Movie tie-ins help Dr Pepper gain consideration with movie audience.

With the massive popularity of the super hero movie genre, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was one of the most anticipated movies of 2016. Not only did Ben Affleck take over as the new Batman, but it also setup the foundation for future Justice League films and introduced other popular characters such as Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and the Flash to the DC movie universe.

The Dr Pepper Snapple Group looked to gain traction within this audience segment by teaming up with Warner Bros. to sponsor the film. The partnership had multiple components: Dr Pepper bottles and cans with Batman v Super logos and characters, a $5 off ticket promotion, and even product placement in the film. The investment was a major one for the soft drink brand, but also one that can be difficult to quantify. Overall sales lift can provide some indication of the performance of the partnership, but this could be contributed to many different campaigns in market.

An additional KPI for measuring campaign success is TrueAffinity™ by AffinityAnswers.  TrueAffinity is the first brand interaction metric that indicates the strength of active, social engagement between brands’ audiences over time. The higher the score, the more receptive one brand’s audience is to the messaging and content from another brand.

The below chart shows the TrueAffinity score of Batman v Superman with four top carbonated sodas: Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Mountain Dew and Dr Pepper.

The higher the TrueAffinity score, the higher the mutual affinity, and as mentioned, the better an audience segment will respond to messages from the other brand.  At the start of 2016, Mountain Dew had the highest mutual affinity with the movie with a TrueAffinity score of 8.02, and Dr Pepper’s was the lowest at 7.43 (note: a 7.5 is still a fantastic TrueAffinity score; we generally consider any score above 7 to be high mutual affinity).  The in late February / early March as the Dr Pepper campaign went into market, Dr. Pepper shifted to the highest position with a TrueAffinity score as high as 9.  It is worth noting that TrueAffinity is measured on an exponential scale.  So the 20% change in TrueAffinity score is actually more like a 4 to5x increase in affinity.  And not only did the shift to higher affinity occur, but Dr Pepper’s TrueAffinity score has stayed high even though the campaign ended, proving that the Batman v Superman audience was indeed a great marketing investment for the Dr Pepper Snapple Group.

Social affinities represent the consumer’s receptivity to brands, TV shows, celebrities, and more, based on their entire experience, and not just their interactions on social media.  By using TrueAffinity, what happens between awareness and purchase can be measured at scale with specific audiences. TrueAffinity provides a way to measure both the conscious and unconscious influence brand advertising has on consumers (i.e. consideration).

Contact us at audiences@affinityanswers.com to find out how affinity-based audiences can enhance your Buyer-Driven Brand strategies.