Consumers mouths are full of positive conversations when it comes to casual dining restaurants

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Casual Dining Restaurants Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (April 18, 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 casual dining restaurants in the U.S. The rankings of the top U.S. casual dining restaurants 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. The analysis finds that consumers generally speak positively about casual dining restaurants. In fact, offline sentiment is the strongest of the eight metrics that TotalSocial analyzes, and online sentiment is the second highest. Other metrics, however, are not as strong and demonstrate that the industry needs to focus more attention on generating a larger volume of conversations about their respective brands both online and offline.

According the Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial data, The Cheesecake Factory is ranked first out of 16 chains measured. Olive Garden is very close behind but just misses due to The Cheesecake Factory’s strength with offline influencers. Applebee’s, ranked third on the TotalSocial list, actually garners the largest volume of conversations both online and offline but its middling sentiment score prevents the restaurant from taking the top spot. The Company found that the steakhouses, Outback Steakhouse and LongHorn Steakhouse, score the highest with respect to sentiment for the category. Outback Steakhouse has the highest offline sentiment score, which may be attributed to its memorable campaigns such as when the Company’s new app was launched and allowed its customers to have complete control over their dining experience. LongHorn Steakhouse is a very close second with regard to offline sentiment, and is the leader for online sentiment. “Dining is one of the most talked about sectors. As people decide daily where to eat, they talk about their experiences with each other. We were encouraged to see that overall consumers speak positively about many of these brands both online and offline. Now, there is an opportunity for brands to break away from the pack by building on strong consumer sentiment and raise volume, brand sharing and influencer scores to stand out,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. It is worth noting that IHOP, ranked tenth, has a top five online score but is among the lowest when it comes to offline conversation. It is the only one in the category to have a higher online score than offline. This is what Engagement Labs calls a Social Misfit, a brand that performs strongly offline but not online, or vice versa. 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 put their money where their mouth is; Fidelity Investments, American Express and Bank of America are the top scoring TotalSocial™ brands

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Financial Services Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (April 12, 2017) — In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined online and offline consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial rankings on the top performing financial services brands (banks, investment companies and credit card companies) in the U.S. The rankings of the top U.S. financial services brands 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, of the conversations taking place about financial services brands, the majority of them are happening offline (face-to-face) as opposed online (social media), which likely leaves many marketers in the dark regarding how their brand is perceived online. In fact, the top three brands on the list – Fidelity Investments, American Express and Bank of America – all perform substantially better offline than online.

One financial institution that stuck out in particular is Citibank. The financial institution has the biggest discrepancy between its online and offline scores. The bank scores significantly better offline than online through all components measured – volume, sentiment, brand sharing and influence. Commenting on this, Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs, said, “Citibank is missing out on a huge opportunity by not having a holistic picture of consumer conversations. Their current strategy is clearly driving strong word of mouth, with both high quantity and quality. The discrepancy with online performance, however, represents a real opportunity for Citibank to improve ROI and business results. There are lessons to be learned from brands like MasterCard, for example, which performs better online than offline.” Given the critical role that financial institutions play in the lives of consumers – money is a really personal, important aspect of everyday life – sentiment is particularly important. Engagement Labs’ research found that Fidelity Investments, Vanguard, and Edward Jones have the best sentiment in the category, both online and offline. Another brand that stands out in the analysis is American Express. This is a brand propelled by particularly strong offline brand sharing, meaning people are talking about their marketing or advertising efforts. The brand has been able to garner strong scores by providing useful content and services to engage with its customers. Learn more about how American Express is driving performance in Engagement Labs’ latest e-book, Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence. Download here. 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.

The Apple of consumers’ eyes – more conversations take place about I-anything than all other consumer electronic products

Despite Apple’s Overall Social Dominance, Samsung Ranks Highest for Offline Conversations Among Consumers

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Consumer Electronic Brands Based on Word of Mouth and Social Media Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (April 5, 2017) — When it comes to conversations about consumer electronic brands, Apple products dominate, according to new data released by Engagement Labs. The analysis finds that out of the top ten most socially discussed consumer electronic products/brands in the U.S., Apple products hold four of the top ten spots, scoring particularly high with respect to online scores including volume, sentiment and brand sharing. At the same time, Samsung leads the category with respect to offline conversations, which is a leading driver of sales. This is despite the fact that brand sentiment took a hit in 2016 related to the problems and the eventual recall of its Galaxy Note 7. The rankings were developed 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.

