[ ]AFFINITY DATA TELLS THE STORIES OF 2016

At Affinio, we get to run analyses on almost any hot topichappening in the news – whether it be political, sports-related, or breaking pop culture news. Each and every dayour team members run dozens of reports to understandwho is impacted by these events and discover culturalinsights that weren’t possible to see until now. However,not all of these newsworthy topics and insights get sharedon our blog. That’s why we created this SlideShare wherewe take a look back at the year of 2016 and highlight someof the biggest newsworthy events using affinity data.

Data Tells The Story of 2016

Affinio is an advanced marketing intelligence platformthat leverages the interest graph to understand today’sconsumers. Behind Affinio is an advanced, incrediblypowerful, and award-winning technology that mines thebillions of relational network connections that exist withinany given audience. Using our deep learning and customnetwork engine, Affinio can analyze these relationships todevelop a cultural fingerprint for each user. Analyzingwhat people choose to follow extracts knowledge andcultural insights from your entire audience. This sheds lightfor the first time on who each audience segment is, whatthey are influenced by, what they talk about, share, andultimately care most about.

How Affinio Analyses Work

JANUARY

The World Health Organization announces that the Zika Virus is likely to spread throughout the Americas by year endIn January 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced thatthe Zika Virus was likely to spread throughout most of the Americas bythe end of 2016. The news of the epidemic flooded world headlines. Weanalyzed what interest-based communities were talking about the “ZikaVirus” over a 30-day period.

JANUARY

Communities including:

UK Sports Fans

American Liberals

World Health Activists

and two Bot clusters were

found.

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about “Zika Virus”

01/10/2016

Music fans mourn the death of rock star, David Bowie

On January 10, 2016, English rock star, David Bowie died of Cancer at theage of 69. Bowie was best known for his eclectic style, hit songs, andinfluence in popular music. On the announcement of his death, fansworldwide took to Twitter to praise the star. We analyzed the followersof @DavidBowieReal to begin to understand his diverse fan base andwho he attracted.

01/10/2016

David captured the hearts

of many, including:

Fashion Lovers

Millennial Students

Italian Pop Music Fans

Sports Fans

Rock Fans

Audience Visualization @DavidBowieReal

01/13/2016

US Weekly announces that One Direction is splitting

In our Affinio analyses, there are a few clusters that are almost alwaysguaranteed to appear in large audiences. One of these clusters is acommunity of “Directioners” – extreme One Direction fans. Sadly, 2016marked the demise of the British boy-band.

What can we learn about the Directioners? We ran a report on anyonewho self-describes on Twitter as a “Directioner.” Take a look at some ofthe overall audience insights extracted from our platform:

01/13/2016

Top Bio Keywords of the Overall AudienceTop Interests of the Overall Audience

Top Emoji's of the Overall Audience Top Locations of the Overall Audience

02/07/2016

Denver Broncos win Super Bowl 50 against Carolina Panthers

On February 7th the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers 24-10 inthe Super Bowl 50 game. The game also marked the end of PeytonManning, the Denver QB’s, career. Pre-Super Bowl, we analyzed theaudiences of the Broncos and Panthers to see how their fan basesdiffered.

Who are the true Denver fans and who are the true Carolina fans?

02/07/2016

Audience Visualization @Broncos

02/07/2016

Audience Visualization @Panthers

02/15/2016

Viral video, Damn Daniel, takes the internet by storm

On February 15, California teen, Joshua Holz, tweeted a video shouting“Damn Daniel” while zooming in on his friend, Daniel Lara’s, footwear.Most notably, his white Vans shoes. It might not sound like the makings ofa creative masterpiece, but the Internet thought otherwise. After thevideo was posted it garnered enough favorites, retweets, and conversationthat Daniel had suddenly, and unexpectedly, become Internetfamous. We ran a couple of reports during the midst of the phase to seewho was talking about #DamnDaniel, who is following him, and who thegroups were behind his instant popularity.

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02/15/2016

Who’s talking about #DamnDaniel? Who’s following Daniel Lara?

The two visualizations are extremely different. The first, those who tweeted the#DamnDaniel hashtag, is much more segmented than the second visualization, showingthose who follow @Daniel_Laraa. We can assume that the clusters talking about#DamnDaniel are likely participating in the conversation because it became newsworthy.

