Media impact of 'patriotic bubble' explored at IoD insight event

This summer’s patriotic bubble will have a marked impact on the topics and issues people choose to follow in the media, elephant communications revealed at an insight event held the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall on Tuesday.

Around 40 brands attended the ‘patriotic bubble’ insight day hosted by elephant communications in partnership with HPI Research and Tallboy, each sharing findings of new research and insights on the national mood, brand perceptions and the implications for the communications professional.

The elephant summer research suggested consumers had polarised views towards patriotic media coverage driven by this summer’s major events, one group choosing to follow it closely and another inclined to avoid it. The two groups had quite different reactions on the range of issues and topics they were more and less inclined to engage with in the media. For those that were excited by events, such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee an 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the positive ripple affect was significant, going well beyond the events themselves and encompassing economic and business outlook plus perceptions on community, identity and general optimism.

The divergent reactions between ‘followers’ and ‘avoiders’ also played out in people adapting, adding to or switching their media allegiances, and showing less interest in topics they said they would usually follow in the media. The research also indicated an audience reaction against spin in the way brands leveraged patriotic themes to promote products.

With more than six in ten Britons claiming that television and film would be the key form of media engagement over the summer months, Simon Banks from broadcast specialists Tallboy shared insights on the emotional power of visual communications at a time when most people’s engagement and recollection of the summer’s major events with be visually-driven.

During the final session, HPI research presented extensive findings from its new research on brand leadership, exploring the significance of ‘Britishness’ and its contribution to the much talked about patriotic bubble.

Guy Bellamy, Managing Director at elephant communications commented: “For many people, positive patriotic uplift is more a reality than a bubble and even those that are not drawn towards expansive media coverage of this summer’s events share a definite hope for a positive impact on the economy, culture and their sense of community. The research shared at this week’s event underlines the impact that major events can have in shifting people’s topic and media preferences and stresses the importance of adapting communications strategies to a changed playing field in terms of the consumer’s terms for engagement. And the elephant in the room – for those that see PR as a words business, the audience’s media preference for the summer will be on images, whether still or moving.”

Video highlights from the IoD event will be available on the elephant website at the end of June and further sessions on the research will be held in July. For more information contact: info@elephantcommunications.co.uk