December 5th, 2023, Kineree Shah
The Grand Theft Auto VI trailer is here and interestingly, even anticipation of the trailer has had a tangible impact on the brand's health according to data from YouGov BrandIndex.
From November 7, right before the news about the trailer, to November 14, GTA's Index score (average across brand overall health, including General Impression, Satisfaction, Quality, Corporate Reputation, Value and Recommendation score) went up from 5.8 to 19.0 - a jump of 13.2 points. This suggests that the announcement has positively influenced every aspect of the series’ image. Correspondingly, its Buzz score - which measures whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the franchise in the past two weeks - also rose by 10 points from Nov 7 to Nov 22. This indicates that most of the conversations are positive. Both of these scores have dipped again as the news faded but we might reasonably expect them to rise again following the trailer’s official release.
Equally noteworthy is the increase in Ad Awareness scores (a measure of whether consumers have seen an advertisement for a franchise in the past two weeks) which leapt from 8.1 to 13.3 (+5.2) from November 7 to November 28.
The Word-of-Mouth Exposure score highlights the organic spread of conversation about GTA in the past two weeks. In an era where peer recommendations hold significant sway, this increase from 8.3 to 14.2 (+5.9) is a strong indicator of the brand's growing popularity and the likelihood of its success upon the new release.
Our most recent data suggests that 21% of the public have, at some point, played an entry in the franchise, which puts it behind only Super Mario Bros (36%) in terms of public familiarity. As the gaming world eagerly awaits the trailer and subsequent game launch, it will be interesting to observe how these perception shifts play out in the long term, both for Rockstar Games and GTA.
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Methodology: YouGov BrandIndex collects data on thousands of brands every day. Scores are based on an average daily sample size of US adults between Nov 7-30, 2023. The figures are based on a one-week moving average. Learn more about BrandIndex.