Since the start of the opening kickoff, though, Adidas has reasserted itself at the top of World Cup brand dialogue. When looking at the top 10 official sponsors and their major competitors, a follow-up study by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey Company, found that in the first two weeks of the tournament Adidas overtook Nike as the top brand. Adidas buzz accounted for 25.1% share of World Cup buzz online compared to 14.4% before the event. Nike, meanwhile, dropped from 30.2% to 19.4%.

Part of Adidas’ increased buzz levels were due to discussions around the controversial official ball of the World Cup – the Jabulani. For the week ending the 13th June, which included the first three days of the tournament, the ball accounted for 8% of all English-language messages related to the World Cup.

“Half the game in buzz is ‘fanning the flames,’” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president of digital strategy at Nielsen. “The Adidas football Facebook page, for instance, is now up to over a million fans and they are dropping new content several times a day, all while the average post is generating upwards of 100 comments. At the end of the day, brands need to keep the buzz ball in the air as long as possible – sponsored or otherwise.”

Budweiser, too, overcame a pre-tournament ambush from Carlsberg to assert itself as the most highly buzzed beer brand tied to the World Cup. Buzz share for the official beer of the World Cup climbed to 4.9% as it overtook Carlsberg, whose share fell to 2.4%.

Other official sponsors who enjoyed a noticeable increase in World Cup buzz included Hyundai/Kia (from 2.4% to 4.7%) and McDonald’s (2.8% to 4.2%).  The overall share of buzz for the 10 official World Cup partners/sponsors increased from 52% to 66% since the start of the tournament.

“Sponsorship still matters, but it’s far from a ‘conversational’ guarantee,” added Blackshaw. ”For big events like the World Cup and Olympics, you can always expect a modest ‘echo effect’ from any level of paid or sponsorship investment, but that’s just the foot in the door. The rest really depends on variables like timing, creativity, controversy, and a combination of brand readiness and agility.”

The NM Incite follow-up study compared the share of online buzz between World Cup sponsors and their major competitors in relation to the World Cup in the run up to the event (month-long period ending June 6th) and during the first two weeks of the tournament (11th -25th June). English language World Cup-related messages on blogs, message boards, groups, video and image sites – including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter – were monitored for the study.

Ruth Behr, Director of Client Consulting and Reny Diaz, Client Solutions Associate, The Nielsen Company

SUMMARY: Hispanics comprise a growing 15% of today’s American moviegoers and amounted to over 128 million of U.S. box office admissions in 2008. Latinos not only represent an opportunity to positively impact overall box office success, but they are an influential segment with the power to build brand awareness.

Denied her golden ticket to stardom, then obscure Margarita Cansino’s dreams were crushed when she found herself replaced by blond bombshell Loretta Young as the lead in Fox’s remake of the 1928 blockbuster Ramona. Cansino’s ethnic name and Latin features had evidently designated her impractical. It wasn’t until two years later, when Columbia Pictures changed Rita’s last name to Hayworth and dyed her dark hair to auburn, that she ever stood a chance of being noticed in Hollywood.

Today, the movie industry’s attitudes toward Latinidad are quite the contrary: Though Latinos comprise an exponential 15% of the U.S. population, they represent an overwhelming 28% of today’s heavy moviegoers—a substantial contribution to any feature film’s box office success.

A growing audience
About 26 million of today’s American moviegoers are Hispanic, most commonly between the ages of 12 and 34. Almost half of these young Latinos watch 11 or more movies in theaters every year, making them 100% more likely than the national average to be considered “frequent moviegoers”. Half of all Hispanics prefer to see a movie within the first 10 days of a film’s opening. Understanding Latino consumption and entertainment habits can help studios and agencies maximize the success of a feature with this valuable segment of the movie-going population.

Language lessons
For Hispanics, in-home language preference—categorized as either English-dominant, Spanish-dominant or bilingual—plays a smaller role in the movie-going experience than might be expected. While language differences often exist among Hispanic families, the ability to participate in an activity as a family unit supersedes individual language preference.

Hispanics are 77% more likely to take turns picking films within their movie-going party. For example, although one-third of Hispanic moviegoers in Spanish-dominant homes see movies with Spanish dubbing or subtitles in theaters, less than half prefer this format to a standard English-language experience.

And just as the majority of Spanish-dominants sit through—and presumably enjoy—English-only films, 18% of their English-dominant counterparts have seen a Spanish-dubbed or subtitled film in theaters¹. The familial bent in Hispanic movie-going translates to greater instances of ticket and concession purchases per party, as Hispanic households are generally larger and more extended compared to the average movie-going family.

The main attraction
Hispanics are worth an estimated $1 billion to the U.S. movie industry, representing 30% of moviegoers who see 10 or more summer movies in theaters. Summer is the most important season for the industry, often accounting for 40% of the year’s box office revenue.

The Family, Horror/Thriller, Romantic Comedy and Action Adventure genres attract the greatest interest from Hispanic moviegoers². Family films, in particular, provide entertainment that crosses the generation and language preferences of Hispanic families. This is mainly evident with attendance to animated movies, as Hispanics can comprise over one-quarter of these audiences. Animated movies may cross language dominances better than other genres because not only can they be understood with varying degrees of English comprehension, but abuela is likely attending with her grandchildren as well.

Overall, Hispanics command the highest share of audience in the Horror/Thriller and Romantic Comedy genres. Their highest headcount contributions—in Action Adventure and Family—correspond to the highest-grossing genres in the U.S. market.

With regard to the 800 million DVD units sold in the U.S. last year, Hispanic households are 24% more likely to purchase them compared to the average American household. In fact, almost 79% of Hispanic moviegoers bought at least one DVD in 2008.

