Nothing has been more important than developing a credible, workable measurement model for our social media-based programs at Ogilvy. Having participated in many of the forums where measure-ment geeks come together to test-drive their models, it became clear last year that we were all still in the first third of the process. If you think of the inevitable arc of standards development, the first third is floating meaningful measures - no matter how convoluted the model - marketers want to know that there are valuable metrics that even exist to justify spending in word of mouth-based social media.

First Third of the Social Media Marketing Measurement Life CycleEveryone starts with KPIs (key performance indicators) they find compelling. We have 100,000 video views (over 1 month? 6 months? 1 year?). Our Facebook page has accumulated almost 30,000 fans/friends. Our blog mentions add up to a fat 2m UMVs (unique monthly views). KPIs are often with-out a lot of context. It is safe to say that we are passing through this phase.

Second Third of the Social Media Marketing Measurement Life CycleAs critics punch holes - rightly so - in the pure KPI model, academic braniacs develop rigorous models in response. Walter Carl's work at ChatThreads (previously at Northeastern) seem to fit here. An extremely smart guy, all you have to do is spend a half hour with Walter and you will be convinced about the strength of his process for matchbacks and other techniques that really do ratify the spread of WOM. You will of course need to hire his company to actually apply the principles. These methods are persuasive, rigorous yet like the Eniac computer, they may require more effort and shelf space than most marketing programs can afford. So, we simplify. I am certain Walter is doing the same. That is the driving pressure behind our modelling at Ogilvy. Conversation Impact was developed to provide a credible and implementable measurement model that could be applied to most projects without a separate budget allocation. We needed a simple model that made sense to brand marketers. These simpler models are still in the early stages. It will be at least a year before 2-3 of them emerge as "leading" contenders. Ours is open to anyone to use and we will see if it gains velocity (presenting next month at ARF).

Meanwhile, brands that explore the more complex and more meaningful measurement models inevi-table backslide into KPIs. You can hear it now from your most senior brand marketers, "Can't we just reduce all this complex modeling to 2-3 numbers we care about most? Numbers that reflect how much reach or how much time people are spending with the brand. What if we just count video views and Tweets?"

Final Third of the Social Media Marketing Measurement Life CycleThis remains a glimmer in my eye. Once we have the solid and simple modeling out of the second third, we need to ramp up quickly for the inevitable: complexity. The real power of social media mar-keting is integrated into all sorts of communications and marketing - ALL sorts. What is the impact of social media mentions on the performance of adjacent advertising - does it make the ads perform 3x,

The real power of social media media marketing is integrated

into all communications and marketing…

I n t e l l e ct u a l ca p I ta l f r o m o g I lv y o cto B e r 2 0 0 9

Ogilvyinsight

Conversation Impact™

Ogilvy’s Simple, Results-Driven Social Media Measurement Model for Marketers

Ogilvy insight 1

Track the Few Metrics

that Really MatterWith two-thirds of the world’s Internet population now visiting a

blog or social networking site, driving results through social media

has become an important component of the marketing strategy.

To help guide brands on social media spending decisions, Ogilvy’s

global social media marketing group, 360° Digital Influence, has

developed and introduced a new business objective-driven model

that provides a quantitative measurement framework for social

media effectiveness—Conversation Impact.

In developing Conversation Impact, we had Three Key Goals in mind

The approach must allow for cross-channel performance comparison, 1. specifically including the social media “channel”

The metrics must include actionable data for in-market 2. campaign optimization

The model must be simple, objective-driven and cost-effective enough to 3. use for every campaign, social media and “360”/multi-channel

In addition to introducing the model below, the following sections walk through some specific considerations and objectives we worked through.

2 Ogilvy insight

Measure

Cross ChannelDe-emphasize metrics that don’t allow apples-to-apples comparisons.

Current approaches to advertising focus on measurement of such items as ad recall, ad reach, ad frequency, in-category brand aided/unaided recall (for evaluating awareness/consider-ation), intent to purchase and net promoter surveys (for evaluating preference); and—for measurable media such as online ads—action/conversion rates (for evaluating action or conversion).

