In today’s world of multiple screens and ever-expanding content, brands are constantly searching for ways to stand out in the cultural zeitgeist. The pressure to find the right opportunity is hard enough on its own, but brands are faced with another challenge when it comes to reporting on the value of their activations. Despite many brands listing cultural relevance or cultural salience as the primary objective for their entertainment marketing campaigns, there is no standardized metric for “cultural relevancy” in the marketplace, leaving a huge gap in marketers’ ability to prove that their work hits this elusive KPI.
With this challenge in mind, BENlabs has developed a proprietary measurement model to quantify the immeasurable and put data behind the idea of cultural relevancy. We analyzed what cultural relevance is, why it’s important, and how to achieve it, and then we utilized the decades of data we have from executing integrations in entertainment’s top content to build a data-backed score for each factor. The result: a Cultural Relevancy Index (CRI) that is the industry’s best way to measure cultural relevance across television, film and music video.
The tool, developed with input from long-standing partners from some of the world’s most iconic advertisers, is a combination of five categories – Reach, Popularity, Prominence, Affinity, and Impact – designed to put tangible figures behind each of the factors that contribute to cultural relevancy:
- REACH: How many people did your brand moment reach? Did it reach the right people based on your target audience?
- POPULARITY: Did the program break through the clutter?
- PROMINENCE: How strong was the moment on screen?
- AFFINITY: Did the audience have a strong connection to the content?
- IMPACT: Did the integration have an impact on perception of the brand or product?
As various brands may differ in the way they define cultural relevancy or what is important to them, the CRI can be adjusted to weigh certain categories more heavily based on brand preference. The intention is to provide marketers with a tool that can be customized to meet their specific needs while providing a data-backed analysis of performance that can be optimized for future campaigns.
“The Cultural Relevancy Index report has been a valuable resource for ADT, giving us a clear view of product placement’s impact.”
-- Casey Blair, ADT
The metric is built with the mindset that cultural relevancy is not achieved through any one moment, but rather the result of a well-rounded campaign. While individual integrations are scored through the algorithm, brands are presented with a report on their holistic efforts to show how multiple moments work together to deliver strong and consistent cultural relevance.
Brands have already found value in the insights that CRI provides. “The Cultural Relevance Index report has been a valuable resource for ADT, giving us a clear view of product placement’s impact,” shared Casy Blair, Sr. Manager Advertising and GTM Strategy for ADT. “It highlights what makes each campaign unique while providing year-over-year insights that guide our strategy and help us make smarter decisions for future activations.”
Here’s how it works, using ADT’s campaigns as an example: Between mid-2024 through 2025, ADT executed 12 integrations across film and television. BENlabs scored each of those integrations against the five CRI categories and highlighted which integrations performed the best, both overall and within each category. We then compared the results to those of previous campaigns to make recommendations about the types of integrations ADT should target for next year’s program. The findings have helped adjust our campaign strategy since being implemented, allowing ADT’s campaigns to more effectively deliver on priority KPIs.
Brands like ADT find value in contextualizing cultural relevancy on this tangible index scale, but the insights delivered from CRI can be leveraged in a multitude of other ways as well. In addition to evaluating standalone campaigns and measuring YoY growth, the score can also compare portfolio brands, rank integrations, and offer competitive insight. For example, Paramount has utilized the tool to show how their slate out-performs other content across the entertainment landscape. Paramount is able to share the CRI reports with their ad sales and brand partnerships teams to target brands who would benefit from working on their content. CRI has been essential in helping Paramount build a compelling case study that demonstrates the power of Paramount shows in driving a higher CRI than their competitors, proving that brands would gain cultural relevancy by supporting Paramount content. See above for a case study that showcases how Paramount content can increase a brand’s CRI by 13 points when compared to other premium content.
BENlabs continues to redefine the measurement of entertainment’s impact bringing science to the art of culture. CRI is transforming how marketers measure success – offering a new metric that allows them to better capture and analyze the impact of their investments across entertainment. With increasing pressure being placed on marketers to evaluate every dollar of spend, CRI has proven to be a critical tool for leading brands like ADT and Paramount as they seek to gain competitive advantage across a complex entertainment landscape.
