NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Aug 5, 2013) - NewMediaMetrics, a brand-strategy and content-alignment company, has released the results from the 2013 African-American 360 study, which showed that numerous brands, media platforms and media properties rose several points in the Emotional Attachment™ index among this consumer segment.

For the second consecutive year, NewMediaMetrics quantified the Emotional Attachment™ to brands and media across 45 categories and found that African Americans continue to be more attached to most brands than the general population and are thus more brand loyal.

A snapshot of the data is as follows:

• Among 18-64 year olds there is high Emotional Attachment (EA™) among iPhone, iPad, iPod, Lexus, Honda, Ritz Carlton Hotels, Nike, MAC Cosmetics, Visa, Disney Parks, Carol's Daughter and Yahoo! to name a few
• Low Emotional Attachment (EA™) exists among brands including Red Bull, Travelers Insurance, Chambord, Travelocity, Sears, Arby's, American Airlines and Diet Coke
• Land Rover and Lexus are the most attaching luxury autos while Audi and Lincoln have the lowest Emotional Attachment
• Visa is the #1 credit card among African-American adults 18-64 while Capital One has the lowest Emotional Attachment
• Regarding retailers, Walmart and Sam's Club lead the pack in EA among the 18-64 demo while Sears is the least attaching. In fact, African Americans are half as likely to shop at Sears than Walmart. 
• NorthFace and Sephora are highly attaching brands among 18-24-year-olds
• MAC Cosmetics is the most attaching cosmetic brand among women aged 18-64 while Avon and Revlon have some of the lowest EA's
• Also among the "next wave" of African-American consumers shows that among 13-17-year-olds some of the most attaching brands are Google, Xbox, anything Apple (Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod) OPI, Nike, Levi's, Microsoft, Maybelline, Foot Locker, Samsung, Snickers and Johnson & Johnson to name a few. This age group is much less attached to brands like Mio, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, The Gap, Bing, CVS, Delta Airlines and AOL

"We know from last year's study, which was our first, that African Americans are perhaps the most brand-loyal consumers out there," said Gary Reisman, CEO of NewMediaMetrics. "NMM has spent years applying -- to great effect -- our LEAP (Leveraging Emotional Attachment for Profit) platform for brands and media properties. By keeping their high-value customers happy, marketers are ensured continued sales growth."

He continued, "One cannot overstate the importance of treating the African American community with unique marketing and media initiatives. Marketers who believe they can 'hit' valuable African-American segments using general-market efforts are probably not maximizing the value of their marketing."

Furthermore, understanding and leveraging Emotional Attachments to understand and align brand-loyal consumers with the media to which they are also most highly attached, can significantly increases sales. This finding is critical for marketers looking to increase marketing impact and media investments. 

The 2013 African-American 360 study showed that, on average, African-American consumers are also more highly attached to media than the general population:

• 47 percent more emotionally attached to TV networks
• 125 percent more attached to magazines
• Among the 68 broadcast and cable networks included in the index, BET, ABC, TNT, CBS and ESPN ranked highest among African Americans
• Among the 95 magazines included in the index, Ebony, Jet, Essence, Black Enterprise and Sports Illustrated ranked highest
• Radio draws 16 percent greater attachment than social-networking sites

The Emotional Attachment™ index is critical for marketers looking to increase their ROI from both marketing and media investments because:

• Emotional Attachment™ (EA) can boost revenue (those highly attached to a brand contribute 43.7 percent more revenue to a brand)
• EA affects levels of media engagement (40 percent more viewing and intensity of viewing)
• EA affects ad-message receptivity (those highly attached to a brand are 2.5 times more likely to pay attention to an ad from that brand)
• EA sparks positive social chatter (highly attached consumers are 43 percent more likely to talk about products and services to friends and family via social channels)
• EA finds and quantifies media properties with "buying pockets" (consumers who are receptive to ads and engaged makes them three times more likely to buy the brands)

LEAP™ Platform -- Approach/Methodology
NMM applied its proprietary Emotional Attachment™ index in a survey of 3,400 African Americans ages 13 to 64 and assigned a unique measure to each brand and media property to gauge Emotional Attachment. Brand lovers are aligned with the media they are highly attached to in the same study. These efforts help marketers quantify their value to consumers and identify the media to which their most valued customers will be most engaged.

About New Media Metrics
NewMediaMetrics is a marketing-optimization company that owns a patent-protected approach to measure Emotional Attachment (EA™) and Leverage Emotional Attachment to Profit (the LEAP™ Platform). NMM works with brand marketers to quantify the value of their brands and the added value of aligning their brands with specific TV, digital video and cross-platform media. The company also works with content developers to predict the marketplace value (or audience draw) of content. Using LEAP™, marketers can determine whether content is worthy of marketing investment.