Traditional metrics are not readily applicable to the analysis of social media—but are still being used. Reach/exposure (the number of people exposed to the message) is often used as a metric related to brand awareness, positioning and preference campaigns. However, word of mouth (WOM) is consistently trusted more than other forms of communication/marketing1, so direct CPM or impression-based comparisons are not useful.

Another complicating factor is that simply applying an adjustment factor to a WOM mention is still not useful because of the varying influence levels of the conveyor of the message. That is, people trust messages differently based on context (which includes factors such as the person conveying message, tonality of message and specific content of the message).

Finally, simply reporting “activity” metrics like page impressions, interactions and time does not help marketers determine whether or not a campaign was successful in driving their ultimate marketing or communication goals. Even measures of “engagement” cannot connect activity to core marketing goals.

Conversation Impact simplifies and standardizes measurement in a way that is readily recog-nizable to marketers, while accommodating both conventional and new metrics and data that account for these differences in social media.

1 emarketer Bridge ratings and university of massachusetts 2007.

Ogilvy insight 3

There is rich data now available on a continuous basis, including daily data from the semantic analysis of the millions of conversations in social media. We integrate these analytics into the model to help drive optimization.

As an example, for a brand positioning campaign, we can evaluate preference and action in ways that help us understand which social media influencers are adopting which types of messaging and in which channels. We look at what people voluntarily say and do across the social Web. We can use this data to help guide ongoing creative and spending decisions.2

2 Source: BIgresearch SImm 14, June 2009.

Provide Actionable Measurement

that focuses on key goals

Do you regularly/occasionally give advice to or seek advice from others about products or services you

have purchased?2 n Moms n Adults 18+

97.2% 94.9% 93.6% 91.5%

Regularly/Occasionally give Advice Regularly/Occasionally seek Advice

Figure 1: impacting Consumers—giving or seeking Advice with Purchases

4 Ogilvy insight

Use a model that’s bothStrategic and Simple

We organized our model directly around three main goal categories that build off years of “marketing/communications funnel” research into the best way to drive action:

Reach & Positioning1. Preference2. Action 3.

Table 1 presents the key representative measures within each of these categories.

Some of these metrics are based on data from social media monitoring software; other metrics are obtained from server logs, Google and other analytics data, and surveys.

3 Depending on volume and the prevalence of negative discussion, we may look at share of net positive voice,

where net positive voice = brand positive mentions – brand negative mentions

table 1: Conversation impact Model with Representative Metrics

metric/funnel goal >

Reach & Positioning awareness consideration preference action loyalty

umv – blogs, site, microsite, applications, other, total #/% change

volume of online conversation, #/% change, cost per online conversation generated (cpIcg)

Share of voice in category (=volume for brand/vol-ume for category). #/% change, cost per Increase in Share of voice (cpISv)

Search visibility (for relevant keywords)

Preference awareness consideration preference action loyalty

Sentiment index of online conversation (% posi-tive–% negative), #/pts change, people reached vs. all, cost per Increase in Sentiment Index (cpISI)

Share of positive voice in category (= brand positive mentions/category positive mentions), #/% change, people reached vs. all, cost per Increase in Share of positive Sentiment (cpISp)3

relative net promoter score (npS) in category (=brand npS category npS), #/% change, people reached vs. all, cost per point Increase in npS (cpInp)

Action awareness consideration preference action loyalty

registration: rpa, cpa, $, #

Sale: rpa, cpa, $, #

advocacy: rpa, cpa, $, #

Ogilvy insight 5

Reach & PositioningShare of total voice within category = volume of mentions for brand/total volume of •discussion in category44

Calculated via social media monitoring/listening software or through a direct •consumer survey

Cost per point increase in above metric •

PreferenceShare of positive voice within category = volume of positive-sentiment mentions for brand/•total volume of positive-sentiment mentions in category

Can also be compared to/calculated as share of net positive voice, which = volume of (positive – •negative) mentions for brand/total volume of (positive – negative) mentions in category

Calculated via social media monitoring/listening software or through a direct consumer •survey

Cost per point increase in above metric •

ActionCampaign- or influencer-attributable actions•

Calculated using tracking analytics or through Ogilvy’s social media activation •platform technology

Note that the measures shown are representative, not comprehensive—the key focus of the model is to use categories and metrics that provide simple, useful data in ways that provide for ease of comparability and analysis.

