers as a testament to trust and loyalty in a company. Brand engagement – allowing consumers to collaborate with, own, and feel at home amidst the community of their fellow brand devotees – has enabled a new type of audience community that can survive market hardships and ensure lower levels of churn.

Key Insights

• In a            attention economy, when all attention            is at the expense of            propositions, served advertisements are disruptive            steal priceless user time
           of consumers normally stop paying attention when ads come on, rising to            of the music-listening passive majority and            of the passive majority of gamers
• If able,            consumers choose not to watch                       skip video ads online, rising                       of music listeners,            of TV            and            of games players
• However, sentiment            a role, with            of consumers            skipping relevant ads rising to            music streamers,            of binge viewers,                       of games video viewers
• In a            working from home and social            means home entertainment has a                       of workers’ extra time to           
• Brands need            loyalty and fandom amongst their            so that they are chosen            be kept amidst a recession-driven            cull
• Consumer messaging            build fandom and enable fans            play a role in the            of their own brand communities
• Audience-led brand            drive personal satisfaction and result            greater loyalty and brand sentiment 
• Brands can            their positioning in relation to            content types and brands that            audiences enjoy to facilitate flourishing,            and growing communities 

Companies and brands mentioned in this report:   Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Fortnite, The Mandalorian, Marshmello, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Peacock, Rick and Morty, Star Wars, Twitch, Un:hurd, Universal Music Group, The Witcher, YouTube