As the 2008 Summer Olympics approaches, Collective Intellect slices down the analysis to the even more granular level of Brands and their Olympic-specific marketing composition. By doing this and sampling the two weeks directly prior to the start of the Olympics (7/25 to 8/7/2008).

Our results:

The traditional Big 3 of Visa, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s still lead heading into the Beijing games. And to their credit, they seem to be taking advantage of their lead. Sentiment calculations list positive sentiment as 67%, 51% and 48% for Visa, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s respectively.

UPS, Panasonic, Lenovo, and Kodak make up less than 10% combined.

And given the controversy surrounding the Olympics this year we also wanted to drill a bit deeper into any of the themes associated with negative posts.  As it turns out these mostly were associated with censorship and politics with pollution also being a major concern.

Our results:

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Blog Analysis, Brand Management, Mass Media/Culture, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Metrics, Social Media Monitoring by Justin Wyman
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Well it’s been a while since someone has done a really in-depth analysis of social media companies and here is a real killer. Philip Sheldrake, Director at RacePoint Group has broken the silence with an incredibly detailed analysis of the current players in the social media world. Download the full 99 pages of sweetness and make sure to subscribe to the RSS at Marcom Professional.

The eBook had the 6 pages about Collective Intellect including the following excerpts (that I liked) :

“Collective Intellect describes their last year as one focused on adding millions of new social media sources and improving data quality with highly automated categorisation and analytic tools. Quite rightly, they point out that analysis is pointless if you don’t start with accurate and comprehensive data. Collective Intellect must be doing something right to have attracted customers from the likes of Microsoft, Chrysler, Anheuser-Busch, Pfizer, Dell, Yahoo!, Viacom, Verizon, Levi’s and Adobe.”

About yours truly: “Collective Intellect’s Nick Sowden is the only staff member of the SWA vendors described here to let me know he’s on Twitter and to have subscribed to my Twitter. He’s also one of two to have invited me to link up on LinkedIn. To me, ‘being’ social inspires confidence that they truly ‘think’ and ‘live’ social.”

“I recall telling a colleague that Collective Intellect has “the magic dust”. Here are a few more things, additional to those above, that led me to make such an exclamation…. ”

Phillip closes with more praise: “In fact, the only other criticism I can muster up is the plainly visible fact that their reports aren’t as pretty as the competions’; not a critical desideratum and easily fixed… come on Collective Intellect!” Good point Phillip. We pride ourselves on data and we’re working on making our reports ‘prettier’.

To be somewhat balanced I should talk about Philip’s main criticism: “Interestingly, Collective Intellect dismisses social networking pages as “highly off topic and generally unhelpful”, and instead prefers to focus on the group / community pages within such networks. They also write off micro-blogs such as Twitter and Jaiku as “highly irrelevant”. That’s one perspective I can’t agree with.” Erroneous! I sent Philip some bad data (what was I think??), as we’re all about twitter. I twitter more than I eat… and I’m a hungry man. We’re already incorporating twitter into our data, in fact.

Thanks for the write up guys!

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Metrics, Social Media Monitoring by Nick Sowden
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With only four contestants left on American Idol, the voting really gets interesting, and becoming part of the “bottom three” is almost unavoidable. Again, Syesha Mercado leads the way as the blogosphere’s most likely to be voted off. The blogosphere claims Jason Castro as the least likely to be voted off. See ya! Castro

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Mass Media/Culture by Brian Heisler
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As the CEO of Collective Intellect, I have the pleasure of interacting with dozens of companies, agencies and technology vendors every month who are at the forefront of social media engagement. These interactions are confirming that the importance of social media is real. I wanted to share some of my perspective on how companies gain strategic advantage through social media engagement, and to do a plug for why Collective Intellect should be a key component in your approach.

As a serial entrepreneur, I have been at the frontline of customer relationships many times. Through these start-up experiences, I have discovered that new business services exist on a continuum from tactical operational improvements to services of truly strategic import. The good news for investors and users is that services everywhere along this continuum have the potential to create value. The dynamics of the value provided have a significant impact on the client’s (i.e. users) underlying business models.
From my perspective, it is clear that many earlier adopters of Collective Intellect’s services are adopting them in ways that deliver strategic advantage. I would like to highlight some the strategic potentials associated with social media engagement.

