Social Media Campaigns Drive Effectiveness

™
INCREASING CAMPAIGN
EFFECTIVENESS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
MARCH 2011

©2011 Syncapse Corp. All rights reserved. www.syncapse.com facebook.com/syncapse @syncapse

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
There should be no doubt that social media is growing in popularity and taking a bigger
share of consumer mindshare. In trying to separate the hype from the reality, many marketers
and brand managers are struggling to understand what level of investment should be made
in social channels. To help them, Syncapse conducted an extensive study of more than 4,300
consumers across North America.

We expected to find that social was quickly becoming an important part of the consumer
decision-making process. From our experience working with leading global brands to
identify and manage their social media audiences, we have seen anecdotal and quantitative
evidence of brands that integrated social media into their marketing campaigns gaining a
clear advantage over their competitors. But what we learned surprised even us.

Through our survey, we found that consumer behaviour is evolving quickly. Television is no
longer the main focal point of media attention in the home. A growing number of consumers
are spending more time online than watching TV. Many do both at the same time.

Consumers are also looking to social media as a source for trusted brand recommendations:
friends and family use social networks to comment on brands; many blogs have gained trust
with their audiences; and Facebook brand sites are increasingly becoming a destination for
savvy consumers.

Indeed, social media has clearly become a very effective way to drive consumer awareness
and campaign effectiveness. But our survey went one step further. We identified a critical
segment of the social media audience who carry a disproportionate level of influence on
consumers. This group, who we call Social Media Producers, also tend to spend more on
the brands they recommend. Activating this segment of the consumer audience will provide
incremental benefits to those brands that understand how to engage consumers through
social channels.

For marketing and brand managers, the lesson is clear: campaigns that incorporate a level
of social media investment will be more effective. And those that focus on moving their social
membership base up the value chain will find even greater returns on their investments.

Syncapse is pleased to share these findings. We believe this data demonstrates that, by
investing in social media, marketers and brand managers can increase their campaign
effectiveness and achieve a greater proportion of positive brand recommendations.

But every brand is unique, and so we encourage you to contact us to learn more about the
segments of the social media audience that carry the most influence with your brand. You
may be surprised by what you find out.

©2011 Syncapse Corp. All rights reserved. www.syncapse.com 2

SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS
Social media is increasingly pulling mindshare away from traditional advertising and
forming new influencers that will become an increasingly important target segment for
many marketers.

The Producer segment can deliver $22.93 in earned media value per
recommendation for brands that engage in social media campaigns.

45% of consumers watch TV and surf Facebook at the same time.

40% of respondents factor in Facebook recommendations when making
purchasing decisions.

Consumers are equally likely to trust a recommendation from a blog as a
television spot.

Producers spend almost 20% more on the brands they recognized than
Participants.


AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION
Based on their self-identified media use, respondents were categorised into five
audience segments:

Producer 13.7%
Creates and distributes new content through social
networks, blogs and online discussion forums

Engager 24.9%
Engages brands and interest groups in collaborative discussions
on social networks, blogs and online discussion forums

Participant 28.4%
Maintains and updates proﬁles on social networking sites

Lurker 19.7%
Reads blogs and online discussion forums and follows friends
and family discussions and updates on social networks

Abstainer 13.2%
Does not actively participate in social networking


TV IS STILL KING, BUT SOCIAL
IS INCITING REVOLUTION

Across a number of key demographics, consumers are spending less time watching television
and more time participating in online forums such as social networking. And while almost
30% of respondents report spending more than 20 hours watching television and more than
20 hours online per week, almost one in five say they now spend significantly more time
online than in front of the television.

For marketing and brand managers, these findings
point to a fragmentation of consumer mindshare
and an increasing need to deploy multi-channelled
initiatives that bring together television and online
sources to engage customers and reinforce brand
18% of all consumers
messaging.
spend more time online
The following chart clearly illustrates the propensity
of consumers to split their media time between
than watching TV.
traditional and online sources.