According to Engagement Labs’ report, the consumer electronic category as a whole is one of the only categories that perform better online than offline, with many of these brands considered “Social Sirens.” While it is normal for a brand or two per category to be considered a Social Siren, there are many more consumer electronic brands that hold this title. “Consumer electronic companies represent some of the largest, most well-respected brands around the globe,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “When we looked at this category as a whole, we found that these companies perform much better online than offline, leaving room for improvement to spark more ‘water cooler’ conversations. If you look at the category leader, Apple, for example, all of their products perform significantly better online compared to offline.” Videogame consoles PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox, round out the top ten. PlayStation comes out ahead at number six because of its strong offline sentiment performance, whereas Xbox makes the list because of the volume of conversations that take place about the brand online. In fact, there are more conversations bout Xbox online than any other consumer electronic brand overall. This includes Apple. Nintendo is a brand whose online volume is stronger than offline, but demonstrates the reverse trend for sentiment, creating an imbalance and that could be improved to support its marketing and sales efforts. 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.

Starbucks and Chick-fil-A Taste Success from Offline and Online Consumer Conversations, While McDonalds and Burger King Don’t Make the Cut

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Quick Service Restaurants Based on Social Media and Word of Mouth Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (March 29, 2017)Engagement Labs released its first-ever TotalSocial™ rankings on the top ten performing quick service restaurants (QSR) in the U.S., out of more than 25 brands, as part of a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations. The rankings of the top U.S. QSRs are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which measures the most important drivers of brand performance in the only continuous measurement of social media and word of mouth conversations. The analysis finds that the top ten is dominated by three groups of QSRs: the big three pizza brands, Papa John’s, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut, the chicken leaders Chick-fil-A and KFC and the coffee dominators, Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. Particularly notable for their absence from the TotalSocial leader board are a number of the largest QSRs, including burger rivals McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, as well as Mexican QSR competitors Chipotle and Taco Bell.

According to Engagement Labs’ report, the QSR category as a whole has slightly higher offline scores than it does online, indicating that there are more impactful conversations happening about these brands offline—primarily via face-to-face conversations—as opposed to online, via social media mentions. Importantly, the QSR category is primarily comprised of Whisper Brands, which means they have below average scores both offline and online relative to the 500 brands tracked in TotalSocial. However, there are outstanding TotalSocial brands in the QSR category such as Starbucks and Chick-fil-A, which are both “Conversation Commanders,” which means they perform above average both online and offline. Starbucks has an extremely high volume score for both online and offline conversations, which has helped the brand propel to the number one spot on TotalSocial. Chick-fil-A trails behind Starbucks in terms of volume, but has one of the strongest sentiment scores in the category. Its strong sentiment score could be attributed to the unique strategy the brand put in place when launching its app by giving away free chicken sandwiches to anyone who downloaded and created an account. Unlike the majority of the brands in the QSR category, Chick-fil-A has an opposite pattern where its scores are slightly stronger online as compared to offline. “Out of the companies with the top ten sales, only half of these appear in the top ten TotalSocial rankings. Because we know that TotalSocial performance is highly correlated with sales, this suggests we will see a dynamic change in the years ahead in terms of who has momentum and who faces challenges in growing or even maintaining their topline,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “While McDonalds, one of the most well-known QSR brands, performs well in terms of volume, they are held back by low sentiment in online and offline scores. Panera Bread and Five Guys missed the mark because of relatively low volume scores. It is imperative for brands to understand that, despite being a well-known brand in the QSR space, your message will not resonate with your customers without an impactful marketing strategy that trickles into consumer conversations.” Although Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., are notable brands that sit at the bottom of Engagement Labs’ rankings, they both have exceptionally high offline brand sharing scores, which is likely a result of their provocative commercials, such as the one featuring supermodel Kate Upton. Keller continued, “It is important for quick service restaurants pay attention to consumer conversations happening both online and offline. What is being said publicly on social media channels are almost never the same conversations happening offline, in a more private setting. And we know those offline conversations are critical to consumer purchase and shopping decisions.” To learn more about brands that buck their category trend and enjoy the financial benefits of leading in consumer conversations, download Engagement Labs’ latest e-book, Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence, here. 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.

