Millward Brown’s Research Reveals Avatar is Public’s Favorite to Win Best Picture at the Academy Awards

NEW YORK--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--According to a study by Millward Brown, conducted through the innovative use of avatars, or “virtual hosts,” Avatar is favored by the public to win the Academy Awards’ most coveted honor, Best Picture. The study also reveals that Invictus produced stand-out choices for Best Actor and Supporting Actor and that Sandra Bullock is favored for Best Actress.

“Having more engaging dialogues with consumers is fundamental to gaining quality insights, and that principle drives our research innovation.”

In what looks to be a huge year for the awards, 68 percent of those surveyed were likely¹ to watch the Academy Awards on Sunday night.

“With its seamless integration of CGI and 3D, Avatar the movie, set a new standard for the use of technology to heighten the viewing experience. Similarly, Millward Brown stretched the research envelope by exploring the use of avatars to drive higher engagement and richness of response in its survey,” said Eileen Campbell, Global CEO at Millward Brown. “Our choice to conduct this type of research for the Oscars, an advertising event that rivals that of the Super Bowl, is particularly fitting in a year when Avatar broke the movie mold.”

The new research approach is part of ongoing efforts to improve respondent engagement. In the study, 9 out of 10 respondents indicated that they enjoyed their avatar-enhanced survey experience. According to Jake Kolb, Vice President of Innovations at Millward Brown, “Having more engaging dialogues with consumers is fundamental to gaining quality insights, and that principle drives our research innovation.”

Avatar, The Blind Side and Up represent the “Best Picture” nominees that the respondents would most like to see win. However, the list changes based on people who actually saw the films (see complete lists below).


Films Favored to Win			Films Favored to Win by People Who Actually Saw Them
Rank	Film	%		%
1	Avatar	32	Avatar	50
2	The Blind Side	22	The Blind Side	41
3	Up	11	Precious	28
4	Inglourious Basterds	9	The Hurt Locker	21
5	Precious	8	Up	20
6	District 9	5	Inglourious Basterds	17
7	Up in the Air	4	Up in the Air	14
8	The Hurt Locker	4	District 9	11
9	An Education	1	An Education	7
10	A Serious Man	0	A Serious Man	6
Source: Millward Brown

“While The Hurt Locker was very well regarded by people who actually saw it, only half of those surveyed had even heard of it according to our research,” said Kolb. “This year, the number of films nominated increased from 5 to 10 which was not only well received (with more than half responding that it is ‘good’ to have more choices), but also good for the exposure of these lesser-known films that would have likely continued in relative anonymity were it not for their nominations.”

Best Actors/Actresses

While Invictus was not nominated for Best Picture, its two leading men, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon ranked as top picks for Best Actor and Supporting Actor, respectively. Stars of Precious also captured hearts, with Mo’Nique ranked highest for Supporting Actress and Gabourey Sidibe third highest for Best Actress. Meryl Streep follows Sandra Bullock as ‘top choice’ for Best Actress for her role in Julie and Julia.


Top Choice, Actors

Rank	Best Actor	%	Best Supporting Actor	%
1	Morgan Freeman (Invictus)	39	Matt Damon (Invictus)	35
2	George Clooney (Up in the Air)	21	Christopher Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)	16
3	Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)	15	Woody Harrelson (The Messenger)	15
4	Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)	6	Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)	12
5	Colin Firth (A Single Man)	4	Christopher Plummer (The Last Station)	6
Source: Millward Brown. n=1,100 respondents, some of which may not have seen the films.


Top Choice, Actresses

Rank	Best Actress	%	Best Supporting Actress	%
1	Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)	54	Mo’Nique (Precious)	30
2	Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)	20	Penelope Cruz (Nine)	25
3	Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)	14	Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart)	14
4	Helen Mirren (The Last Station)	4	Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)	9
5	Carey Mulligan (An Education)	1	Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)	5
Source: Millward Brown . n=1,100 respondents, some of which may not have seen the films.

Notes for Editors

About this Research

The sample for this research, which was half male and half female, consisted of more than 1,100 respondents in the U.S. who had seen three or more movies in theatres during 2009. Interviews were conducted between February 25 and 28, 2010.

Avatars, or “virtual hosts,” were integrated into the online survey environment including Text-To-Speech (‘TTS’), and played a role throughout the survey including voicing introductions, questions and instructions. Various avatar occurrence levels were investigated, ranging from use during survey introduction only, to use during numerous questions. A variety of avatar characteristics were also tested – a range from animated characters to real videos, male and female, and different voices.

About Millward Brown

Millward Brown (www.millwardbrown.com) is one of the world's leading research agencies and is expert in effective advertising, marketing communications, media and brand equity research. Through the use of an integrated suite of validated research solutions — both qualitative and quantitative — Millward Brown helps clients build strong brands and services. Millward Brown has more than 78 offices in 51 countries. Additional practices include Millward Brown's Global Media Practice (media effectiveness unit), Millward Brown Optimor (focused on helping clients maximize the returns on their brand and marketing investments) and Dynamic Logic (the world leader in digital marketing effectiveness). Millward Brown is part of Kantar, WPP's insight, information and consultancy group.

¹ 31% were “very likely” and 37% were “somewhat likely”