TV Hours per Week
Online Hours / TV Hours
Crosstabulation Less 31 or
than 8 9 to 15 16 to 20 21 to 30 more Total

10 or less
262 107 93 111 79 652
28.4% 14.1% 11.1% 11.2% 9.9% 15.1%

242 277 223 219 102 1063
10 to 19
26.3% 36.4% 26.7% 22.0% 12.8% 24.7%
Online Hours per Week

132 153 204 236 109 834
20 to 24
14.3% 20.1% 24.4% 23.7% 13.6% 19.3%

113 107 152 214 157 743
25 to 35
12.3% 14.1% 18.2% 21.5% 19.6% 17.2%

36 or more 172 117 164 215 352 1020
18.7% 15.4% 19.6% 21.6% 44.1% 23.7%

Total 921 761 836 995 799 4312
100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Count % within TV hours Source: Syncapse Corp. 2011


ATTENTION SPANS SHRINK
Research also shows that consumers are not fully engaged when
watching television. When asked about their activity during
popular television shows, half admitted that they had only paid
partial attention to the Super Bowl, while other top rated weekly Only 47% of all
programs captured significantly less attention. For example, only
47% gave Grey’s Anatomy their full attention and less than one
those watching
in three paid full attention to The Biggest Loser. At the same time,
new technologies such as PVRs and time-shifting are creating
Grey’s Anatomy
even greater pressure on television and making it increasingly
difficult for brands to capture mindshare though traditional
give it their full
broadcast media strategies. attention.

Television Show % who had % who had
full attention some attention

Superbowl 50.8% 49.2%

Glee 45.3% 54.7%

America 40.2% 59.8%

NCIS 57.5% 42.5%

Big Bang Theory 55.3% 44.7%

Grey’s Anatomy 47.5% 52.5%

The Ofﬁce 38.6% 61.4%

Modern Family 45.2% 54.8%

Bones 49.9% 50.1%

The Biggest Loser 31.1% 68.9%

Source: Syncapse Corp. 2011


SOCIAL NETWORKS
GAIN MINDSHARE
So what is pulling audience attention away from the television?
Significantly, nearly 45% of respondents admit that they surf
Facebook while watching their favourite shows. This is especially
evident among those that both watch high levels of television Nearly 45% of
and spend a significant amount of time online: 52% of this
audience segment multi-task between television and Facebook
consumers surf
versus almost 40% of those with lower consumption of television
and online content.
Facebook while
watching TV.
How much, if at all, does each of the following statements describe you?
You often watch TV and surf Facebook at the same time.

Frequency Valid Percent

Describes you 891 21.3%
completely

Describes you 986 23.5%
somewhat
VALID
Does not describe 2312 55.2%
you at all

Total 4189 100.0%


The message for marketing and brand managers is that social networks are commanding
increasing levels of consumer attention. And given that social network participation tends to
demand a greater level of active involvement (as opposed to passively watching television),
one can infer that even those that split their time are generally more absorbed in their social
networking activities than television.

This research suggests that consumer brands can achieve a greater number of impressions –
and a larger share of the audience attention – by integrating social media initiatives into their
advertising strategies. And while neither television nor social networks command complete
audience attention, it is clear from the data that marketing teams who effectively combine
both stand to gain greater mindshare within their target audience.


RECOMMENDATIONS
RULE THE NETWORK
It goes without saying that positive recommendations from
trusted sources can provide a substantial lift to a brand’s
reputation and a consumer’s likelihood to purchase. This
data demonstrates that social media forums are gaining

Blog posts
significant traction as a source of trusted recommendations.

In our study, an equal number (61%) of respondents
suggested that they were just as likely to take a positive
recommendation from blogs as they were from television. inﬂuence the
But the most trusted source for recommendations is
friends and family, with 84% of respondents saying that
purchasing
decision
a positive recommendation from this group influences
their purchasing decision. And since most of those trusted
connections now participate together in social networks, it

of 61%
is not surprising that almost 40% specifically cite Facebook
as a source of trusted recommendations.

Medium % who say a positive
recommendation would
make a difference

Friends & Family 84.0%

TV Coverage 61.6%

Websites or Blogs 61.3%

Facebook 39.3%

Twitter 15.9%



TARGET PRODUCERS
TO DRIVE IMPACT
One segment of this audience demands particular
attention from marketers: the Producers. Characterised by
their multi-channelled use of social networking vehicles,
Producers tend to check Facebook on a regular basis, Positive
post updates and comments onto their friends’ and recommendations
family’s Walls, maintain active blogs and regularly tweet.
In fact, half of all Producers tweet weekly or several times from Producers is
a week, and 42% tweet on a daily basis. At the same
time, a whopping 82% of Producer respondents said they
equivalent to $22.93
were regular or frequent bloggers. Producers are also in earned media value
more likely to post to brand pages or become fans of
brands on Facebook.

