A review of Best Picture winners over the past five years reveals that only one film – Crash, which took home the award in the 2005 – was released outside the fourth quarter (it was released in early May).  But summer flicks hold their own when it comes to winning awards: the top 10 movies in 2008, based on advertising spending from May through August, included four films with nominations in other categories.  Wall-E, which was ranked third after spending over $38 million in advertising during this period, was nominated in six categories – and raked in $63.1 million box office sales.

Read more about how advertising can make or break a film in the latest issue of Consumer Insight.

Summer’s coming. Beer season. And as grocery retailers develop strategies to help maximize their sales during the 2009 summer selling season, it’s clear there are a number of unanswered questions about the economy that could impact your business: Have job losses begun to stabilize? Which way will the stock market go today? Have we hit rock bottom yet?

If we had a crystal ball, it would be easy to determine the answers to those and other questions about our economy. But it’s impossible to predict the future. If you’re a grocery retailer hoping to entice consumers to increase the size of the basket at the checkout this summer, statistics tell an interesting beer story with two very different main characters — the cautious consumer and the affordable-luxury-seeking consumer.

The Cautious Consumer

For anyone in retail, consumer confidence remains a critical issue. Consumers today are cautious, and with good reason. More than 3.6 million jobs have been lost since the recession started, and more than half a million people have become unemployed just since January. The stock market has not only declined significantly since the crash in September, it also has exhibited extreme volatility in the months that have followed. And the housing market looks like it has a long way to go before it regains full health.

Nielsen’s research shows that with consumer confidence at its lowest level in years, consumers’ wallets seem to be as frozen shut as the credit markets. They’re just not letting go of their money like they used to.

The impact of the cautious consumer can be seen across the beverage alcohol sector.

>> Continue Reading At ProgressiveGrocer.com

It may depend on the time of the year, according to a multi-sport study from Nielsen PreView.  The research, which analyzed fan loyalty for more than a dozen sports found that while some fans are fully dedicated to one sport, many have competing loyalties that affect their engagement with each sport. 

For instance, while NCAA Basketball season begins in the fall – when baseball and football are also on the sports scene, February and March are the prime months when basketball fans are most engaged in their sport.

Sports sponsorship and licensing is at least a $17 billion business in the U.S., Nielsen PreView’s study notes.  With stakes that big, being able to gauge fan engagement across a variety of sports – in order to time ad spending – is no mere game.

View Nielsen PreView’s study.