TripAdvisor, Expedia and Hotels.com are on the Tip of Consumers’ Tongues When Planning Vacations

 

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Rankings Reveal Top Online Travel Agents Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

  NEW YORK, NY (June 20, 2017) – In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing online travel agents (OTA) in the U.S. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. The analysis finds that the OTA category as a whole performs better in terms of offline (face-to-face conversations) as compared to online (social media). Also, the brands in the OTA category perform better in terms of offline brand sharing—which is the amount of face-to-face conversations in which people are talking about a brand’s marketing or advertising—as compared to online, via the brand’s social media pages. These statistics become incredibly interesting due to the sheer amount of time consumers spend on searching online travel sites, including OTAs. A recent study conducted by comScore found that, on average, travelers in the U.S. made 140 visits to travel sites in the 45 days prior to booking a trip.

Engagement Labs’ analysis finds that TripAdvisor is the clear leader, performing better than its peers both offline and online. TripAdvisor’s top ranking is driven by its strong online volume and online sentiment scores—which means consumers are having a large amount of positive conversations about the online booking tool via social media. In addition, TripAdvisor performs above-average in terms of offline brand sharing, which might be attributed to its recent return to TV advertising after a two-year absence. However, there is room for improvement when it comes to its online brand sharing scores, which presents an opportunity for the company to create and post more shareable content on its owned social media pages. “Despite the fact that consumers are booking their travel or vacations online, its clear that individuals move fluidly between online and offline lives, talking about their travel booking experiences in face-to-face conversations,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Even today’s digital-first brands, such as online travel agents, must pay close attention to consumer conversations occurring offline as well as online.” A number of OTA brands such as Expedia, Hotels.com and Travelocity have higher volume scores offline as compared to online, which shows that consumers are talking about these travel websites in more offline conversations as compared to via social media. For brands such as Expedia, their online campaigns can successfully generate an offline buzz. For example, the online booking company launched a series of documentary-style videos on social media before being aired on TV, resulting in a higher volume of offline conversations. Meanwhile, the brands finding themselves at the bottom of the rankings include KAYAK, Priceline and Orbitz. These three brands’ TotalSocial scores are brought down by their substantially lower volume scores, which are especially lower in terms of offline volume, presenting a clear opportunity for improving how much conversation each brand is getting online and offline. To learn more about Engagement Labs or its TotalSocial insights, and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Engagement Labs Launches Predictive Analytics Module for TotalSocial® Linking Consumer Conversations to Sales

Brand Marketers Can Now Identify the Social Media and Word of Mouth Metrics that Matter Most to Drive Sales with TotalSocial Predict

Montreal, QC, (June 20, 2017)Engagement Labs Inc. (TSX VENTURE:EL) today announced the release of a significant new breakthrough in its TotalSocial® data and analytics solution. The new offering, TotalSocial Predict, enables marketers to identify the precise social influence metrics that matter most to drive sales and other key performance (i.e. driving in-store or online traffic), and identifies specific strategies and tactics that will increase brands’ return on marketing investment. “Marketers know that consumer conversations and recommendations are the most powerful form of marketing, but until now, it has been a challenge to turn that insight into high-impact marketing strategies and tactics,” said Engagement Labs CEO Ed Keller. “Every brand has a unique ‘social DNA’ which, once revealed, points toward improved marketing ROI and increased consumer sales. This underscores the importance for brands to know exactly what conversational forces, offline and online, will best drive their performance.” TotalSocial Predict integrates advanced predictive analytics into the Company’s TotalSocial solution, which provides marketers with the ability to continuously measure the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. The release comes after nine months of research and development, as well as beta tests with clients in a diverse range of sectors including consumer electronics, financial services and automotive. A recently published peer-reviewed article has demonstrated that online and offline conversation performance are largely unrelated and work independently of each other, which underscores the importance for marketers to measure both, as well as use both streams of data in developing marketing programs that are optimized to the strengths of each. With TotalSocial Predict, Engagement Labs can now pinpoint for its clients exactly how much each metric—from the volume of conversations, to sentiment to content sharing and influencer engagement—drives sales and other key performance indicators, in order to guide them on priorities for improving performance. It also provides clients with a simulator which demonstrates how much performance improvement on each of the individual metrics will lead to enhanced sales, further enabling marketers to focus on the most valuable opportunities. For more information about the company’s TotalSocial data solution, visit www.engagementlabs.com/totalsocial. On Wednesday, June 21, 2017, at 2:00pm ET, Engagement Labs will host a webinar entitled “Predictive Conversations” to unveil this new service. To attend, register on the company’s website. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. Disclaimer in regards to Forward-looking Statements Certain statements included herein constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, Engagement Labs does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For media inquiries please contact: KCSA Strategic Communications, ktumino@kcsa.com/asingh@kcsa.com, 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207 Ed Keller, CEO, Engagement Labs Inc., ed.keller@engagementlabs.com 732-846-6800

