The Story Wave 8

1. Prime Video Harnesses the Power of Fandom – Case Study

The 2022 NFL season marked the first time that Amazon Prime Video hosted Thursday Night Football (TNF). For approximately $1 billion a year, Prime Video secured the rights to stream TNF games for 11 seasons.  

• Using QuestBrand data, we found that NFL fans’ trial (+3.9), usage (+4.2), and recommendation (+7.7) of Prime Video increased after TNF came to the streaming service. 
• Download our case study for a deeper dive into how Prime Video’s decision to stream TNF impacted their subscriber base and consumers’ impression of the Prime Video brand. 

2. Coca-Cola Advertising Sparks Some Holiday Magic – Brand Spotlight 

Coca-Cola has long been associated with Christmas. In the 1930’s Coca-Cola even helped shape the image of Santa Claus that we know and love today. This holiday season, Coca-Cola launched a multi-pronged advertising initiative that included experiential, digital, TV, and retail advertising.  

• Using QuestBrand data, we evaluated the effectiveness of Coca-Cola’s robust holiday campaign, tracking consumers’ ad recall from the past 30 days.    
• The graph below trends consumers’ ad recall of Coca-Cola’s advertising from mid-October through mid-January, highlighting a steep increase in ad recall from mid-November through Christmas. 
• Read our brand story to learn more about Coca-Cola’s holiday advertising success and discover which ad channels saw the greatest uptick in ad recall. 

3. Did Southwest’s Recent Scheduling Chaos Damage Their Brand? 

Southwest Airlines’ holiday meltdown stranded thousands of passengers. Bad weather in conjunction with a scheduling system failure resulted in 16,700 flight cancellations between Dec 21- Dec 31. In a recent Ad Age-Harris Poll, we explore how this crisis impacted consumers’ perception of this low-fare carrier: 

• After the airline’s meltdown, 45% of US adults (and 52% of recent Southwest travelers) said that they had a worse opinion of Southwest. 
• Southwest tried to make amends with impacted travelers by providing refunds, reimbursements, and Rapid Rewards points.
• Despite Southwest’s goodwill offers, 56% of recent Southwest travelers said that affected travelers should have received more compensation. 
• Only a third (34%) of recent Southwest travelers said that they are less likely to travel with Southwest after the mass cancellations, and 24% reported that they are more likely to travel with the airline now. 

Takeaway: “It’s never easy for brands to recover from events that result in half of all Americans forming worse opinions of them, and that’s exactly the turbulence that Southwest Airlines must now navigate after its recent meltdown. This challenge is not insurmountable though…” – Harris Poll CEO Will Johnson. 

Read the rest of Johnson’s assessment of how brands can effectively rebuild consumer trust after a crisis.