Kellogg’s and Hershey’s keep consumers’ mouths full with offline and online conversations

Engagement Labs’ TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Food Brands Based on Social Media and Word of Mouth Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (March 21, 2017) — In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined offline and online consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its first ever TotalSocial™ rankings on the top performing food brands in the U.S. and identified Kellogg’s and Hershey’s as the leading food brands in consumer engagement. The rankings of the top U.S. food brands are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which measures the most important drivers of brand performance in the only continuous measurement of social media and word of mouth conversations.
Based on the TotalSocial data, the food category as a whole performs equally offline (face-to-face conversations) and online (social media mentions). However, there is room for performance improvement on both fronts. The number one food brand on TotalSocial, Kellogg’s, also boasts the strongest offline score, meaning the brand has been successful in driving face-to-face conversations when compared amongst its category peers. Its strong offline score can be attributed to its unique and buzz-worthy campaigns, such as the recent transformation of its New York eatery into a Pop-Tarts Cafe which offered customers a unique dining experience with new and creative ways to customize a Pop-Tart. On the other hand, when it comes to online scores, Kellogg’s falls short while Betty Crocker takes the top spot in the rankings. Betty Crocker is a brand that performs better online than it does offline, with particularly high online sentiment, brand sharing and influence scores. These scores indicate that Betty Crocker is posting relevant, shareable content online that is gaining traction among its key Influencers. “When conducting our research, we examined each brand’s individual strengths and weaknesses, and found that many food brands are what we call ‘Whisper Brands.’ This means they perform below average, both online and offline, as compared to our full list of 500 brands. However, there are three brands that successfully pushed the limits—Kellogg’s, General Mills and Hershey’s—as ‘Conversation Commanders’ which perform above average both online and offline,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “These three brands each provide a unique blueprint for how food brands can succeed in leveraging social influence to drive results. Online and offline work in tandem with one another, and our data proves that, in order to drive business results, brands cannot solely rely on one over the other.” Keller continued, “For example, we found that Quaker Oats performs substantially better offline than online which is driven by a low online brand sharing score. While consumers are referencing Quaker Oats advertising and marketing in real-world conversations, they are not sharing the brand’s content on social platforms. This suggests an opportunity for Quaker Oats to improve social media marketing to drive growth.” Opposite to Quaker Oats, Nestlé’s digital investment is clearly paying off by driving above-average online volume, brand sharing and influence scores. However, its offline conversation volume is not keeping pace, which could be hindering its ability to fully capitalize on the power of social influence and moving up to the top of the TotalSocial leaderboard. Overall, the food category is categorized by high sentiment scores both online and offline. In terms of online sentiment, Dole takes the lead. Interestingly, Pillsbury is the stand-out leader for offline sentiment as it not only ranks first in the food category but the brand also ranks second out of all 500 TotalSocial brands. To learn more about brands that buck their category trend and enjoy the financial benefits of leading in consumer conversations, download Engagement Labs’ latest e-book, Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence here. To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brands 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 18 major industry categories in the U.K., and 350 brands in the U.K. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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.

Jetblue and Alaska Airlines are flying high leading online and offline consumer conversations

Engagement Labs TotalSocial™ Rankings Reveal Top Airlines based on Social Media and Word of Mouth Conversations