Lego’s Strong Consumer Sentiment Helps It Secure a #1 Ranking in Social Influence

Engagement Labs’ Top TotalSocial® Rankings of Children’s Brands Find Category Strength in Generating Offline Word of Mouth

NEW YORK, NY (June 13, 2017) – Not only does Lego dominate the box office, the theme park and the toy chest, it dominates consumer conversations taking place offline and online, according to a recent, first of its kind analysis. The top-selling toy brand earns the distinction of being a “Conversation Commander,” ranking at number one among other brands in the category. A key driver of this distinction is the brand’s exceptionally high offline sentiment score. The findings were released by Engagement Labs as part of its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing children’s products brands in the U.S. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. “Overall, consumers are more likely to discuss children’s products offline. Almost every brand showed stronger performance offline than online,” says Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “The two exceptions were Pampers, ranked fourth, and Barbie, ranked sixth, each of which had a slight advantage in online conversations vs offline. Given the large parenting community online, there is a tremendous opportunity for these brands to create campaigns to encourage social media conversations, to complement the offline conversations parents have.”

Toymaker Lego’s ranking as the number one TotalSocial brand for the last 12 months coincided with a strong 2016, in which the company set a revenue record. In addition to its high sentiment score, Lego also has exceptionally strong online brand sharing for its category, indicating that consumers like to share branded content from Lego’s social media pages. This also contributes to their number one ranking for online volume. “Lego’s strong showing underscores how important it is for brands to understand what makes consumers talk offline versus what makes them talk online. The motivations that drive consumers to talk about brands face-to-face are quite different than the motivations that drive them to talk on social media,” Keller says. “Only by knowing how a brand behaves in both channels can marketers optimize their performance. Lego clearly understands the dynamics of consumer conversations about their brand.” Offline, Johnson’s Baby has the highest volume score, which makes it the most talked-about brand, but it falls behind the leaders in the category because of its lower scores for online brand sharing and online performance among influencers. Gerber, which falls at number eight in the rankings, excels at online brand sharing, where it leads the category. However, it is missing an opportunity in offline brand sharing, where its position is completely reversed. In this dimension, it ranks last. To learn more about Engagement Labs or its TotalSocial insights, and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. Learn more about brands like Lego that go against the grain in Engagement Labs’ latest e-book, Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence, available here. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207

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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Colgate, Bounty and Crest are Keeping it Fresh When it Comes to Consumer Conversations

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Rankings Reveal Leading Household Consumer Packaged Goods Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (June 6, 2017) – In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing household consumer brands in the U.S. The analysis finds that all of the brands in the household consumer packaged goods category perform better offline (face-to-face conversations) than online (social media). The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations.