• First, social media engagement is being used to increase revenue and market share. More and more consumers trust web sites for recommendations and advice than ever before. Several weeks ago, General Motors announced that it was shifting 50% of its marketing spend to digital. The reason was that traditional media was primarily valuable for building up awareness for new vehicle models, but digital media is where consumers made consideration and preference decisions on which cars to purchase based on their own online research and conversations.

• Second, social media engagement is being used to optimize messaging delivered through social media and through traditional media. Identifying the key issues and concerns of authentic voices found in blogs and other social media allows companies to deliver the messages most important. Coca-Cola recently opted to encourage and recognize user-generated mash-ups of creative advertisements rather than continue to try to enforce trademark protection. Now, if you create a cool Coke commercial, you could get sponsored to create the next one.

• Third, early adopters have less competition for the attention of creators and users of social media. Thus, the odds of meaningful engagement will never be higher than now. We have clients that are creating meaningful relationships with the key influencers in social media around topics that are associated with their brands and companies. These relationships form a foundation for future interactions that start to integrate these companies and citizens in valuable communities.

• Fourth, innovators are striving to harness the value of the social media content in their web properties to engage clients. We are working with several clients to build next generation publishing models that integrate social media influencers together in ways that support specialized vertical topics. These early models, if successful, will provide enormous first mover advantage for these clients.

If you’re an adopter of social media engagement, I encourage you to contact Collective Intellect today; so you can take advantage of this outstanding opportunity.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Brand Management, Social Media Metrics by Don Springer
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There appears to be more uncertainty than usual in the mainstream media regarding the Pennsylvania pre-primary polling. Pundits are pointing to the ambiguity that comes with the 300,000 newly registered voters. The old “cell phone” argument is making a comeback, too.

So a lot of doubt is being cast on the poll numbers, specifically that Clinton will be able to maintain her significant lead. Our survey of the political blogosphere will only serve to cast further doubt on traditional polling methods. Real Clear Politics, which averages all the traditional polls, is giving Clinton a 6 point lead.

Our data shows that it will be much closer: Clinton 51%, Obama 49%. So close in fact, that I wouldn’t be surprised that when the results come in, those numbers could be flipped. Using our traditional methodology, Obama is ahead in the Pennsylvania-based blogs, but the national average allows Clinton to pull slightly ahead.

Many within her own party are calling for Ms Clinton to step down if her margin of victory is close, so a 2% win would be a pyrrhic victory at best. This should become very interesting indeed.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Blog Analysis, Mass Media/Culture, Uncategorized by Kevin Yordy
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The blogosphere’s take on American Idol was much more accurate this week. Kelly Lee Cook, whom was voted off of the show, was the blogosphere’s second lowest ranked contestant. Syesha Mercado was in both the actual bottom three and the blogosphere’s bottom three. Brooke White rounded out the actual bottom three and was fourth worst among the blogosphere’s bottom three. All in all, the blogosphere’s ranking was fairly reflective of the actual outcome of this week’s American Idol.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Mass Media/Culture by Brian Heisler
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Micahel Johns’ departure from American Idol last week threw just about everyone for a loop. This week the blogosphere stands in about the same place as it did last week with Syesha Mercado and Kristy Lee Cook at the bottom of the pack. However this time, Syesha is given the least support from the blogsphere as its lowest ranked contestant.

