A couple of years ago we set ourselves a challenge at Immediate Media. We publish brands such as Good Food, Radio Times and BBC Gardeners’ World, and we have always believed we offer more than guidance or simple entertainment. Belief only takes you so far, though.

Could we actually measure emotional connection, rather than assume it? That question became the Joy Test, and it has really impacted how we think about our audiences.

Our starting hypothesis had two parts: firstly that passions and hobbies have a measurable impact on wellbeing, and secondly, that what our brands offer around those passions can deepen that experience, rather than simply accompany it.

Proving it was less simple. Joy is subjective, and we were determined not to produce something that felt like PR dressed up as research. That informed the biggest early decision, which was who to work with.  

We wanted the rigour and credibility that an academic partner brings, so we partnered with psychologists at the University of Sussex, led by Professor Robin Banerjee. He founded the Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness and led the BBC Kindness Test, a study of more than 60,000 people, so measuring how our daily choices and experiences shape how we feel was familiar ground.

We had also worked with his team before on the Screen Test, to mark Radio Times’ 100th anniversary, which asked readers to record what they watched and the impact it had on their mood.  

The Joy Test explored whether four leisure activities – gardening, cooking and baking, watching TV, and listening to the radio – genuinely made a positive difference to peoples’ lives, and whether our brands helped support that effect.

The scope was deliberately broad, with nearly 10,000 respondents taking part in the quantitative study, coupled with six focus groups.  

To capture a broad spectrum of our audience, we used a variety of resources – Immediate’s panel, our customer database, and a nationally representative sample, so we could tell a story about the country, not just our own audience. We measured how people felt before and after time spent on their chosen activity, alongside their motivations, their personality traits and their engagement with our brands.

While covering four verticals in a single data set was complex, it allowed us to compare the brands like-for-like, alongside the overall story.   

Personality traits correlate with leisure activities

What came back was more textured than we expected. Across all four activities tested, people felt significantly happier after time spent on their selected passion. Gardening stood out for joy and for flow, that state of losing hours without noticing. Cooking scored highest for a sense of competence, while TV provided an important sense of connection around shared experiences.  

What surprised us was how personality traits correlated with what people choose to do in their leisure time. Those who found most joy in gardening tended to be more conscientious, while those who loved cooking were more likely to be extroverted. And encouragingly for us, the more Immediate brand touchpoints people engaged with, the more joy, motivation and immersion they reported.  

The social media paradox

The finding that stood out most was not one we had set out to find – so often the case with multi-faceted insight projects.

Scrolling social media was the activity people did most frequently in their leisure time, yet it ranked last for joy of the 21 activities we measured, at 4.05 out of 7. The finding was picked up by national media and later fed into a House of Lords debate as a social media ban was being discussed.

Meanwhile, in the focus groups, one woman described how gardening gave her and her mother something to talk about after her father died. That is the kind of insight a spreadsheet never gives you.

The joy commercial advantage

The Joy Test proved the wellbeing case, and it opened up a new question: did a joyful mindset influence what people do as consumers? To answer this question, we designed a follow-up study, which surveyed just over 2,000 people this April.  

The Joy Advantage study found that, in a positive mindset, people were 11 times more likely to recommend a product and close to five times more likely to spend on the things they love. Engaging with passion content rather than aimless scrolling made them 400% more likely to buy a product advertised alongside it.

None of this was meant to be a full-stop. The research is an ongoing programme and an integral part of our thinking across the business. It is also helping our commercial teams explain why the environment a message sits in matters as much as the message itself.  

Gosia Wilda is head of insight at Immediate Media