In fact, Producers offer marketers a substantial earned media value (EMV), as their
engagement with the brand has the capacity to disseminate messages and recommendations
across a wide and diverse network through blogging, tweeting and fanning brand sites. In
fact, it is possible – by virtue of publishing in multiple locations as is the case with blogs that
are tweeted and shared through Facebook – for Producers to garner 2,000 impressions with
a single recommendation.

At the same time, marketers must be cognizant that the same Producer influence can be
brought to bare for negative recommendations: Producers who become net detractors for
brands carry equal weight to those who are net promoters. For marketers, it becomes acutely
important to not only identify Producers, but also effectively manage the relationship
to mitigate negative impressions.

The following chart demonstrates the EMV of the various audience segments based on
conservative monetisation models*.

Probable earned media value per recommendation.

Abstainer Lurker Participant Engager Producer

$0 $1.07 $1.94 $4.48 $22.93

* Earned Media Value is based on number of probable impressions generated given a set of reported activity. For instance, 11% of
Producers with a Smartphone post four or more times to Facebook a day, which can generate several hundred impressions in return. A
blog post may also be indexed or curated (through online services such as Reddit or HN), thereby generating thousands of additional
impressions.


SOCIAL DRIVES
PURCHASE BEHAVIOUR
Based on these findings, it is clear that Producers provide incremental benefits from an EMV
perspective, but they can also directly impact the brand’s bottom line as consumers.

Simply put, Producers tend to spend more on brands
they recognize than their peers. To demonstrate this
relationship, respondents were asked about their
impression, likelihood to recommend, and spending Producers spend
patterns for a list of known brands in two main
categories: beer and mobile devices. $10.76 more
on mobile devices
In the beer category, the data found that respondents
from the Producer audience segment spend – on and $14.56
average - $14.56 more per month than their peers in
other segments, representing a 40% increase over the more per month
monthly spend reported by all other respondents. This
finding takes into account the fact that Producers tend to
on beer than
be younger than the average respondent (and therefore
more likely to consume greater quantities of beer), and
average consumers.
somewhat more affluent (also a driver for buying premium
beer brands)*.

Looking at propensity to spend on mobile devices, Producers were also found to spend
$10.76 more per month than other respondents to the survey. Again, these findings are
controlled to account for the fact that Producers tend to use Smartphones (which carry a
higher data charge) and enjoy a higher household income (which directly relates to the
sophistication of the device)*.

However, no similar relationship was found to exist for television watchers. And while it is
broadly agreed that television viewing increases the number of positive impressions and
enhances brand recognition, these findings demonstrate that – even after considering errors
related to self-reported TV hours – no statistically relevant correlation could be found between
the number of hours watching TV and increased spending on key brands.

These findings demonstrate that social media initiatives directly impact the spending habits of
the Producer segment in a more significant way than television advertising alone.

* Observed co-linearities were found to be within tolerance. While other factors may enhance or diminish the claim, none were
found at the time of publishing.


CREATING FANS
AND DRIVING SALES
According to research conducted on behalf of
Syncapse in 2010, Facebook fans spend, on
average, $71.84 more on products for which they
are fans compared to those who are not fans. The
same study also demonstrated that fans were 41%
89% of Engagers
more likely to recommend a fanned product than
non-fans.
and 94% of
This most recent study found that – across all
Producers post on
audience segments – a substantial 15% had
already ‘liked’ or ‘fanned’ one of the 33 brands
brand Facebook
identified in the survey. Looking closely at these
numbers, however, respondents who were
categorised as Lurkers and Participants unanimously (100%) reported that they either never
post on brand sites, or did so infrequently. Conversely, 89% of the Engager segment and
94% of the Producer segment said that they post to brand sites once a month or more, and
more than half of the Producers admitted to posting on brand sites several times a week.

How often do you post to Facebook brand pages
Engager Producer

Never to less than once 101 30
a month 11.3% 6.1%
% within Producer/Engager

1 to 4 times a month 579 203
64.7% 41.2%

Several times a day 215 260
to several times a week 24.0% 52.7%

Total 895 493
100% 100%


Given their reach and influence, serious attention must be placed on creating brand fans,
particularly within the Engager and Producer groups.