Colgate, the TotalSocial leader in the category, takes the top spot due to its above-average scores across the board. In particular, the brand’s strong offline TotalSocial performance stands well ahead of the rest of the field. More specifically, Colgate is among the top performers in the category with regard to offline sentiment as well as offline brand sharing, suggesting that its media and marketing initiatives are making their way into people’s word of mouth conversations. However, the same is not true for online brand sharing, where the brand falls behind others. Therefore, in order for the brand to increase its visibility on social media, there needs to be more shareable social content that resonates with its followers. According to the Engagement Labs’ report, a number of these household consumer brands have above-average offline volume scores, indicating that consumers speak about these brands quite frequently face-to-face. However, they have well below-average online volume scores which present an opportunity for these brands to better engage with its customers via social media. However, one exception is Tide. Tide has the highest online score which can be attributed to its #CleanPledge campaign, which encouraged consumers to be energy efficient when it comes to doing laundry. As part of the campaign, the Company donated $250,000 to WWF’s global conservation efforts. In general, consumers say positive things about household consumer brands, as sentiment is quite strong for this market segment. Dawn, ranked six on TotalSocial, has the highest sentiment in the category both online and offline. “People often assume that the top performing social brands come only from ‘sexy’ categories like technology or automotive or media, which are often associated with new, break through innovations. The truth, however, is that brands in any category can earn high consumer engagement. And we see that with some of these household consumer brands, especially Colgate,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. Keller continued, “It is more important than ever for brands to humanize themselves and be in touch with consumer’s emotional interests, such as environmental issues – which is what we see with Dawn’s cause marketing campaign ‘Save Wildlife’ where Dawn has donated more than 100,000 bottles of dishwashing liquid, which has been proven to be the most effective when cleaning oiled animals, to its wildlife partners, and Tide’s WWF global conservative efforts. While everyday household items are a necessity, creating impactful marketing campaigns will enable brands to connect with consumers and remain part of their conversations, both online and offline.” To learn more about Engagement Labs or its TotalSocial insights, and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

JOHN LEWIS, TOPSHOP AND BOOTS ARE THE TOP-RANKED UK RETAIL BRANDS FOR SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Rankings Reveal Leading UK Retail Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

LONDON, UK (June 6, 2017) – In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing retail brands in the U.K. for social engagement. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial® data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. Although it might seem that consumer shopping choices are greatly influenced by the digital world (influencers, fashion blogs, etc.), the analysis of 50 top non-food retailers measured, conversations about retail brands still mostly happen offline, in face-to-face or so-called ‘dark social’ conversations, as opposed to via public posts in online social media. This is true even for digital-only retailers such as Asos and Very. The nature of offline and private conversation is very different to that visible in Twitter or blogs, according to Engagement Labs. “It’s more casual and spontaneous, often triggered by a store or web visit and of course more intimate,” said Steve Thomson, Managing Director, UK, Engagement Labs. “In tone or sentiment, face-to-face conversations about retail brands are much more likely to be positive than if a consumer goes online. Hence brands need to assess how they perform across all social channels, including the real-world,” he said.   According to the TotalSocial analysis, John Lewis is the clear leader and is also a well-established Conversation Commander, which is defined as a brand that performs above-average both offline and online. John Lewis’ top rank is driven by its extremely strong offline (word of mouth) performance, with exceptionally high sentiment in real-world conversation, strong volumes and high brand sharing performance, which is the sharing of branded content by consumers on social media. Online scores are also above-average, with the #BusterTheBoxer Christmas ad helping to drive high brand sharing in this channel. The other top performers include stores of many types, including discounters such as Home Bargains (number six on the top UK retailers ranking) and B&M (ranked nine). As with supermarkets, the discounters have strong social capital, with positive sentiment and a sense of relevance to all – they are easy brands to recommend to friends regardless of their personal circumstances and budgets. B&M’s social feeds are also driving high levels of online brand sharing. Further down the rankings, IKEA scores well ahead of other furniture and décor retailers. As with the discounters, IKEA’s mass relevance helps drive good volumes. Thomson continued, “Reflecting one of the biggest trends in the category, discounter brands make a strong showing in the retail rankings. We know that TotalSocial scores are predictive of future sales, and this strong performance by these discounter brands helps to explain strong commercial performance while many retailers are struggling. We will keep a careful eye on the trends, but from what we have seen over the past year, there is plenty of reason to believe that analysts’ projections for continued growth are on the mark.” In the US, Amazon topped Engagement Labs’ rankings and not surprisingly they rank high in the UK. Not the highest though: online-only retailers lack the physical presence that drives the high volume of conversation brands like Boots enjoy. Amazon is piloting physical mini-stores in the US which may correct that imbalance somewhat. One major retailer that is notably missing from the top performers list is Marks & Spencer, despite driving a large volume of consumer conversations. But, many of those conversations are about food and drink, the most vibrant part of M&S’ business, and for the sake of fairness we are excluding these. But even in the more challenged fashion category, M&S scores better on some dimensions than one might expect – sentiment is very positive, for example. The main problem is that M&S talkers are mainly older – yes, many of these shoppers are still fond of the brand. It’s not that young people are negative towards M&S – the brand is just not on their radar, and the immediate challenge is to get into the conversations of younger people. A secondary issue is that sentiment dips among the 40-49 age group, a target group which should be accessible to M&S. To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: information@engagementlabs.com. All retail brands included in this analysis are non-food. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 350 brands within the UK across 17 major industry categories, and 500 brands in the US. Engagement Labs has offices in London, New York and Montreal. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207