Surprisingly, David Cook makes the blogosphere’s bottom three this week. Perhaps another shocker is in the mix.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Mass Media/Culture by Brian Heisler
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The data was there to support what was thought to be a done deal to send Kelly Lee Cook or Syesha Mercado packing, but a shocking twist of fate voted Michael Johns off of American Idol last night. Whether the “vote for the worst” is continuing this year or an attempt to keep the most beautiful people on the show is happening, clearly the contestants surrounded by the most negativity and lack of talent were not holed into the “bottom three.” Carly Smithson’s inclusion in the group also brings great suspicion and unpredictability to the show’s voting. Of our predicted bottom three, only Syesha was actually stuck in the worst of the best. Much of the blogosphere is just as shocked as we were when the facts didn’t add up:

“…it was so unfair. Sure, his ‘Dream On’ the other night wasn’t fantastic, but, please–Kristy Lee Cook is still there. Syesha Mercado is still there. And my Michael is gone. You tell me: is this a ‘throw him to the wolves’ performance? It’s really not! Even Paula was shocked.” -Hollywood Offender

“By now you have probably all heard that our boy, Michael Johns, was eliminated. If you hadn’t, well yes, he was sent home BEFORE Kristy Lee Cook, Syesha Mercado, and Jason Castro…While we knew with Michael, as we did with Chris [Daughtry], that they probably would not make it to the finale, we thought for sure that talent would prevail and they would make it to the top four. But no, Michael would succumb to the same fate that Chris did. Obviously, the people that are voting aren’t voting for the total package.” - Tube Talk

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Mass Media/Culture by Brian Heisler
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With Collective Intellect’s technology, we have taken a leap into one of the first scientific, non-poll American Idol predicitions. By evaluating the activity level and positive/negative sentiment of posts on each contestant, we are able to quantify the likelihood of each contestant to be among the “bottom three” and ultimately predict which contestant will be voted off of the show from week to week.

As expected, Kristy Lee Cook leads the pack as the most likely to be voted off according to our data, but Syesha Mercado is within a margin of error and just as likely to be voted off.

On Kristy Lee Cook:

“And if another great singer goes home while she stays, it’s a complete crime. She can top herself every week, and still she won’t be good enough… and it’s soooo far past time to send the girl home. For the love of all that’s holy and just and right and good… Send Horsegirl HOME!“ -claena1

“My point is, Cook will definitely get voted off in the next couple weeks, so why would anyone who isn’t a direct relative watch the show with any kind of eager anticipation until that happens? It’d be like taking ‘The Apprentice’ seriously before all the minority candidates are voted off. Or taking ‘The Apprentice’ seriously ever, in retrospect.“ -Best Week Ever

Brooke White is predicted to join Kristy Lee Cook in returning to the bottom three, but will likely be saved from being sent home as the third lowest ranked contestant this week by Collective Intellect’s data. So it doesn’t look good for the women. On the otherhand, Michael Johns and Jason Castro have the softest spots, as the least likely to be voted off of the show this week.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Mass Media/Culture by Brian Heisler
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Robin did an interview with the Wallstreet Journal regarding coca-cola and superbowl advertising. You can check it out here, and I’ve included a short excerpt below.

Questions for Hal Curtis
And Pio Schunker
By SUZANNE VRANICA
March 11, 2008 3:36 p.m.
Super Bowl Sunday may have been five weeks ago, but marketers are still trying to evaluate just how well their commercials preformed during the game.

A new study released this week shows Coca-Cola’s Super Bowl ad staring Charlie Brown was the most talked about ad online two weeks after the gridiron matchup, according to Collective Intellect, a company that analyzes blogs to see what people are posting online about products and brands.

The Coke spot, set at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, features Stewie and Underdog balloons fighting over a huge Coke balloon. The two characters bounce around the New York skyline bumping up against office and apartment buildings. The twist: the two are outdone by Charlie Brown, who swoops in and grabs the beverage. The spot cost about $2.3million to create, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Robin Seidner, the director of marketing for Collective Intellect, says Coke’s ad had 350 blog post the day after the game, while Pepsi’s ads had 250 posts. Some ad executives believe the spot has a good shot of winning an award at the Cannes Lions festival, which is the most prestigious honor in the industry. It’s something new for the Atlanta beverage giant, which has been hampered by a lack of sizzle when it comes to its advertising in the past few years. Coke has struggled to create ads that please the younger set and at the same time don’t turn off older consumers.

Tags: Analyzing Consumer Generated Media, Brand Management, Mass Media/Culture, Social Media Metrics by Tim Wolters
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