Media & Advertising
Media and advertising firms continue to navigate a bifurcated loyalty landscape. Krafton and Cricket South Africa (CSA) struggle with single-digit scores, while The Digital Voice and Geek Retreat post near-perfect marks. The sector's 101 canonical disclosures tell a story of entrenched operational and content challenges alongside pockets of exceptional execution.
The headline
Media & Advertising yields a median Net Promoter Score of 69.0 across 101 disclosures, five points below the corpus benchmark of 74. The sector mean sits at 60.0, dragged down by a long tail of underperformers: nineteen disclosures fall below 25, including eight in negative territory. When the industry works, it works well—thirty-two disclosures exceed 80—but half the corpus lives in the mid-range, suggesting that operational consistency and audience expectations remain uneven. This sector's range, from −46 to +100, is among the widest we track.
The distribution shows a clear split. Marketing services, niche events, and B2B media platforms dominate the upper quartile, while mass-market streaming services, sports federations, and ticketing platforms cluster near the bottom. Content quality, live-experience reliability, and pricing transparency emerge as the decisive drivers.
NPS evolution
Year-on-year volatility is pronounced. The sector surged to an 87.6 average in 2017 on a small sample, crashed to 39.2 in 2020 during pandemic disruptions, recovered to the mid-70s in 2021–2023, then softened again in 2024 and has hovered around 55–60 since. Disclosure volume has climbed steadily: 2026 alone accounts for twenty-six readings, already double the prior-year total. The trend suggests maturation and realism as more operators report, diluting the early winner's bias.
Disclosure volume
The corpus has grown from five disclosures in 2017 to twenty-six so far in 2026. The acceleration reflects both broader NPS adoption and investor pressure on media and advertising firms to quantify customer sentiment as churn and pricing power come under scrutiny. Volume growth is particularly marked among B2B marketing platforms and live-event operators, where client retention economics drive valuation.
Company stories
The streaming slide
Netflix has posted seven canonical disclosures since 2020, tracking a steady erosion from 46.0 in May 2020 to 23.0 in July 2025—a 23-point decline. The drop coincides with subscriber growth deceleration, price increases, and password-sharing enforcement. Max (formerly HBO Max) sits at 7.0 as of July 2025, reflecting platform migration friction and content-library churn. The streaming category, once a loyalty darling, now contends with subscription fatigue and intensifying competition.
Live events and sports deliver highs and lows
FedEx St. Jude Championship reported an NPS in the 80s for 2026, up from 71 the prior year, demonstrating the potential for well-executed tournament experiences. Auckland FC achieved a 78 on its A-League Grand Final, more than twenty points above typical benchmarks for similar-scale sporting events. On the other end, Cricket South Africa (CSA) lingers at 6.8, barely improved from 6.65 a year earlier, and Australian Sailing holds at 7.0. Federation governance, accessibility, and fan engagement remain chronic weak spots.
Negative-NPS outliers
BritBox posted a −46 in March 2020, a rare example of net-detractor sentiment in a subscription video product. User complaints centered on catalog breadth, app performance, and perceived value versus incumbents. TwentyThree, a SaaS video-marketing platform, registered −28 in September 2018, flagging onboarding friction and feature-gap issues that have since been addressed through a product pivot. Both cases underline the high cost of under-delivering on core content or capability promises.
Fresh in 2026
The past quarter has brought a dozen new readings, with notable entries including:
- Ebiquity plc at 72, placing the media-auditing firm in the top quartile of its category in client satisfaction.
- NIQ climbed to an all-time high of 52 in June 2026, up seven points year-on-year, signaling improved data-product delivery.
- Uxin Limited reported 68, among the highest in its used-car media/platform segment.
- APO Group disclosed an employee NPS of 54 across seventeen countries, a rare inside-out metric in this sector.
- Boston Pickle Club hit 55 as it scales with a new 37,000-square-foot facility, illustrating how niche recreation brands can sustain loyalty through community investment.
Older nuggets worth a second look
- Fractal Visuals earned a perfect 100 twice in 2017, a high-water mark for boutique video-production loyalty.
- Measure Marketing Results Inc. closed 2017 with a 100, underscoring the power of outcome-based marketing services in driving client advocacy.
- Perceptive Group reported 72 in July 2017, positioning itself as New Zealand's most-loved marketing-services firm.
- Ten Entertainment reached 66 in September 2017, crediting customer-experience improvements in bowling and leisure venues.