Creating emotional connections with finicky younger consumers is anything but fun and games for brand marketers—except for the ones who actually manufacture those fun and games, according to the newly released Brand Intimacy 2020 Study, the largest study of brands based on emotions, now in its 10th year, from marketing intimacy agency MBLM.
The firm’s new report found that PlayStation ranked as the most intimate brand among millennials, climbing up from the eighth spot last year. And among Gen Z, Xbox topped the list.
“PlayStation has been a strong millennial brand in our study for years and in 2020 has emerged as top performer, especially among men,” said Mario Natarelli, managing partner at MBLM, in a news release. “Similar to our 2019 findings, millennials form strong connections with brands in the media & entertainment industry. The combination of the e-sports phenomenon and impact of hardware platforms has likely fueled PlayStation’s rise in the rankings. Impressively, more than 50 percent of millennials in our survey are in some form of intimacy with the brand.”
Amazon and Target ranked as the second and third most intimate brands for millennials. Comparatively, in MBLM’s 2019 study, YouTube placed first followed by Apple and Netflix.
The other brands that rounded out the top 10 for millennials were: Disney, Ford, Jeep, Apple, YouTube Xbox and Nintendo. Millennial women selected Walmart, Target and Disney as their top three and millennial men selected PlayStation, Xbox and YouTube. Meanwhile, Spotify and Sephora ranked as the second and third most intimate brands for Gen Z.
The Brand Intimacy 2020 Report contains the most comprehensive rankings of brands based on emotion, analyzing the responses of 6,200 consumers and 56,000 brand evaluations across 15 industries in the U.S., Mexico and UAE. The study will be launched on Valentine’s Day.
Download the full report here.
During 2019, MBLM with Praxis Research Partners conducted an online quantitative survey among 6,200 consumers in the U.S. (3,000), Mexico (2,000), and the United Arab Emirates (1,200). Participants were respondents who were screened for age (18 to 64 years of age) and annual household income ($35,000 or more) in the U.S. and socioeconomic levels in Mexico and the UAE (A, B and C socioeconomic levels).