NEW YORK, NY (March 14, 2017) — In a new, first of its kind analysis of combined online and offline consumer conversations, Engagement Labs released its TotalSocial rankings on the top performing airline companies in the U.S. and identified JetBlue and Alaska Airlines as the leading airline brands in consumer engagement. The rankings of the top U.S. airlines are based on Engagement Labs’ proprietary TotalSocial data, which measure the most important drivers of brand performance in a detailed and continuous analysis of social media and word of mouth conversations. As a whole, the airline category performs better in terms of the quality of face-to-face conversations as compared to online social media. Consistent with its category, JetBlue tops the chart with a stronger offline score, which may be attributed to its in-person pop-up stunts and unique campaigns, such as its recent takeover of New York’s Jamaica Station, offering local commuters a special flight promotion. Interestingly, JetBlue secures the top rating despite falling short of being the leader on any individual metric, such as volume, sentiment, brand sharing or influence. What allows Jet Blue to rise to the top is that it shows a higher relative consistency across all dimension compared to other airlines. “JetBlue and Alaska Airlines have been very effective in generating meaningful and positive consumer conversations, both offline and online, and they are performing well with regard to the range of metrics that must all work together to drive consumer engagement; other airlines such as Delta, United and Spirit have yet to crack the code,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “As shown in our data, JetBlue and Alaska are dominating conversations as a result of their innovative marketing tactics which go beyond the typical service expected from airlines and also go beyond the screen to consider how they can drive the all-important offline recommendations as well as tapping into social media. Other carriers seem to be playing it conservatively, and as a consequence, are suffering from sentiment lag. Picture these brands as an aircraft stuck taxiing without yet taking off.” The airline which is the most talked about offline is American Airlines, while Delta leads in volume of online conversations. At the same time, smaller airlines such as Southwest and Alaska are winning the category on sentiment. Known for its discount flight promotions, Southwest Airlines is the front-runner in its category in terms of sentiment in face-to-face conversations. Meanwhile, Alaska Airlines, which reported a $911M profit in 2016, tops the category’s rankings for its online sentiment. With the biggest discrepancy between its online and offline scores, American Airlines ranks as the top airline in Engagement Labs’ recently released Social Misfits report. A Social Misfit is defined as a brand that performs very well socially either online or offline, but not both, suggesting an opportunity for the brand to improve performance that could drive enhanced marketing effectiveness and ROI. 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 brands 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 18 major industry categories in the U.K., and 350 brands in the U.K. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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.

What do Fairy, Argos, Booking.com, Saga and Co-op have in common? They are all social misfit brands

New Engagement Labs report reveals “Social Misfits” – brands whose social performance is mismatched, online vs. offline

LONDON, U.K. (March 13, 2017) – Fairy, Argos, Booking.com, Saga and Co-op have something in common: they are all “Social Misfits,” a term data and analytics company Engagement Labs has coined to describe brands that have a pronounced mismatch between their performance in driving offline word of mouth and social media conversation. Social Misfits brands are at risk of missing opportunities to drive marketing ROI because, while they benefit from either a strong word of mouth marketing profile or a stellar social media one, they underperform on the other dimension. As a result, they are not fully maximizing the power of social influence online and offline. The company released its TotalSocial™ data for these brands and dozens of others in a new report, “U.K. Edition: Social Misfits: Brands that Have Split Personalities, in Social Media vs. In Real Life.” TotalSocial is the only data solution that combines social media listening metrics with the measurement of offline conversations into a single dashboard, enabling marketers to measure performance, diagnose areas of weakness, and identify new opportunities. Argos, Booking.com’s and Fairy’s offline, in-person social influence is stronger than their public, social media presence. Saga and Co-op are the opposite: they have a digital presence on social media and in comments forums that dominates their face-to-face conversational social influence. “Gaps between online social media performance and offline word of mouth marketing can be costly for a brand. Social Misfits excelling in social media are potentially missing the two-thirds of sales that come from face-to-face conversations. Conversely, the Social Misfits who have stronger offline scores risk losing the one-third of sales generated from social media,” said Steve Thomson, U.K. Managing Director, Engagement Labs. “Face-to-face conversations play a huge component in driving business outcomes – whether that business is online or in-store. We can see this with Booking.com, an example of a digital brand who has a strong offline TotalSocial score.” The full Engagement Labs e-book on Social Misfits covers 30 brands that stand out most sharply as Social Misfits from among the 350 measured by Engagement Labs in the U.K., and provides detailed social media and word of mouth marketing analysis—including TotalSocial scoring data about brand performance in each of 18 consumer sectors. To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brands 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 18 major industry categories in the U.K., and 350 brands in the U.K. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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.

