DefinitionBrand affinity measures how much more, or less, an audience engages with, follows or searches for a brand than a reference population. An affinity of 2.0x means twice as likely as the average.
Concentration, not scale
A brand with five million fans and one with 50,000 can both show high affinity in a given segment. What matters is concentration. That is why affinity is useful for targeting and partner selection: it tells you where a brand over-indexes.
The formula
Brand affinity = share of the segment engaging with the brand ÷ share of the baseline population engaging with the brandExample (illustrative): 8% of NFL fans search for a brand, 4% of the US population does. Affinity 2.0x.
Brand affinity vs related metrics
- Brand awareness measures whether people know a brand exists. A brand can be known by nearly everyone and still show low affinity in a segment that does not engage with it more than anyone else.
- Market share measures a brand’s share of a category. Affinity measures a segment’s disproportionate interest, independent of category size.
- Reach or audience size is an absolute number of people. Affinity is always relative to a comparison group.
What it is used for
- Sponsorship and partnerships: which clubs, creators or events a brand’s audience leans towards, before budget is committed.
- Expansion: adjacent audiences with a similar affinity profile.
- Creative and messaging: what else an audience cares about shapes what will land, not only where to place media.
Common mistakes
- Assuming it works both ways. Segment A can have 2.0x affinity for brand B without B’s audience having the same affinity for A. It depends on which population is the denominator.
- Small meets small. A niche segment can show 5x or 10x on a small brand simply because both are small and concentrated together. Read reach next to affinity.
- No named baseline. An affinity is a comparison. Without the reference group, it cannot be checked.
How Rascasse uses it
Rascasse shows, for 50,000+ brands and for clubs, artists, events and media, which other brands, interests and media an audience over-indexes on, and where in a country it concentrates. Affinities are measured per country from aggregated behaviour signals and updated quarterly.
Related use cases: Brand Partnerships & Co-Branding, Audience Profiling, Talent & Creator Matching.
Related terms
Affinity indexAn affinity index shows how much more, or less, common a behaviour is in one group than in a reference population.Over- and underindexingA group overindexes when it appears more often in an audience than its share of the population would lead you to expect.Regional affinityRegional affinity shows where inside a country an audience is concentrated, measured against each region’s share of the population.