Heineken, Jack Daniels and Budweiser are Top-Ranking Alcohol Beverage Brands

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Rankings Reveal Leading Alcohol Beverage Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (May 23, 2017) – When it comes to adult beverages, consumers are talking about more about beer brands than spirits, according to a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations. Today, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing alcohol beverage brands in the U.S. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. The analysis finds that, as a whole, the alcohol beverage category are “Whisper Brands,” performing below average both online (social media) and offline (in face-to-face conversations). When comparing online to offline, alcohol beverage brands tend to perform slightly better when it comes to face-to-face conversations occurring offline.
According to Engagement Labs’ data, however, Heineken takes the lead as the top alcohol beverage brand on TotalSocial. The exceptional performance of the brand classifies it as the category’s only “Conversation Commander,” which means the brand performs above average both offline and online. Heineken boasts extremely strong sentiment scores both offline and online that lift it above the category average, even though it is not the most talked about brand. Some of its peers, such as Budweiser and Bud Light generate a larger volume of conversations. Heineken’s strong performance can be attributed to its exceptional sentiment scores which reflect its ability to connect with its customers. In addition, its marketing gets people talking, especially in offline conversations. For example, the brand’s recent ad campaign, “Worlds Apart”, encouraged people to participate in conversations about hot-button, controversial topics. As a whole, the ranking of the top alcohol beverages is dominated by beer brands, which earn four out of the top five spots. The only spirits brand to make it into the top five is Jack Daniels, ranked second in the category. Jack Daniels’ performance is generally better in offline, or word of mouth conversations as compared to conversations happening about the brand on social media channels. Last year, the brand marked its 150th anniversary and celebrated it with an engaging marketing campaign that installed “pop-up distillery experiences,” which further encouraged fans to partake in an authentic conversation about its tradition and heritage. “Beer brands are historically some of the most aggressive marketers,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Not only do they create ‘talk worthy’ campaigns, they spend a lot on media to ensure their target audience is exposed to their messages and motivated to talk about them. It appears, for many of the brands on our list, this strategy is paying off. Consumers are talking! However, other types of beverages in this category are not following suit.” Keller continued, “The alcohol beverage industry as a whole is built around a culture of sharing and encourages its customers to engage with others in a social environment—which presents a clear opportunity for brands to engage with its fans and facilitate more meaningful conversations that result in improved sales and brand recognition.” In contrast to strong performers such as Heineken and Jack Daniels, the analysis finds that Corona, ranked fifth in the category, has one of the largest discrepancies between its offline and online TotalSocial scores out of the 500 brands measured. Corona’s high offline score puts it at the top of the offline list, but its weak online scores hold the brand back and prevent it from doing better in the TotalSocial rankings. This proves that Corona has seen success in connecting its brand with consumers in offline conversations, but lacks in its ability to recreate that same level of buzz and excitement surrounding the brand in conversations happening online. Engagement Labs classifies brands such as Corona—those that perform considerably better offline than online, or vice versa—as “Social Misfits.” Corona’s status as a Social Misfit underscores a need for the brand to pay closer attention to what drives strong performance in one channel, and apply those lessons to the other to help drive better overall consumer engagement and sales. Download Engagement Labs’ e-book on Social Misfits rankings data to learn more about brands with this type of discrepancy at socialmisfits.engagementlabs.com. To learn more about Engagement Labs or its TotalSocial insights, and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial® company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Dove’s focus on real beauty sparks real consumer conversations – both in real life as well as online

