Symphony Advanced Media (SAM), a cross-media advertising analytics company, has launched an enhanced media performance analysis platform that measures the impact of a brand’s traditional advertising on surrounding social media activity, says the company’s CEO Manish Bhatia.
Working with social data provider Salorix, SAM conducted a trial run of its new analytics service in April and May 2012 with a number of its U.S. clients, among them pharmaceutical brands and commercial banks, Bhatia says. For example, within one financial organization, SAM’s new analytics showed that certain traditional media caused a 15% increase in social media activity around the brand.
“The growth of social media has created a whole new source of data and consumer behavior,” says Bhatia. “Advertisers have a desire to understand and leverage discussions in social media as it is important to know what people are saying about your brand and know the impact it has on your sales.”
As an example of a traditional direct marketing campaign that has influence on social media, Bhatia cites Super Bowl commercials. “Everybody lights up about the Superbowl commercial on Facebook and Twitter. There you have traditional media advertising absolutely impacting social media conversation,” he says, adding that the same concept applies to new product releases. “When Apple introduces a new laptop, for instance, how people are talking about it on Facebook and Twitter can drive — or detract from — sales,” Bhatia says.
Introducing social media as an integral element in SAM’s analysis is part of an ongoing effort to educate brands familiar with traditional media about the impact of social media so they may better assess how and where to spend their advertising funds, says Bhatia.
“You can have a small media budget,” he says. “But if it is strategically allocated you can get a lot of buzz.”
