[October 19, 2015]

SOASTA Survey: Nearly 7 in 10 Star Wars Fans Will Rely on Website Performance to Get Ready for New Star Wars Movie

SOASTA (News - Alert), the leader in performance analytics, has today released the results of a survey about the upcoming Star Wars movie. The online survey, conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA among over 2,000 adults age 18+, found that Star Wars fans will be counting on website performance to watch new movie trailers (45 percent), get updates on the movie (33 percent), and read movie reviews (33 percent). Using its Consumer Performance Index (CPI), which measures website performance and user engagement, SOASTA also tested the performance of websites where fans will most likely watch the new preview and found that all popular online movie trailer sites out-perform the Star Wars official website.

Star Wars fans will take to the Internet

The survey results revealed a curious division of activities among Star Wars fans based on U.S. geography. While fans across the U.S. will be depending on website performance to watch movie trailers (45 percent), Star Wars fans in the West are more likely to be relying on it in order to read movie reviews (41 percent, compared to 27-33 percent elsewhere); Star Wars fans in the Northeast and South are more likely to be relying on web performance to learn about the The Force Awakens stars (24 percent each, compared to 9-14 percent elsewhere); and Star Wars fans in the Northeast will be relying on online retail outlet performance so they can buy Star Wars toys (17 percent compared to just 8 percent in the West and 10 percent in the South).

"This is about Star Wars to the fans, on the face of it," said Ann Ruckstuhl, SOASTA CMO. "But it is truly about website performance, as fans rely on the Internet to, for example, watch previews and buy toys. Performance is now the critical differentiator for brands across the globe in all industries-and web and mobile app performance matters now more than ever before as a result."

Care about website performance Millennials do

Among Star Wars fans, Millennials (52 percent) are more likely than their older counterparts to say online performance matters (compared to 42 percent of fans 35-44, 31 percent of fans 45-54, 23 percent of fans 55-64, and 19 percent of fans 65+).

Force Friday, however, seems to be a hit with nobody. Only 10 percent of Star Wars fans in the U.S. said they celebrated.

Meanwhile, the Force "sleeps in" on the official Star Wars website

Considering how many Star Wars fans said they will be counting on online performance to watch The Force Awakens movie trailer, fans should be advised that while Starwars.com may be the most logical go-to website, they'd be better off watching The Force Awakens preview at Lucas Film (CPI score: 84.6), Rotten Tomatoes (CPI score: 83.6), or Moviefone (CPI score: 82). In fact, any other popular purveyor of online movie trailers will offer a more reliable performance experience than the eponymous StarWars.com:

Methodology

This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of SOASTA from September 23-25, 2015, among 2,044 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and, therefore, no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Gaby Perez-Silva: [email protected]

About SOASTA

SOASTA is the leader in performance analytics. The SOASTA platform enables digital business owners to gain unprecedented and continuous performance insights into their real user experience on mobile and web devices in real time and at scale. With more than 3 billion user experiences monitored, measured, tested and optimized every week, SOASTA is the digital performance expert trusted by industry-leading brands, including 41 of the Top 100 Internet Retailers, such as Target, Nordstrom, Staples, Sears, Walmart, Etsy (News - Alert), Nike, Best Buy, Adobe, Intuit, Microsoft, DirectTV, Netflix and BBC. SOASTA is private held and headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. For more information about SOASTA, visit http://www.soasta.com.

About The Harris Poll

Over the last 5 decades, Harris Polls have become media staples. With comprehensive experience and precise technique in public opinion polling, along with a proven track record of uncovering consumers' motivations and behaviors, The Harris Poll has gained strong brand recognition around the world. The Harris Poll offers a diverse portfolio of proprietary client solutions to transform relevant insights into actionable foresight for a wide range of industries including health care, technology, public affairs, energy, telecommunications, financial services, insurance, media, retail, restaurant, and consumer packaged goods. Contact us for more information.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151019005318/en/

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