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‘Passionista’ Consumers Can Help Brands Harness Digital Media

Consumers passionate about a certain issue - dubbed “Passionistas” - are much more likely than typical consumers to create and share content online about their passions, and the brands associated with them, according to new research from Yahoo and MediaVest, MarketingCharts reports.

“Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers” tracked the online behavior of consumers with specific passions, such as health, sports, food and entertainment. Marketers have a unique opportunity to engage these credible, influential advocates to spread brand messages through digital media, the study found.

Passionistas spend significantly more time engaged in activities related to their passions than the average consumer, according to the study. For example:

• For every one minute that a typical internet user spends online with content associated with a passionista’s passion, Passionistas spend six minutes with that content.
• Passionistas will visit a website related to their passion three times more than the typical user.
• Passionistas search online for information about their passion 184 percent more than typical users and conduct more than 100 related searches having to do with their passion per year.

In addition, Passionistas heavily engage with communities of like-minded consumers who use email, text messaging, and instant messaging significantly more than typical users, and are more likely to create and share user-generated content online such as photos, blog posts or videos about their passions.

Because of their intense engagement around sharing information, Passionistas are 52 percent more likely than typical users to recommend or influence others about brands aligning with them.

Passionistas are more open than others to advocating brands that appear to share their passions (see those findings at MarketingCharts).