4 the denominator may also be modified to include only the brand plus specific competitors

6 Ogilvy insight

We used the model to evaluate two example brand campaigns. We selected these two campaigns to demonstrate the flexibility of the model in measuring impact on both consumers and influencers. For the purposes of this discussion, “consumer” represents traditional end users/target audience members. We define an “influencer”—someone who is effective at broadly distributing a message or driving action—based on a number of factors, including a person’s connectedness, reach and ability to engage and drive results around a specific target audience and discussion topic.

We employed our social media listening post and survey-based data collection methods for these campaigns.

Evaluate campaign impact on consumers,

influencers or both

Ogilvy insight 7

Figure 2: Consumer impact—Awareness and Preference

social Media Campaign impact: Consumersn Pre n Post

20%

67%

6%

48%

10%

48%

Aided Awareness intent to Purchase (9 or 10) Positive Opinion (9 or 10)

Campaign 1: Consumer Impact—Evaluate Impact of a Social Media Community Program on Consumer Aided Awareness and PreferenceCampaign 1’s social media program consisted of a blog community-based program. We evaluated pre-campaign and interim measures based on a survey instrument. Measures evaluated included aided awareness and purchase intent.

8 Ogilvy insight

Campaign 2: Influencer Impact—Evaluate Impact on Influencer Preference for the Brand Based on a Multi-Channel Campaign Including Social MediaCampaign 2’s social media program included social media components and a multi-channel traditional and online advertising campaign.

We used a software monitoring product to track and categorize the tonality of social media mentions around the brand. This product’s algorithm classifies social media discussions based on a trainable, semantic, natural language-based categorization algorithm and has a high degree of consistency and reliability in assigning social media mention sentiment and topic relevance5.

Our focus for this measurement program was to evaluate the impact on influencers driving brand positioning and preference in social media; specifically, we evaluated the number of positive mentions as a share of total positive mentions within the brand’s competitive set. There were five competitors identified to be part of the competitive set.

For Campaign 2, we found an increase in influencer preference in social media mentions—as measured by relative share of positive voice in social media—of 1.5 percentage points during the first three months of the campaign. This represented a 9.2% increase in preference among those posting in social media about the brand.

Figure 3 shows the monthly trend in preference.

5 It should be noted that our team’s approach is software-independent. We set up Social media listening posts™

with underlying software that is the most appropriate for the specific client engagement.

Figure 3: influencer impact—share of Positive voice in social Media

Social Media Campaign Impact: InfluencersShare of Positive Voice in Social Media

Dec-08

15.0%

16.0%

17.0%

18.0%

19.0%

16.2%

17.1%

17.7%18.2%

Jan-09Pre-Launch Campaign Launch

Feb-09 Mar-09

4-month Trend

Ogilvy insight 9

In our early uses of the model, we’re finding that Preference and Positioning are two key areas in which social media can deliver particularly efficiently—and we’re now implementing new Action-based campaigns to further expand the range of social media goals.

We believe the model represents a useful step forward in social media impact measurement, primarily due to its focus on tracking metrics with comparability across different types of advertising and communications.

As social media increasingly becomes a standard component of both advertising and communi-cations campaigns, this type of simple, cross-channel comparative framework will become more useful in answering media allocation questions and helping marketers decide which social media efforts are worthy of scaling further.

Use the Model Today

10 Ogilvy insight

References

1 eMarketer Bridge Ratings and University of Massachusetts 2007.

2 RAMA/BIGresearch All About Moms, 2009.

3 Depending on volume and the prevalence of negative discussion, we may look at share of net positive voice, where net positive voice = brand positive mentions – brand negative mentions.

