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Mediaedge:cia launches new research study - MediaZ

August 26th - Mediaedge:cia (MEC) this week launches the first report from its major new research study, MediaZ.

The study, among 4,000 consumers, measures awareness, passion and engagement with more than 180 UK media properties, across press (national and regional newspapers, consumer and customer magazines), TV (channels and shows), outdoor, cinema, radio, digital (newspaper websites, social networking sites, search engines), platforms and emerging media.

MediaZ reveals key values associated with each medium, the most talked about media properties and the effect of brand involvement in different media, to foster closer alignment of brands with the media. 

The study provides a personality profile for each media property that identifies the characteristics and values with which they are associated and plots how they compare with competitors and the sector average.

The research also introduces a new category of measurement, the "Vitality™" of a media property.  "Vitality™" looks at awareness levels and the talkability of a media property and scores it based on its ability to convert consumers from simple awareness to a real love and advocacy of the property.

Key findings from the first wave of research show:

• Social networking sites Facebook and Bebo are the most talked about media properties, with TV shows making up the rest of the Top 10, including Lost, How To Look Good Naked, Dr Who and Top Gear
• Channel 4 and its related media properties dominate in the most innovative rank accounting for six of the top 10 places, with Channel 4, Grand Designs, 4OD, the F Word, How To Look Good Naked, and Channel4.com.  The BBC's iPlayer, Lost, Wikipedia and bus posters make up the remaining top 10
• In terms of "Vitality™", converting people from awareness to love, top scores go to TV shows Shameless, Lost and CSI.  Specialist websites askmen.com and ibmd.com come 3^rd and 4^th consecutively, despite having low awareness scores, because those that know about them hold them in very high regard
• The research throws up particularly positive news for regional and local newspapers on several levels:-
  • Regional and local newspapers scored highest in the Press "Vitality™" chart, demonstrating high awareness and high regard among consumers
  • When it comes to sharing things seen and heard in the media, unsurprisingly social networking sites and TV shows dominate but regional newspapers, both free and paid for, are the only other media to make it into the top 15
• When it comes to driving purchase, outdoor and magazines fill the top 10 places, with monthly magazines Mens Health, Mother & Baby, Vogue and Elle and weeklies Grazia and New featuring alongside posters at bus stops, on buses and at supermarkets
• Sky+ and Freeview both demonstrate strong "Vitality™"scores, generating high awareness and strong feelings among consumers.  BBC iPlayer and 4OD have lower awareness but high regard among those that are familiar with them, suggesting positive future growth

MediaZ will be updated twice a year, to incorporate launches across all media into the study and track rapidly developing media such as BBC iPlayer.

Designed to complement MEC Access and WPP's recently launched PartnerZ (which evaluates a wide range of partnership and sponsorship properties), and the existing BrandZ (which determines individual brand personality traits), MediaZ uses the same set of 42 characteristics as these studies to widen the scope of the research and enable clients to analyse and match the characteristics of their brand to media and sponsorship properties in a more holistic way.

MediaZ is a proprietary research tool developed by head of MEC MediaLab, part of Mediaedge:cia UK, in conjunction with Millward Brown.

"There hasn't been a comprehensive study of consumer attitudes towards the media for some time, and certainly not since the explosion of digital newspapers and magazines, social networking, broadband and digital TV.  This study provides both clients and media owners with a fresh articulation of modern media personalities, influence and talkability, within the framework of a much more developed media landscape," said David Fletcher.

"In response to client demands, we have designed MediaZ to work in unison with our PartnerZ and BrandZ research tools.  This will enable us to align more closely a brand's personality with that of their media and sponsorship activities, and ultimately achieve the holy grail of true integration."