Partners Link Social Media, Off-line Word of Mouth

Analytic Partners has teamed up with social media consultancy Converseon and word of mouth (WoM) research firm Keller Fay Group to launch a new solution called Integrated Social Exploration Modeling (ISEM), combining on- and off-line data and marketing mix modeling to assess the value of WoM.

The solution gives access to new analysis sponsored by the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), released in November 2014 and promising clients an understanding of the importance of 'social influence' in purchase decisions for their business, and its relation to other paid, earned and owned. The study suggests that 'on average, word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales (or an estimated $6 trillion annually in the US), and has a powerful amplifying effect on paid media.'

Brad Fay (pictured), COO of Keller Fay, says the idea for the partnership and the new solution came from 'brands who didn't participate in the initial study wanting to benefit from similar insights into their own marketing'. Converseon CEO Rob Key explains: 'Brands can either provide their social data to us for further enrichment and filtering to be plugged into the model or we can provide it. The key point is we ensure the solution is using the same validated approach and data annotations as the original model. Until now, online social media listening and offline word of mouth tracking have essentially been two parallel universes. This partnership is designed to change that so that we can understand the offline and online worlds holistically.'

The partners' web sites are at www.converseon.com , www.kellerfay.com and www.analyticpartners.com .