The topic of emotional loyalty has been a topic of interest for us for a while, as it gives tantalizing clues to decoding what it is about certain brands that give them a halo effect in media coverage, and how to ascribe value to that intangible asset. This halo gives them the ability to defy gravity by trading at multiples in the stock market not necessarily explained by financial ratios; garner share of voice percentages that are out of proportion ...

We were curious to read the recently published study correlating social media engagement and financial performance for the world’s 100 most valuable brands (per Interbrand), published by the Altimeter Group and WetPaint, since it covers an issue we are particularly interested in: how do you link a brand’s social media activities to bottom-line results? To add to our interest, the study used very similar methodology to the one we used in a study we released earlier this year, where we ...

Context recently completed an ROI study for a client, tying online media analysis (e.g., sentiment, key message penetration, product mentions, etc.) to their web analytics. I thought I would share a really top-level finding here, showing that many types of earned media have produced higher conversion rates than Google AdWords. Given most marketers’ strong faith in the highly-targeted nature of paid search, I think these results will surprise some people: // // PR: wait... I: wait... L: wait... LD: wait... ...

So says a new study examining traditional news and blog coverage of the 2008 presidential election. Researchers at Cornell used computer algorithms to identify, track, and pinpoint the origin of repeated phrases on 1.6 million mainstream media sites and blogs. While a small subset of blogs such as Hot Air and Talking Points Memo generated internet widespread memes, most blogs lagged behind mainstream media by about 2.5 hours. With Twitter getting all the credit for breaking the news of Michael Jackson’s death, ...