IMC 2015: Magazines are the most involving medium

'Engagement Index - Magazines 2X' released by Association of Indian Magazines establishes that magazines are twice as involving as radio and TV

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Chennai | February 25, 2015

Association of Indian Magazine's 9th Indian Magazine Congress kicked off on February 23, 2015 with the welcome address and release of 'Engagement Index - Magazines 2X' by Mitrajit Bhattacharya, President, AIM & President & Publisher, Chitralekha Group. Taking place for the first time in Chennai, the Congress focussed on the theme of 'Magazines: 2X' – Engage. Connect. Work.

Prepared by Media & Retail Group, IMRB International that previously conducted the magazine engagement study for AIM in 2010, the Engagement Index for each media provides comparability between media on engagement. The index took five engagement measures across media namely – Mind Measures, Escapism, Information, Stimulation and Attitude towards advertising.

On the parameter of Mind Measures, the Index findings revealed that the magazines are on the top with 178 points ahead of Internet with 173 points, newspaper with 162 points, television with 158 points and radio with 100 points. The finding established that magazines play multiple roles in the consumers' lives: someone they can rely on, someone they can relate with, someone who helps them out when they face a problem, all this while being an undemanding companion.

The Escapism index measured the tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment. On Escapism measure, magazines were way ahead of other mediums with 140 points followed by newspapers with 125 points. The index established that when consumers look to escape the mundaneness of life, they turn to magazines.

For information seeking, too, magazines are ahead of television and newspapers and are only behind internet. The Information index revealed that magazine content is highly customised and relatable and consumers seek to consume magazines actively.

On the fourth parameter of Stimulation, magazines topped as a medium with 207 points, followed by internet with 201 points, newspaper with 191 points, and television with 188 points. The index found that with a daily overdoes of information from newspapers and TV, consumers turned to magazines to stimulate themselves.

The last parameter of Engagement index was 'attitude towards ads' and this established that despite the advantage of visual medium, television is only marginally ahead of magazines. Consumers seek advertising in magazines as they find contextualised advertising.

Overall weighted index of all the mediums established that magazines are the most involving medium and are about twice as involving as radio and television.

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