Engagement Labs TotalSocial® Rankings Reveal Top Personal Care and Beauty Brands based on Word of Mouth Conversations and Social Media

NEW YORK, NY (May 18, 2017) – When it comes to getting people to talk about their brand, Dove is staying fresh. In a new, first-of-its-kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs identified Dove as the number one TotalSocial® personal care and beauty brand among top U.S. performers in the category. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. Yet for a category that invests heavily in online marketing strategies, more conversations take place away from digital screen. In fact, the personal care and beauty brand category has the highest offline scores among all of the 17 sectors tracked by TotalSocial, while the category’s online scores are about average.

While Dove takes the lead as the top personal care and beauty brand on TotalSocial, several of its peers also show strong performances in both categories – on- and offline – including Bath & Body Works, Sephora, Neutrogena, Nivea, and L’Oréal. These brands have managed to strike up a meaningful conversation online as well as offline. “Dove is a standout because it performs well both offline and online. The brand has sustained its marketing success over the years through promoting positive self-image and highlighting issues surrounding the media’s depiction of women, which spark conversations,” says Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Dove’s campaigns are larger than beauty tips and tutorials, which is why the brand has been so successful.” Bath & Body Works, the number two TotalSocial personal care and beauty brand, uses its retail stores to build an emotional connection to its customers. Designed to evoke pleasant memories from the past – such as the scent of a holiday candle or a favorite fragrance – the stores are designed to feel like home. In addition, the brand has carefully cultivated relationships with in-store customers, which in turn leads to offline conversation. P&G’s Gillette, which has faced serious challenges to their business model from competitors like Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club in recent years, is the only male personal care and beauty product to make the top ten. To hold onto its 60 percent share of the $15 billion market, P&G has invested in both online and offline marketing and advertising strategies, including a web-based shave club and advertising partnerships with major movie franchises.  “What sets personal care and beauty brands apart from brands in other categories is that they are in a space where consumers rely heavily on recommendations and advice as skin and beauty care is extremely important,” notes Keller. “As marketers, brands in this category need to appreciate that and continuously strive for ways to remain part of those conversations, as well as to make even more effective use of social media as so many brands in the category now do. However, the data clearly shows that a focus on social media at the expense of word of mouth is at odds with how consumers behave today and thus an integrated approach is essential. The success of brands such as Dove and Gillette underscores just how important it is to capitalize fully on consumer conversations.” To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial™ company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Consumers may be shopping online more often, but they are taking their conversations offline

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial® Rankings Uncover Top U.S. Retail and Apparel Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations; Analysis Finds Online Retailer Amazon is Also an Offline Leader

NEW YORK, NY (May 10, 2017) – In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial® rankings on the top performing retail and apparel brands in the U.S. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. Although it might seem that consumer shopping choices are greatly influenced by the digital world (influencers, fashion blogs, etc.), the analysis finds that out of more than 60 brands measured, conversations about retail and apparel brands still mostly happen offline, in face-to-face conversations, as opposed to online conversations taking place via social media. In fact, the tone or sentiment of a face-to-face conversation about a given retail or apparel brand is much more likely to be positive than if a consumer goes online.

