Cultural advantage

Client: Thinkbox

We partnered with Thinkbox to measure the cultural influence of media and content. Incorporating a diverse range of academic perspectives, we developed a framework that was grounded in how audiences experience and interest culture in everyday life. 

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The framework distilled cultural impact into seven core lenses:

1. Continuity

2. Currency

3. Affirmation

4. Transformation

5. Bonding

6. Bridging

7. Purpose

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Each lens was defined by a set of cultural associations and the framework was used to assess the share of cultural entry point across media and content. A sample of 3,000 UK adults were surveyed on the cultural availability of different media channels and a further 1,000 UK adults did the same for TV content and Content Creator/YouTube content. 

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Cultural availability is the range of association in the culture framework - the stronger the association, the stronger your cultural availability.

The key findings:

• TV ranked the UK's most culturally significant medium​

• Social media came second overall

• Content creators and podcasts ranked last

• TV remains the dominant cultural force for 16-24s, second only to social media

• UK values 'continuity' in culture above all else - TV and cinema were judged the best at delivering this 

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Elliot Millard, Thinkbox CSO stated: "All media contribute to culture, but some deliver more cultural impact than others. This study shows that people see TV as the medium with greatest and most lasting cultural influence. The findings also suggest that cultural longevity matters more to people than simply being part of the latest online fad."

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You can watch Andrew present the findings of the research and download the presentation here. 

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