03/31/2016

Tesla reveals its Model 3 electric car

On March 31 Tesla revealed its Model 3, its most affordable electric car to date. On the heels of the announcement, more than 325,000 people put down a $1,000 deposit down on the car which wouldn’t be arriving until late 2017. Starting at $35,000 (USD) and boasting more than 215 miles of range per charge, this flashy new EV is opening the electric vehicle market to a whole new audience.

For those of us who require immediate satisfaction, we wondered what you could buy today that would be comparable to the Model 3. In January, Chevrolet announced the 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, an attractive electric vehicle with similar range and comparable starting price to the Model 3. We were curious to learn the difference between Tesla EV fans and Chevy EV fans. To understand further, we ran an interest-based segmentation on the @ChevyVolt and @TeslaMotors Twitter handles using the Affinio platform.

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03/31/2016

Tesla 3 Audience Chevy Volt Audience

To learn more about which car is dominating in ideal ‘EV’ communities, we ran acompetitive analysis between @TeslaMotors and @ChevyVolt to understand further.

03/31/2016

@ChevyVolt @TeslaMotors

Software Developers Sustainability

Movie + Entertainment Space + Science Business

Sports Fans

04/03/2016

11.5 million confidential documents are published in the Panama Papers scandalIn April, 11.5 million leaked documents surfaced on the web thatcontained detail financial and attorney-client information for more than210,000 offshore entities. These leaked documents were dubbed the“Panama Papers” and illustrated how wealthy individuals and publicfigures were keeping their financial information private. The storyexploded in the media and the hashtag #PanamaPapers trendedworldwide. We analyzed anyone using the hashtag:

04/03/2016

This audience is comprised of 132,378 unique individuals who mentioned the#PanamaPapers over a 30-day period.

04/23/2016

Beyoncé releases visual album, Lemonade, on Tidal

On April 23, 2016, Beyoncé released her sixth studio album titled,Lemonade. The album made headlines as it alluded that her husband,rapper, Jay-Z, had an affair. While the media was quick to report on thescandal, Beyoncé's biggest fans, The Beyhive, stood behind Queen B.

We decided to take a look at The Beyhive community to understandmore about Queen B’s most devoted fans.

Top Interests of the Overall Audience

04/23/2016

All Beyoncé-

related Interests

Top Bio Keywords of the Overall AudienceTop Emoji's of the Overall Audience

Top Locations of the Overall Audience

04/23/2016

Note the Lemon and Bumble Bee

emoji’s!

05/02/2016

Underdog team, Leicester City Football Club, wins the Barclays Premier League TitleMonday, May 2nd, 2016 was a historic day for sports fans around theworld. One of the greatest sporting achievements was made official asLeicester City Football Club were crowned champions of the BarclaysPremier League. England’s Barclays Premier League is considered one ofthe most lucrative and prestigious soccer leagues in the world.

At Affinio we had been tracking the @LCFC official Twitter handle sincethe middle of April to see what effects the developing story had on theLeicester audience. The graph on the next slide shows the daily growthof Leicester's Twitter followers and the spike the day they becamechampions!

05/02/2016

This graph shows the daily growth in followers and a spike on the last daywhen Leicester won the Barclays Premier League.

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05/16/2016

Brooks Running launches Rule40 campaign pre-Olympic Games

On May 16, the first tweet was shared from an undercover Twitter account, @Rule40. The account was part of a campaign, "Rule 40," that protested a rule that bars non-Olympic sponsors from marketing their athletes during the Games. Behind the campaign was Brooks Running, who was barred under Rule 40.

We took a look at anyone mentioning the Rule 40 campaign leading up to the Games.

05/16/2016

This visualization shows thedifferent interest-basedcommunities talking about“Rule 40” leading up to theOlympic Games.Communities such asTriathletes, Track + Fieldathletes, and Journalistsshared their thoughts.

One interesting cluster is theOiselle Team cluster – Oiselleis a women’s brand andapparel line. Oiselle Founder,Sally Bergesen, publicallyshared her criticism of theRule 40 restriction leading upto the Games. It looks like shegot her whole team talkingabout the Rule and backingher!

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about “Rule 40”

06/09/2016

US President, Barack Obama, endorses Hillary Clinton as Democratic Presidential Nominee

“I don’t think there’s ever been someone so qualified to hold this office,”stated Barack Obama in a video released on June 9, 2016. Obama’ssupport of Clinton marked the beginning of a brutal campaign trailagainst Republican Presidential Nominee, Donald Trump.