According to Engagement Labs’ data, Amazon is the clear TotalSocial leader in the retail and apparel category and is also a well-established Conversation Commander, which is defined as a brand that performs above average both offline and online. Amazon’s top rank is driven by its extremely strong online and offline volume scores, strong offline sentiment and its high online brand sharing performance, which is the sharing of branded content by consumers on social media. One major retailer that is notably missing from the top performers list is Walmart, despite driving a large volume of consumer conversations. Although Walmart is the most talked-about retail and apparel brand offline and has the third-highest online volume score, the brand struggles with low sentiment scores in terms of both online and offline conversations. In addition, the brand also fails to drive much consumer conversation surrounding its overall marketing efforts, or what Engagement Labs calls Brand Sharing. Taken together, these areas of deficiency offset its strong volume scores which cause it to fall out of the top ten as well as the top 20 ranking out of more than 60 brands measured. “Reflecting one of the biggest trends in the category, athleisure brands make a strong showing in the retail and apparel ranker with three of the top six TotalSocial positions, held by NIKE, adidas and Under Armour,” says Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “We know that TotalSocial scores are predictive of future sales, and this strong performance by these athleisure brands helps to explain the double-digit growth for this sector when the rest of the apparel category is seeing very low growth. We will keep a careful eye on the trends, but from what we have seen over the past year, there is plenty of reason to believe that analysts’ projections for continued growth ahead are on the mark.” Engagement Labs found that Nordstrom is a stand-out brand in the ranking as it is the only one with a stronger online score than offline. In fact, its online score tops the category. Additionally, both Nordstrom’s online volume and online sentiment scores are stronger as compared to its offline scores. As a brand that prides itself on reputable customer service and its in-store experience, Nordstrom’s TotalSocial scores reveal how that experience is making its way into online conversations as well. The strong online performance is a reflection of a strategy designed to appeal to millennials, which integrates digital and cross-channel shopping and is helping to drive positive sales growth for Nordstrom at a time when other retailers are struggling and closing stores. In contrast to Nordstrom, Costco has the largest gap among the top ten in favor of offline conversations versus online. Brands such as Old Navy, Home Depot, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond make the top of the list in terms of their offline scores, but are held back by lower online scores, which preclude them from making the TotalSocial top ten. Additionally, as the inverse to this trend, a handful of brands make the online top ten, but are prevented from making the overall top ten rankings due to lower offline performance—including H&M, Best Buy, NIKE’s Air Jordan and Kohl’s. Engagement Labs defines these brands—which perform considerably better offline than online, or vice versa—as Social Misfits, emphasizing that these brands can drive better consumer engagement and sales by learning the lessons of what drives strong performance in one channel and applying those lessons to the other. Download Engagement Labs’ e-book to learn more about the Social Misfits rankings data at socialmisfits.engagementlabs.com. To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial™ company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Gatorade and Coca-Cola are hydrating consumers with positive conversations

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Non-Alcoholic Beverage Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (May 2, 2017) — In a new, first of its kind analysis that integrates offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial™ rankings on the top performing non-alcoholic beverage brands in the U.S. The analysis, which examined forty non-alcoholic beverage brands, finds that the category performs slightly better offline (through face-to-face conversations) than online (social media). And, of the conversations taking place about the beverage brands, consumers tend to speak positively about the brands, both offline and online. However, there are significantly less conversations taking place about beverages brands online. The rankings of the top U.S. non-alcoholic beverage brands are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to word of mouth conversations and social media.

“It’s enlightening to see that four of the top five brands are noncarbonated while only one (Cola-Cola) is a carbonated soft drink (CSD). This is a reflection of a trend in word of mouth we’ve been seeing for a few years now, consumers talking less about CSD’s and more about brands that are perceived as healthier alternatives,” notes Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “At the same time, we see that seven of the top ten brands are owned by either Coca-Cola (four) or PepsiCo (three) reflecting the diversification strategy of these beverage giants.” Coca-Cola and Pepsi, ever in the Cola wars, lead the category in offline and online volume. However, success in social influence requires more than just a lot of chatter. Gatorade earns its number one ranking due to its well above-average influence and sentiment scores, both offline and online. Together with its top ten performance on volume, Gatorade is well rounded across all the metrics that make for a TotalSocial leader. Red Bull, which doesn’t make the TotalSocial top ten and is ranked 13, stands out when it comes to its online performance as it is the top ranked beverage brand. This reflects a strong legacy of pushing entertaining and exciting content through its social pages, where fans are interacting with and sharing it across social platforms. However, it lags when it comes to its offline word of mouth performance, where it is below the industry average. The offline leader, meanwhile, is Minute Maid which helps to contribute to its number five overall ranking. When it comes to the juice brands – Minute Maid, Ocean Spray (ranked nine), and Welch’s (ranked 12) – all have strong offline sentiment scores. Minute Maid also has exceptionally strong offline influence scores. Welch’s does well on this dimension, too. Keller continued, “For Minute Maid, Moms are an important offline influencer segment, and the brand is clearly leveraging them to its advantage. However, Minute Maid has the largest gap of any brand in the category between its industry leading offline TotalSocial and its online score which indicates an opportunity for the brand to fully capitalize on the power of social influence and move up even further in the rankings.” To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial™ company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
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For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.