New Data Shows Offline, Word of Mouth is Key to Dominating the Consumer Conversation in an Industry

American Express, BMW, Dove and Gatorade Among the “Category Crushers,” According to a New Engagement Labs Report on the Leaders in Social Influence

NEW YORK, NY (February 28, 2017) – Brand marketers are always developing strategies that influence purchase intent. For the last decade or so, these marketers assumed that social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram are driving consumers to engage with brands and make purchase decisions. Social media continues to grow at a rapid rate; daily active users for Twitter increased 11 percent year-over-year, and Facebook’s increased 18 percent during that timeframe. But, the reality of the situation is much more complex. Most consumers continue to look to their peers for face-to-face advice and recommendations about their favorite brands, impacting their purchase decisions. While consumers use social media for a variety of reasons, face-to-face word of mouth recommendations among family and friends remain a vital force in consumer purchase decision-making. It is perennially cited as the most trusted source of information by consumers. The volume of real world conversations about brands continues to dwarf the conversations that take place on social media, often by a factor of five to one, according to Engagement Labs’ word of mouth tracking data. And the impact on sales from offline conversation is greater than the impact of social media. In a new, first-of-its-kind analysis of combined online and offline consumer conversation data, Engagement Labs uncovered a group of “Category Crusher Brands,” which are brands that outperform their competitors in social media performance and offline word of mouth recommendations. Included among the Category Crushers are American Express, BMW, Dove and Gatorade. The full list can be found in the chart below or in Engagement Labs’ newly released e-book, “Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence.”

“You don’t have to be a hot tech company like Apple or Amazon to excite people about your brand and generate consumer conversations that drive sales. But a ‘total social’ approach to consumer advocacy is a must for success, as we see reflected in this data analysis. The Category Crushers cited in our report understand that ‘social influence’ goes beyond a screen – and the consumer conversations they generate and amplify in-person can make a bigger boost to their overall social performance than those occurring exclusively on social media,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. Lessons from the Category Crushers Leaders: American Express, BMW, Dove, and Gatorade Engagement Labs’ new e-book spotlights these four brands and provides details on the creative applications, messaging and strategy that helped them rise to their Category Crusher status. Among those lessons:
  • American Express holds a close relationship with its cardholders, treating them as more than just customers. From its Small Business Saturday program, American Express’ Blue Cash everyday credit card to providing its members with special access to events – American Express uses a strategy which often leads to loyal customers who will advocate for the brand. (TotalSocialTM Financial Industry Average Score: 43; American Express: 52)
  • BMW’s strategic marketing to luxury consumers and key sponsorships helped the brand transcend as one of the highest performing U.S. brands in face-to-face word of mouth marketing. (TotalSocial Auto Industry Average Score: 41; BMW: 58)
  • Dove defines itself outside of its personal care products by promoting positive self-image and self-worth for women. (TotalSocial Facial & Body Industry Average Score: 51; Dove: 60)
  • Gatorade produces sports drinks, but the brand goes beyond that to foster engagement by encouraging people to participate in spirited conversation about their favorite sports teams and sharing motivational content that pertains to athletic performance. (TotalSocial Beverage Industry Average Score: 40; Gatorade: 55)
The new analysis from Engagement Labs is based on continuous tracking of more than 500 U.S. consumer brands using its TotalSocial data and analytic solution. The full e-book, “Lessons from the Leaders of Social Influence: Brands that Crush their Category and Have Consumers Talking” is available for download. TotalSocial (patent pending) is the world’s only data solution that combines social media listening metrics with the measurement of offline conversations into a single dashboard to allow marketers the ability to measure performance, diagnose areas of weakness and opportunity. 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 KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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 Hires Marketing Analytics Veteran Rick Larkin to Lead Predictive Analytics

Company creates new role for Vice President of Analytics to help fuel success of TotalSocial™