We analyzed the audience of Hillary Clinton after the Obamaendorsement to understand who was #WithHer.

06/09/2016Audience Visualization @HillaryClinton

Hillary captured the

attention of many,

including:

Moms

Fashionistas

Digital Marketers

HispanicsHillary has a

small Republican

following – this group was likely following her to stay up to date with the latest Election news!

06/19/2016

Cleveland Cavaliers win their first NBA Championship Title against the Golden State Warriors

On June 19, the Cleveland Cavaliers took home the NBA ChampionshipTitle against the Golden State Warriors.

Before the championship, we wanted to understand who was cheeringfor #ALLIN216 or #DUBNATION. To this, we ran an interest-basedsegmentation on the combined followers ofthe @CAVS and @Warriors Twitter handles. This segmentation analysislets us understand who was “winning” in each interest-based audiencecluster. Results on the next slide:

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03/31/2016

@Warriors @Cavs

Pop Culture Mommies Rap & Hip-Hop

Ballers Sportscaster Fans Teens

Marketing + Tech

06/23/2016

Britain voted to leave the European Union in “Brexit” EU Referendum In a historic referendum and upset on June 23, 2016, Britain voted toleave the European Union. The vote was considered a ”shock vote” andmany were left stunned.

We analyzed the #VoteLeave enthusiasts to understand the culture ofBrexit.

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06/23/2016

Top Interests of the #VoteLeave Audience

Political figures (the past and current) such as Nigel Farage, David Jones, and Matt Davies, as well as the UK Independence Party all placed as top influences/interests for the Vote Leave community.

Notice how many of the interest profiles have the “Vote Leave” logo as their profile photo?

06/23/2016

Top Hashtags

Top hashtags such as #brexit, #leaveeu, and #ivotedleave appear amongst this audience. While “Remain” also appears as a hashtag, based on the influencers, content, and other top performing hashtags shared by this audience, we can assume that the context of “Remain” is negative.

Bio Keywords including UKIP, Brexit, and Vote Leave indicate a clear political stance of members.

Top Bio Keywords

JULY

As of mid-July, there were 112 Black Lives Matter protests in 88 American cities

The New York Times reported that as of mid-July there had been over112 Black Lives Matter protests in the States after two fatal policeshootings.

We analyzed anyone talking about “Black Lives Matter” on Twitter tobegin to understand what communities are standing behind themovement that campaigns against violence and racism towards blackpeople in the United States.

JULY

Interest-based communities

contributing to the Black

Lives Matter dialogue include:

Pop Culture

Conservatives

Black Activist

Trump Train

Bernie’s Revolutionaries

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about “Black Lives Matter”

07/06/2016

Pokémon Go app is released

It wouldn’t be a 2016 round up without mentioning the app thateveryone went crazy over, right!? Pokémon Go was released on July 6,2016, and within two days of its launch had been installed on moreAndroid devices in the US than Tinder and was well on its way insurpassing Twitter in daily active users! Not to mention it was makingNintendo roughly $1.6 million per day… not bad.

We analyzed the audiences talking about the game to understand whothey really are and what they care about outside of Pokémon Go.

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07/06/2016

Interest-based communities

talking about “Pokémon Go”

include:

Sports Fans

Gamers

Millennial Fans

eSports

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about “Pokémon Go”

07/18/2016

#KimExposedTaylorParty trends worldwide after Kim Kardashian leaks a video of Taylor Swift lyingOn July 18, 2016, an epic celebrity battle went down – Kim Kardashiancalled out Taylor Swift by posting a Snapchat video of Swift lying oncamera. In 2016, Kim Kardashian’s husband, Kanye West, released asong that shared lyrics about Taylor Swift. Swift’s PR team was quick torespond and claimed that Taylor did not approve of the song.

Kardashian then shared a video of West speaking to Swift onspeakerphone, asking for the approval of the song before it wasreleased. Taylor, while being filmed, agreed. Once the video was shared,fans turned on Swift and took to Twitter to share their disappointmentusing the hashtag #KimExposedTaylorParty.