Automotive industry comes up short in driving social media engagement

Engagement Labs’ Top TotalSocial™ Automotive Brands are Ferrari, Lamborghini, Audi & BMW

NEW YORK, NY (April 27, 2017) – In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial™ rankings on the top performing automotive brands in the U.S. The rankings are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance with respect to social media and word of mouth conversations. The analysis finds that even in this digital age, car talk still mostly happens offline, whether over the kitchen table, at a youth sports field, or at the water cooler at work. Indeed, most automotive brands are considered “Word of Mouth Mavens” in that they spur more conversations offline than online scores.

The top ten are dominated by two car groups: luxury cars and sports brands. Of the top ten, only two mass market brands, Toyota and Honda, made the list. Domestic brands like Chevrolet, Ford and Jeep, as well as mass market imports like Subaru and Nissan don’t make it into the top ten. A major difference between these brands and the ones that made the top ten are brand sharing scores, meaning the success of the brand’s media and marketing content in generating brand conversations. “Given the billions of dollars that many auto marketers spend each year, their ability to drive conversation is a key to their turning the investment into business outcomes,” noted Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Offline word of mouth and social media are proven to be predictive of sales. Audi’s recent record sales and their position as number three on the list is reflective of this. While certain brands on the top ten reflect the aspirations of the American consumer, we believe that the rest of the top ten, and the brands knocking on the leaderboard door, are reflective of the momentum we expect to see in the auto sector in 2017.” Keller continued, “The number one auto brand for offline brand sharing – face to face conversations in which people are talking about a brand’s marketing – is Audi. Audi’s commercial during the Big Game this past February which touted gender equality in pay is an example of how the Company creates content that humanizes its brand in order to resonate with consumers. These results suggest that when it comes to cars, both marketing spend and having an authentic message, is a crucial component in boosting brand perception and conversation.” One brand that bucks the trend of offline dominance is Corvette, which is ranked 18 overall. While Corvette earns a below-average offline score, it has the highest online score out of all the automotive brands. Other auto brands could glean important lessons from Corvette on how to leverage digital media to boost their overall image. While TotalSocial scores are based on four key metrics, conversation volume, sentiment, brand sharing, and influence, a particularly impactful metric is sentiment—whether conversations about the brand are positive or negative. Several of the brands that did not make the top ten do, however stand out for generating very positive conversations. Infiniti, for example, ranks well below average overall, but has the fourth highest offline sentiment score and similarly, Buick falls near the bottom of all the automotive brands in its total score, but has the second highest online sentiment score. This indicates consumers are clearly saying positive things about these brands but the challenge for marketers is to amplify those positive conversations to a broader population in order to improve sentiment on the channel where they lag, either offline and online.

To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand’s word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com. To learn more about brands, like BMW, that go against the grain in Engagement Labs’ latest e-book, Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence here. About Engagement Labs Engagement Labs (TSXV:EL) is the world’s first TotalSocial™ company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry – both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an “always-on” proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and the world’s only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com. For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino / Amrita Singh KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com / asingh@kcsa.com 212-896-1252 / 212-896-1207
Follow Us:

For more information on TotalSocial™ or to request a demo, visit https://totalsocial.engagementlabs.com/ For sales contact us at: sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquires contact us at: media@engagementlabs.com
About TotalSocialTM Want a better understanding of the online and offline conversations around your brand? Are you a journalist who wants to use real data to measure the brands you’re reporting on? Are you a company who wants to gain further insights into your brand’s marketing strategies to develop effective campaigns to reach your audiences? Request a demo today and learn more about TotalSocial by emailing sales@engagementlabs.com For media inquiries please contact media@engagementlabs.com.