Montreal, QC, (February 7, 2017)Engagement Labs Inc. (TSX VENTURE:EL), the world’s first TotalSocial™ company offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers, announced that it has hired its first-ever Vice President of Analytics, Rick Larkin, who will lead efforts to expand the firm’s predictive analytics in its TotalSocial product. Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs said, “We are helping the marketers at major brands solve the challenge of optimizing their marketing ROI by tapping the power of social influence in all its forms, both offline conversation as well as social media. Peer-to-peer influence not only reflects what is happening today, but if properly understood it can also be predictive of what a brand’s sales will be in the future. Marketers who are armed with this intelligence can plan their marketing investment to capitalize. Rick has an outstanding record of working with leading brands to create predictive marketing models. His expertise, combined with our unique databases including the world’s only 10 year database about offline word of mouth, will allow us to add a valuable new offering in our TotalSocial data suite.” Larkin served as a consultant to Engagement Labs in 2016 and now joins the company in a newly created position designed to drive analytical innovation throughout the firm’s products and services. Specifically, Larkin will be leading Engagement Labs’ efforts to build a sophisticated layer of predictive analytics on top of the firm’s recently launched TotalSocial™ Scorecard. Larkin brings 15 years of marketing science experience to his role, including eight years at MarketShare Partners, now Neustar, where he was Senior Vice President-Strategy and worked with clients such as MasterCard, Subway, Hyatt and Sprint. He also spent five years at TBWA\Chiat\Day, where he held several senior digital marketing roles, as well as three years at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a consultant. “Throughout my years of experience, I have learned that analytics are a crucial component to a company’s marketing strategy. I’m eager to assume my role as Vice President of Analytics at Engagement Labs and have a direct impact on advancing the Company’s recently launched TotalSocial Scorecard by developing a sophisticated layer of predictive analytics,” said Larkin. Larkin holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Rutgers University and an MBA from NYU Stern. He will be based out of Engagement Labs’ New Jersey office in New Brunswick. 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. “Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.” For further information please contact: Alan Huycke Investor Cubed Inc. ahuycke@investror3.ca 416-366-0010 For media inquiries please contact: Kate Tumino KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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.

What do Palmolive, Corona, RCA and PayPal have in Common? They are All “Social Misfits” According to a New Report from Engagement Labs

New TotalSocial™ Analysis Profiles Brands that have the Biggest Mismatch Between their Online and Offline Consumer Conversation Performance

NEW YORK, NY (December 8, 2016) – According to a new analysis of social media and word of mouth performance of more than 500 U.S. consumer brands by Engagement Labs, Palmolive, Corona, RCA and PayPal are the leading “Social Misfit” brands. Social Misfits are defined as brands that perform very well socially either online or offline, but not both, suggesting ready opportunities for improvement to drive enhanced marketing effectiveness and ROI. The Company’s new report, “Social Misfits: Brands that Have a Split Personalities, in Social Media vs. In Real Life,” which was released today, ranks the top Social Misfits based on its TotalSocial analytics system. TotalSocial provides a measurement of a brand’s holistic social performance, incorporating both online and offline brand conversations and sharing. The analysis finds that Palmolive’s and Corona’s word of mouth performance far exceeds their performance on social media, indicating that there are impactful conversations happening about these brands offline (primarily via face-to-face conversations) as opposed to online. For RCA and PayPal, the opposite is true: their social media performance dominates over in-person conversations about the brands, which can impact sales as word of mouth conversations are more likely to drive sales than online conversations. “Being a Social Misfit means that a brand has a big gap in their social marketing strategy, budget or marketing execution – they are either applying more effort to social media and digital work, or more to word of mouth and offline tactics. In reality, both the online and the offline sides need to work together for optimal impact,” said Ed Keller, CEO, Engagement Labs. “It’s not necessarily a negative to be considered a Social Misfit – these brands are doing a stellar job on part of their social marketing. But, Social Misfit brands that excel in social media could be missing on the two-thirds of sales that come from face-to-face conversations. Conversely, the Social Misfits who have stronger offline scores risk losing the one-third of sales generated from social media.” The full Engagement Labs report on Social Misfits can be downloaded here. It covers 30 brands and provides detailed social media and word of mouth marketing analysis, including TotalSocial scoring data about brand performance in each sector. To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brands 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. The TotalSocial measurement solution provides brands with unique data fuelled insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs’ patented social media measurement tool and Keller Fay’s comprehensive 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 KCSA Strategic Communications ktumino@kcsa.com 212-896-1252
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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.