TV ads engage and captivate
As important contributors of movie-going audiences, Spanish-language and Hispanic-heavy English networks would be wise to not overlook their fair share of studio spend. On average, 1.5% of prime-time Spanish broadcast was time-shifted by moviegoers—7% less than the English-language counterpart’s average. This trend contributes to the boost in live commercial ratings for the average Hispanophone program, making Spanish-language television particularly effective in targeting Hispanic moviegoers.

In addition to spending TV time differently, Hispanic moviegoers also internalize movie advertising more positively. Almost two-thirds of Hispanic moviegoers consider movie ads on television as “informative and eye-catching”, making them 7% more likely to think so compared to the average movie-going population³.

Many Hispanic moviegoers still consider current amounts of movie advertising on Spanish television as “not enough”. In 2008, movie studios spent an estimated $103 million on Spanish-language network and cable television. This amount equates to 3% of reported spending for the motion picture category—a 13% increase from 2007 movie spending on Spanish-language TV. For a medium that tends to over-deliver the moviegoer target, Spanish television represents an opportunity to target moviegoers who may otherwise be inaccessible.

An analysis of Universal’s Fast and Furious television campaign demonstrates the added reach Spanish programming can provide. With an opening weekend audience worth $72.5 million—46% of which was reported Hispanic—the brand tapped Hispanic moviegoers for part of its success. Fully 11.3% of moviegoers saw spots on Spanish broadcast and cable—almost half of which would never have been reached with the rest of Universal’s campaign.

But Hispanic moviegoers don’t just watch Spanish television. While Univision elicits 20% of Hispanic moviegoer’s broadcast and cable viewing minutes, English-broadcast networks ABC, CBS, the CW, FOX and NBC together command over 15%. Networks ESPN, NICK, TBS, TNT and USA rule cable for Hispanic moviegoers, comprising 10% combined. English-language programming often occupies the majority of Hispanic moviegoers’ time spent on broadcast and ad-supported cable.

Synchronized sensibilities
Considering that Hispanics comprise one-quarter of the most frequent moviegoers, Hollywood’s reversion from Hayworth back to Cansino is reflective of an era where Hispanic moviegoers are valued for precisely that which Rita Hayworth felt obliged to alter—cultural sensibility. Understanding the unique consumption habits of Hispanics will help the movie industry tailor a portion of its advertising to a box office constituency that can build brand awareness and success for movie features to come.

¹ 2007 Nielsen NRG moviegoer benchmark.

² 2007 Nielsen NRG moviegoer benchmark.

³ 2007 Nielsen NRG moviegoer benchmark.

Video Games – Total Unaided Awareness Mentions

TW – Week of April 20 / LW – Week of April 13

According to the old saying “content is king,” right? But what if a combination of content and convenience are ultimately what attract consumers? It’s no secret that media today comes in many easy-to-access formats: video, music, TV, podcasts, etc., at the palm of our hand. Consumers have the ultimate choice in what they view and when they choose to view (or participate with) the content. The convergence of traditional viewing habits and the web is inevitable, as evidenced by the popularity of Hulu, Fancast, Netflix, Xbox 360 and the many other streaming content services.

In fact, with so many competitors, it’s hard for one service to differentiate itself. However, Hulu is building quite a bit of buzz and brand awareness, and its Super Bowl ad is a case in point. From November 1, 2008 – February 1, 2009, Hulu averaged about 300 mentions per day in the online community. The day following its Super Bowl ad, Hulu attracted 1,082 brand mentions online (a 259% increase).

According to Nielsen’s BlogPulse, Hulu also generated from Super Bowl Sunday into Monday 448 shared links, i.e. bloggers who passed along a link to the site. Socialmedia.com even crowned Hulu as the winner of the “TweetBowl.”

Hulu’s Super Bowl ad featuring Alec Baldwin

For the sake of comparison, Hulu’s stream of President Barack Obama’s inauguration attracted about half the number of brand mentions as Hulu’s Super Bowl ad. Of course, buzz about Obama’s inauguration far outweighs buzz about Hulu itself, but Hulu’s Super Bowl ad succeeded in generating more word-of-mouth buzz about its brand, further building brand awareness. It also attracted more viewers to Hulu, even if they were there to view other Super Bowl ads.

The Hulu ad influenced buzz and reinforced its core message: it’s about content andconvenience.

Forrester’s report is available for download via Nielsen Online.

Read the full press release.

According to a new study by Nielsen Games, more than one-third (36%) of gamers bought, talked about, or sought information about a product after seeing it advertised in a video game.

Coke, Nike, Burger King, Axe, Pepsi, and Pontiac were cited by respondents as the most-recalled brands. 

Of the 534 active video game players surveyed by Nielsen, 11% purchased a brand advertised in a game or sought more information about it, 19% talked about a brand after seeing an in-game ad, and 10% recommended the product to a friend. 

Most of the gamers who recalled products featured in games reported that the ads did not detract from their gaming experience.

In general, awareness of the “Grand Theft Auto” brand is significant, compared with games such as Microsoft’s “Halo 3,” Konami’s “Metal Gear Solid 4,” and Electronic Arts’ “Madden NFL 08,” Nielsen found. 

Of the 6,000 video gamers surveyed, 23% entered “GTA IV,” unaided by survey questions and prompts, as a game they were thinking about.  Only “Halo 3″ had a higher level of unaided brand awareness (32%). 

The results also reveal that gamers familiar with previous titles in the “Grand Theft Auto” series were exceptionally likely to purchase the new version.  Of those who bought “GTA IV,” 79% said they had played or owned a previous version of the game.

Read the full white paper.

Read coverage of the study in The Hollywood Reporter and on GameSpot.com.