Around two crore people have watched the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts ever since the trailer was released on December 20. Emotions ran high for the die-hard Potter series fans when the teaser was released in the first week of December. A Bengaluru based software company, Entropik Technologies Pvt Ltd, has captured these sentiments using the Entropik Affect Lab platform.
The Affect Lab platform analysed the teaser and brought forth its emotional highs and lows. The Lab has used facial coding, eye-tracking technologies, and survey techniques to decipher the expressions of the participants across genders and age groups who watched the most awaited video this month.
The Affect Lab score for this teaser managed to garner a score of 37.17. The report also indicates that the intensity of negative emotions was higher than the intensity of positive emotions resulting from the sadness captured when the audience watched their most nostalgic moments.
Campaign Creation
The technology used in conducting the study includes:
- Technologies Enabled: Facial Coding, Eye Tracking and Computer Vision (Webcam/Mobile cam)
- Supported Media: Images, Videos, Public URLs, Package Images, Prototypes, Wireframes
- Sequencing: Media Skip, Recalibration, Question Branching, Question Randomizing
- Virtual Interactive Shopper Research: Create virtual shelves, Drag and drop products, “Add to Cart” feature to measure purchase intent
The attention level of the respondents remained stable at 67.67% throughout watching the teaser. It is greater than the benchmark numbers and fares than most trailers launched in 2021. The engagement rate stood at 12.88, with dips and peaks in various places. The reason for the stability in attention and engagement levels can be the result of showcasing iconic things and places associated with Harry Potter. The selective things intrigued the audience about the cast, date and other key details.
The study was conducted using the methods mentioned below:
- Screening, Pre-Survey, and Post-Survey (Mobile Surveys available too)
- Survey Library, Pre-defined Question templates, 20+ Survey Question Types
- Completion/Failure Messages with Custom Branding
The study was conducted in the US, UK and India, with 150 respondents in India who voted for Harry, who received 65% of the votes for the most popular character. Hermione and Ron came second and third, respectively. Apart from the trio, Lord Voldemort and Severus Snape also found a place in this list. However, Hermione was voted as the most popular character in the UK.
The study’s online test/tasks had:
- Online Panel: Affect Lab Panel (50mn+), Panel Link Integration, Exclusive Panelist IDs
- Tester Preview Branding and Customisation
- 15+ Languages Supported
Wow!, Can’t wait to watch the reunion.
The first reaction to the teaser for 42% of the people was, ‘Wow! Can’t wait to watch the reunion’. More than 34% of the audience felt ‘Nostalgic’ and were in the mood to revisit their school or college days when they spent a lot of time discussing Harry Potter with their friends. About 12% of them said they were speechless, while another 12% asked, ‘Why recreate magic moments?
Attention level peaked
The attention and engagement levels peaked in the 18th second in the teaser as the audience were curious to find if the mysterious woman walking on the 9 ¾ platform was Hermione/Emma Watson. The chance of getting a peek at one of the most loved characters in the Harry Potter series increased the respondents’ curiosity, happiness, and nostalgic quotient.
Happy moments
At 11th second, Neville Longbottom, seen holding the legendary Hogwarts letter, was one of the happiest moments of the teaser. The reason could be that he was the only student whose face was shown in the video. Another smile-inducing moment came at 15 seconds when Arthur Weasley can be seen on the Hogwarts Express. Again, a sense of familiarity in seeing well-known characters along with the trademark Harry Potter elements, like the invitation and Hogwarts Express, made people smile.
Negative expression
The scenes that showcased text, including the likes of ‘The invitation you have been waiting for’, the Harry Potter logo, and the cast names, brought out the most negative expressions in people. But these negative emotions are associated with nostalgia and sadness of seeing their favourite characters for one last time together after a long gap. Since Harry Potter movies are based on books, viewers could relate; how the characters were portrayed on screen triggered evocativeness.
Reports and Dashboards of the Study
- Four Dashboards: Summary, Emotion, Survey, and Comparative Dashboards
- Reporting: Custom Branding and Report Downloads
- Visualisation: Heatmaps, Gazemaps, Transparency Plots, Area of Interest (AOI), Mouse Clicks and Mouse Plots
- Emotion Graphs: Emotion Percentage Distribution, Attention/Engagement levels, Emotion Spread and Cognitive Metrics Distribution
- Benchmark: Proprietary Affect Lab Scores and 45,000+ experiences to compare with
- Facial Coding Metrics: Attention, Engagement, +ve Emotions and -ve Emotions
- Eye Tracking Metrics: Time to Discover, Earned Attention, Percentage of People Seen, Expose Time Duration.
About 67% of the viewers said that after watching the reunion teaser, they would binge-watch the entire movie series again. This is a good way to resell the original movies to the fans and a newer set of audience.
