New York, NY (PRWEB) January 22, 2015
A new innovative partnership that combines proprietary offline and online data sources with advanced marketing mix modeling to help brands definitively understand and measure the value of word of mouth was announced today by a group of leading analytics companies.
Through the new partnership, marketing analytics leader Analytic Partners, social consultancy Converseon, and word of mouth research firm Keller Fay Group have launched a new solution called Integrated Social Exploration Modeling (“ISEM”) that enables brands to access the benefits of the recent groundbreaking analysis sponsored by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) in partnership with several leading brands. Released in November 2014, the solution helped definitively “crack the code” on the value of word of mouth to brands by combining proprietary offline and online data within an advanced structural equation marketing mix models. Clients who are interested in leveraging the new solution will learn how important social influence is to purchase decisions for their business, how it interacts with other paid, earned, and owned media, and the role of online versus offline social influence.
The solution, which was launched by the key partners with the support of several leading brands, is the first to provide quantitative measurement and validation of the impact of word of mouth and social media on not just sales, but also their influence on other marketing investments such as paid media, promotions, online search, PR, and other important parts of the marketing mix that have proved to be challenging. The results found that, on average, word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales (or an estimated $6 trillion annually in the US), and has a powerful amplifying effect on paid media.
“Word of Mouth is an area that begs for more deliberate decision making and planning from marketers, as it works hand-in-glove with paid media,” said Analytic Partners President Nancy Smith. “We now have in place the techniques and know-how to measure the impact of all forms of word of mouth, and look forward to working closely with both Converseon and Keller Fay to bring these important metrics to leading brands across the multiple product and service categories that are influenced heavily by word of mouth. Given the success and interest generated from the WOMMA study, it was a natural next step to offer the same solution to other brands using the newly launched model framework and social data sets.” Smith noted that the solution extends to brands across multiple consumer categories, from consumer packaged goods such as food, beverages and personal care products; to higher consideration categories such as automotive, technology and consumer electronics; and service categories such as telecommunications, financial services, and travel.
“We are delighted to be part of this new partnership with Analytic Partners and Converseon,” added Keller Fay CEO Ed Keller. “It has been said that if you can’t measure it, then you can’t manage it. And this is certainly true for word of mouth. Brand advocacy is a vital business asset, and this partnership will better enable brand marketers to understand the value of these consumer conversations, whether they take place online or off, and to understand the vital connections between paid and earned media to as to be able to maximize the impact and efficiency of their marketing investments.”
“The idea for this new partnership and solution was sparked by strong interest from brands who didn’t participate in the initial study wanting to benefit from similar insights into their own marketing,” said Brad Fay, COO of Keller Fay. “That naturally led to the clear need for a more complete, validated solution. For the first time brands can clearly understand and measure word of mouth in all its forms, and understand the immense value that these conversations, online and off, have on business performance.”
“Through more advanced data filtering methods, together with these sophisticated modeling techniques, social data has hit a tipping point where it is demonstrably proving to be not just qualitative, but now also quantitative and predictive,” said Rob Key, CEO of Converseon. “Brands can either provide their social data to us for further enrichment and filtering to be plugged into the model or we can provide it. The key point is we ensure the solution is using the same validated approach and data annotations as the original model. Until now, online social media listening and offline word of mouth tracking have essentially been two parallel universes. This partnership is designed to change that so that we can understand the offline and online worlds holistically.”
Analytic Partners is a global marketing consultancy firm that leverages innovative analytics to measure the impact of marketing investment on sales and other key performance indicators. Converseon is a social media research, text analytics and consulting firm. The Keller Fay Group provides word of mouth research and consulting, with a unique focus on offline conversation. All three firms are award winning and recognized as leaders in their respective fields. For more information, interested parties can contact sales(at)converseon(dot)com or info(at)kellerfay(dot)com or contactus(at)analyticpartners(dot)com