It’s no secret that live events are marketing gold. From high-stakes sports to headline-grabbing premieres, these cultural touchstones command rare, undivided attention (the dream scenario for advertisers).
As audience focus becomes increasingly fragmented across devices and platforms, live events stand out by bringing people together in real time. But while their impact is clear, quantifying their true value can be difficult.
That’s why we’re excited to share some of the work we’ve been doing with Netflix, helping to deliver deeper insights into the power of live moments.
Live Event Sponsorship is a Strategic Growth Lever
Affinity Solutions worked with Netflix to measure and analyze the consumer impact of a high-profile live event. The goal was to understand how and if event sponsorship influenced consumer behavior.
Using Affinity’s comprehensive consumer purchase insights, we tracked consumer activity before, during, and after the event. The results for the brand sponsor were striking:
- Sales Lift: a 30% increase in sales during the event period compared to the same days in the weeks prior. This, compared to ~10% sales lift for its competitor during the same event.
- New Customer Acquisition: The event attracted 2.5x more new customers for the brand sponsor than average, with new users contributing nearly a quarter of total sales.
- Demographic Shifts: The audience skewed younger (ages 18–41), male, and family-oriented—valuable segments for many advertisers.
Among Netflix subscribers specifically, the impact was even greater:
- 44% sales lift for the brand sponsor, outperforming its closest competitor, who saw ~19% lift during the same event.
These numbers tell a clear story: live events are so sought after by advertisers because they don’t just entertain—they activate.
Why This Matters for Marketers
For advertisers and brand marketers, the implications are powerful:
- Cultural Relevance Drives Commerce: Aligning with high-interest events can dramatically boost engagement and sales.
- Streaming Platforms Are the New Stadiums: Netflix’s reach and real-time engagement offer a unique opportunity to connect with audiences at scale.
- Data-Driven Strategy Wins: With Affinity’s consumer purchase insights, brands can measure impact, optimize spend, and refine targeting with precision.
What sets Affinity apart in the measurement industry:
- Access to both debit and credit card data within 24 hours of the purchase
- The ability to report sales at a brand/merchant level and also named competitors
- Matchable data at the individual or HH level.
Live events are more than media moments—they’re marketing multipliers. But to truly know what happened after they watched your event and saw your ad, marketers need precise, always-on measurement grounded in deterministic data. At Affinity Solutions, we are what happens.
