Who’s the Talk of the Hotel Industry? Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Leads Online Conversation Among Hotel Brands and Hilton Hotel & Resorts Drive the Most Offline Conversations

Engagement Labs Reveals the First Ever "Total Social" Media Performance for Offline and Online Conversations for the Hotel Industry in the U.S.

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - Aug 13, 2015) - Technology and data company, Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL), creator of the eValue™ score, today released the first ever "Total Social" data rankings regarding how brands perform socially -- on both social networks and offline word-of-mouth conversations.

Engagement Labs looked at nine popular hotel chains using "Total Social," a combination of Engagement Labs proprietary eValue online social media measurement score and Keller Fay's word of mouth conversation measurement data TalkTrack®.

"With today's highly competitive market, it's imperative for brands to understand where the conversation is taking place and who is talking about them to effectively build content that creates the most impact," said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs. "There is a multiplier effect in the measurement of conversations, and as a brand, creating content and an experience that resonates well with fans can allow content to reach multi-channel brand influencers and encourage them to engage in both on and offline conversations."

Based on Engagement Labs' eValue rankings, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company took the top spot on both Facebook and Twitter. However, the luxury hotel chain came in sixth place when measuring offline, word of mouth conversations. Therefore, there is an opportunity for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company to amplify their brand conversation by creating content that will increase the power of offline conversations to drive greater impact on sales.

Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International and Best Western International took the top three spots for offline conversations. Although the brands scored relatively high with respect to Impact, there is a massive opportunity to improve their Engagement and Responsiveness scores, which can enable the brands to become leaders in both online and offline conversations.

"In order to maximize effectiveness, understanding the quantity and quality of those conversations too, will lead to an increase in sales," continued Segal.

With the announcement of the acquisition of leading conversation market research firm Keller Fay, Engagement Labs has combined the power of their proprietary eValue social media measurement score with Keller Fay's offline conversation measurement data. Companies are now able to gain insights on their brand though Total Social Media Measurement of both online and offline conversations.

About Engagement Labs
Engagement Labs' eValue™ Score is the global benchmark for social media scoring. eValue Analytics Pro, an enterprise-grade social media analytics platform, scores brands between 0-100. eValue measures brands' social media and digital marketing efforts. It's composed of a series of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), including Engagement, Responsiveness and Impact, which is benchmarked against 100,000+ handpicked and verified brands.

The eValue score is composed of Engagement, Impact and Responsiveness metrics. Engagement is the level of interaction content receives on a specific social network, Impact is the unique reach content receives on a specific social network, and Responsiveness measures how much, how fast and how well a brand responds to actual conversations amongst its users.

Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL) offers intelligent social data, analytics and insights for organizations that are actively engaging on social networks. Offered as a SaaS or through an API, the eValue Analytics platform allows brands to measure and maximize the effectiveness of their social media marketing campaigns, as well as measure that of their competitors across major social networks Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Additionally, through the Keller Fay Group division of Engagement Labs, brands can also measure the marketing performance of offline word of mouth conversations. Engagement Labs maintains offices in Toronto and New Brunswick, New Jersey. www.engagementlabs.com /www.evaluesuite.com

 Kate Tumino / Kenneth Cousins
KCSA Strategic Communications
ktumino@kcsa.com / kcousins@kcsa.com
212-896-1252 / 212-896-1254