EVOLVING THE
SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIENCE
But converting Engagers and Producers into fans is only half the
job. Brand managers can also enhance the value of their social
network initiatives by helping to evolve Lurkers and Participants
into Engagers and Producers. 74% of the
This study shows that a consumer’s likelihood to accept
Producer segment
recommendations from sources such as Facebook, Twitter and
blogs dramatically increases as individuals become more active
are inﬂuenced
in online and social network forums. As can be expected, those by Facebook
that are classified as Abstainer are extremely unlikely (7 percent)
to take Facebook recommendations, versus almost a quarter of
Lurkers and 42% of Participants. As consumers mature in their
social media activity to become Engagers and Producers(which describes almost
40% of respondents), these numbers skyrocket to 56% and 74% respectively.

A growing number of marketing and brand managers are leveraging innovative software
solutions to identify Engagers and Producers and efficiently prioritise and measure their
relationships. The Syncapse Platform™, for example, has connected brands with millions of
high-value consumers globally and has delivered tens of millions of dollars in earned media
value in the process. And by utilising the Syncapse Platform to build, manage and measure
their digital customer relationships, marketers are increasingly able to respond to these
important audience segments ahead of their competitors and increase the impact and EMV of
these influential groups.

% who say a positive recommendation from each source would make
a difference in ﬁnal purchase decision.

Abstainer Lurker Participant Engager Producer

Friends or Family 83.7% 81.7% 85.1% 83.9% 88.2%

Online message boards 29.6% 34.8% 41.7% 49.1% 74.2%

Coverage on TV 64.7% 56.6% 56.5% 63.7% 74.4%

Website and Blogs 51.2% 53.9% 61.6% 66.4% 85.4%

Facebook posts or comment 7.4% 22.1% 42.1% 56.4% 73.8%

Twitter 7% 7.8% 8.6% 16.5% 58.7%



CONCLUSIONS
Clearly, social media is capturing a significant amount of consumer mindshare. And since
many consumers surf social networking sites while watching television, brands will quickly
find that social must become a critical component of the marketing mix.

But it is the coveted Producer segment of the population that represents the greatest
opportunity for brands: 42% are frequent bloggers, more than 50% tweet at least once a
week, and almost 75% factor in Facebook recommendations when making a purchasing
decision. In effect, this group is worth $22.93 per recommendation in earned media value
for brands that can successfully court them.

Across all audience groups, almost 40% of respondents say that a positive recommendation
from Facebook would make a difference in their purchasing decisions; 61% say the same
about blogs.

For marketing and brand managers, three important conclusions can be made from
this research:

Social media must be an integrated and incremental component of any
marketing campaign;

Heightened focus must be placed on interacting with social media Producers
and turning them into fans; and

Greater effort must be put towards evolving audiences to become Producers.


METHODOLOGY
The quantitative research supporting this Syncapse study and analysis was conducted by
Hotspex Market Research between February 15th and 17th, 2011 using their online panel.
More than 4,300 panellists responded across North America representing a broad variety
of demographics, household incomes and social media utilization. Approximately three
quarters of respondents identified their country of residence as the United States and a
quarter Canada.

Respondents were asked to verify their familiarity with a number of popular brands in each
category in their marketplace and then to provide their impressions of each brand, as well
as their likelihood of repurchasing and recommending the brand to friends and family. The
survey went on to ascertain the respondent’s online, social media and traditional media
habits, including their use of popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Syncapse analysed the data utilizing the Syncapse Platform™, a proprietary global solution
for understanding social media value and business drivers.

The market segmentation definitions and composition contained herein are based solely on
Syncapse research. The authors would like to acknowledge the groundbreaking work of
Forrester Research in the area of Social Technographics®, details of which may be found at
http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/social_technographics%C2%AE/q/id/42057/t/2.


ABOUT
SYNCAPSE
Founded in 2007, Syncapse Corp. has quickly become a global technology leader in social
media management by delivering solutions that empower brands and agencies to build,
manage and measure their digital customer relationships. A member of Facebook’s Preferred
Developer Consultant program, the Syncapse Platform has connected brands with millions
of consumers globally, delivered tens of millions of dollars in earned media value and has
been recognized as one of the top social technology providers for brand marketers. In 2010,
Syncapse was named to the ranking of PROFIT Magazine’s HOT 50 Emerging Growth
Companies, a member of Deloitte’s Tech Fast 50 Companies-to-Watch, winner in the Emerging
Entrepreneur category in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards and one of
North America’s 50 Most Engaged Workplaces.

Syncapse™ and Syncapse Platform™ are trademarks of Syncapse Corp. in the
United States and/or other countries.

To learn more visit syncapse.com

Contact Us

facebook.com/Syncapse
@syncapse
416.593.3773
info@syncapse.com
syncapse.com


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