07/18/2016

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities using the #KimExposedTaylorParty

hashtag

Interest-based communities

include:

Kardashian Klan

One Direction Fans

Black Lives Matter Activists

Politics & Media

Entertainment

08/05/2016

The 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro begin

Every four years the nations of the world come together to celebratesports, sportsmanship, and international competition. This year theSummer Olympics were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 toAugust 21, 2016. More than 11,000 athletes from over 205 countriesparticipated.

We analyzed the @Olympics audience to understand what interest-based communities were attracted to the social aspect of the Games.

08/05/2016 Audience Visualization of @Olympics

09/26/2016

The first US Presidential Debate, Hillary Clinton VS Donald Trump, is held at Hofstra UniversityOn September 26, 2016, the first of three Presidential Debates betweenHillary Clinton and Donald Trump was held. A record-breaking +80million viewers tuned in to see the two Presidential Candidates battle itout.

We ran an analysis on anyone talking about the Debates to understandthe wide draw the event attracted:

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09/26/2016

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about the ”Debates”

10/12/2016

Viral video sensation, The Mannequin Challenge, starts in US classroomsEvery so often, a trend comes along that takes the internet by storm and it seems like everyone is participating. Say hello to the latest trend in pop culture: The Mannequin Challenge. The Mannequin Challenge are a series of videos where people imitate mannequins and freeze in place while music is playing. These videos are then shared with the hashtag, #MannequinChallenge. The Mannequin Challenge first appeared on October 12, 2016, when high school students in the United States began performing the challenge in classrooms.

Using Affinio, we identified over 213,284 unique individuals mentioning the "#MannequinChallenge" on Twitter in the past thirty days.

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10/12/2016

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities using #MannequinChallenge

Top Locations of the Overall Audience

It’s Not Just The Teens!

Although the trend started in highschool classrooms, Sports-relatedcommunities have also been quick topick up on the craze. Many NFLteams and Sports Broadcasterscreated videos, including the DallasCowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. Thetrend also spread outside of theUnited States!

10/27/2016

Twitter announces that Vine is shutting down

On October 27, 2016, Twitter announced its plans to shut down their video app, Vine. Vine, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012, rose to fame quickly with over 200 million active users. However, as competitors like Snapchat and Instagram grew their video capabilities, apps like Vine were pushed out. According to Twitter, nothing is changing immediately, and the Vine app will remain online for the short future.

Shortly after the news broke, the hashtag #RIPVine began trending worldwide. We decided to analyze it and see who was impacted by the Vine shutdown.

10/27/2016

This audience is comprised of 143,797 unique individuals who mentioned the#RipVine over a 30-day period. The biggest communities impacted? Teen Girlsand Sports Fans!

11/02/2016

The Chicago Cubs win the World Series

On November 2, 2016, the Chicago Cubs won the 2016 World Series Champion after defeating the Cleveland Indians in an intense Game 7! This was the first World Series win for the team since 1908!

We wanted to learn more about Chicago fans – who they are and what matters most. Using the Affinio platform, we analyzed anyone following the Cubs on Twitter.

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11/02/2016

Audience Visualization @Cubs

11/02/2016

Top Domains Shared of the Overall Audience

Interesting Insight:

Bad News! The Cubs Fans’ Top-Shared Domain

is Vine!Top Shared Hashtags Top Bio Keywords

11/08/2016

The Oxford Dictionary announces its Word of the Year is Post-truth

Last year the Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year was an emoji; this yearthe word of the year is “post-truth.” Post-Truth is an adjective defined as“relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are lessinfluential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion andpersonal belief.”

The Oxford Dictionary chose this word as it has become associated withthe phrase post-truth politics, referencing the outcome of the EUReferendum and the USA Presidential Election.

11/08/2016

Political Interest-BasedCommunities were ignitedby the choice of “Post-Truth” as the Word of theYear.

Note the cluster, "LabourParty UK," who votedprimarily Remain in the EUReferendum.

Audience Visualization of the interest-based communities talking about “Post-Truth”

11/09/2016

Donald Trump wins the US Presidential Election

On Tuesday, November 9, 2016, it was announced that The RepublicanParty Candidate, Donald Trump and running-mate, Governor MikePence defeated the Democratic Party Candidate, Senator Hillary Clintonand her running-mate, Senator Tim Kaine in the US PresidentialElection.

We analyzed the audience of @realDonaldTrump to better understandthe audiences he won over in the controversial election.

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11/09/2016

Audience Visualization of @realDonaldTrump

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