At any given moment, consumers are at the receiving end of a number of different marketing and advertising messages across categories and a variety of platforms. With the increased fragmentation of media and the shrinking of consumer attention spans, it is imperative to not only be creative, but to encourage sharing and conversations. New research from Engagement Labs finds that “talkable marketing” is one of the factors that drives 19 percent of all consumer sales.
In a recent analysis of more than 500 consumer brands in a variety of categories, the firm ranked those with the most talkworthy marketing campaigns. The rankings are based on the extent to which people are sharing or talking about a brand’s marketing or advertising both online (via social media) and offline (via face-to-face conversations), as part of its TotalSocial Brand Awards series.
The awards are based on the company’s proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the four most important drivers of brand performance. These are:
- Brand sharing: the extent to which people are sharing or talking about a brand’s marketing or advertising
- Sentiment: having more positive than negative conversations
- Volume: a measure of how many conversations mention a brand, and
- Influence: the extent to which an influential audience is talking about a brand
The Most Talkworthy Marketing Award is given to brands with the highest brand sharing scores online and offline in 2017. See a full list of winners across additional categories here.
Pillsbury took the top spot in the online ranking, after launching its 48th Annual Pillsbury Bakeoff, which was heavily promoted on the company’s web properties and social media channels. Following up in second place is PlayStation, which boasted a rise in sales of its consoles and games in 2017.
“Brands such as Pillsbury and PlayStation have a clear understanding of their audience and are creating marketing campaigns that are activating these consumers to ‘talk,’ which is evident in the amount of sharing that is occurring on their social media channels,” said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. “Naturally fans of Pillsbury are responding to the recipes and clever uses of its products that the brand regularly promotes, while the gaming community is consistently reacting to PlayStation’s social media posts about its video game sneak peaks.”
Arby’s, which took third place for online brand sharing, has revamped its brand and advertising strategy over the last several years, which has proven to be effective. Following the success of a viral tweet about Pharrell Williams in 2014, the brand has since revamped its social media presence to not take itself too seriously while also engaging with niche audiences such as the video game community who responds to its gaming references, giving its fans more reason to share and engage with their content.
Puma tops the list of brands with the most talkworthy marketing offline—which means that people are talking about a company’s marketing or advertising during face-to-face conversations. The brand created a robust ambassador campaign, which partnered with current, trendy celebrities with large followings, including Selena Gomez, Big Sean and Rihanna.
Falling into second and third place, respectively, GEICO and Priceline.com also sparked offline conversations about their marketing efforts. GEICO, which is famously known for its light-hearted commercials featuring its gecko mascot, has found success in facilitating conversations about its ads in a category that is typically challenged with low engagement. Meanwhile, Priceline.com, which operates in the highly-competitive market of online travel agents, made the top three following its decision to increase its brand advertising, including a particular focus on increasing its presence on TV advertising, further keeping them in the conversation.
“Interestingly, the brands that ranked in the bottom three for the least talkworthy marketing aren’t entirely inactive in their marketing efforts,” Keller continued. “It is clear that brands such as Aveeno are failing to create a connection with consumers online, due to a lack of sharable content on its social media and digital channels. On the other hand, even though brands such as Hormel are still actively running TV commercials, we can gauge the success of these campaigns by monitoring how much consumers are amplifying that message in online and offline conversations.”