4 The denominator may also be modified to include only the brand plus specific competitors.

5 It should be noted that our team’s approach is software-independent. We set up Social Media Listening Posts™ with underlying software that is the most appropriate for the specific client engagement.

The Nielsen Company, Global Faces and Networked Places, 2009.

Ogilvy insight 11

About the Authors

irfan Kamal Irfan brings significant experience in digital strategy and execution across multiple industry sectors to Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Ogilvy PR).

As part of the 360° Digital Influence team at Ogilvy PR, Irfan is responsible for all aspects of planning and executing on innovative uses of digital media to help clients achieve global marketing goals.

Irfan’s Digital Influence experience includes both B2C and B2B campaigns, for clients such as IBM, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, The Heart Truth Campaign for NIH/NHLBI and Kaplan University. He is also leading the introduction of a new social media measurement methodology and an influencer activation product for the group.

Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, Irfan served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. In this role, he was in charge of researching, sourcing and evaluating digital startup investment strategy and opportunities for Jeff Bezos’ personal investment. Irfan has also founded companies in the preventive health social networking and media sectors, and has run a digital strategy consulting practice focused on international aviation.

Irfan further brings several years of energy, infrastructure finance and financial services industry experience in roles on the project finance and investment banking teams at Bechtel and Merrill Lynch Capital Markets respectively.

Irfan holds an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford and a BSE from Princeton University.

John h. Bell John heads up the 360° Digital Influence team—Ogilvy PR’s global, digital word of mouth marketing practice designed to manage brands at a time when anyone can be an influencer and we are all influenced in new ways. His team has developed and executed social media strategy for clients as diverse as TJMaxx, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Lenovo, Unilever and more. The team’s focus is on engaging through conversations, outreach to new influencers and word of mouth marketing.

John is a Web 1.0 graduate. As Creative Director at Discovery Communications, he transformed a single Web site into 14 Web communities and services from DiscoveryKids.com to Animalplanet.com and more. In the early nineties, when interactive television was imminent, John headed up the creative studio for the joint ITV venture between Viacom and AT&T.

Currently, John serves as the President of the board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He teaches graduate studies in Digital Influence at Johns Hopkins University.

His blog is: The Digital Influence Mapping Project—http://johnbell.typepad.com

His twitter name is: jbell99

12 Ogilvy insight

About 360° Digital Influence

Ogilvy PR’s 360° Digital Influence is Ogilvy’s global social media marketing practice. We use word of mouth and digital marketing to deliver measurable results. We have technology and methodology for identifying and engaging influencers and activating networks of people to share and recommend products, services and issues. We create engaging experiences designed to promote awareness, brand loyalty, advocacy and conversion. The practice is led by Managing Director, John Bell, who is currently serving as President of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

About Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (www.ogilvypr.com) is an integrated global marketing communications firm, with offices in more than 70 cities around the world. We blend proven PR methodologies with cutting edge digital innovations to craft strategic programs that give clients winning and measurable results. In its 28th year, Ogilvy PR provides strategic public relations counsel to a variety of clients across its 360° Digital Influence, consumer marketing, corporate, healthcare, technology, public affairs and social marketing practices. The agency also offers biotechnology and government affairs expertise through its subsidiaries Feinstein Kean Healthcare and Ogilvy Government Relations, respectively. Ogilvy PR is a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY, www.wpp.com) one of the world’s largest communications services organizations.

About Ogilvy & Mather

Ogilvy & Mather is one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world. Through its specialty units, the company provides a comprehensive range of marketing services including: advertising; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; shopper and retail marketing; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing. Ogilvy & Mather services Fortune Global 500 companies as well as local businesses through its network of more than 450 offices in 120 countries. It is a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY). For more information, visit www.ogilvy.com.

© Ogilvy & Mather 2009. All rights reserved. neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded or otherwise, without the prior permission of OgilvyOne Worldwide.

14 Ogilvy insight