• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 19, 2008

Among the suite of tools VivaKi has assembled in the new social media "toolkit" it is providing to Publicis agencies and clients are some powerful new planning, buying and campaign management applications that reveal how quickly big agencies are adapting to the new world of Web 3.0 marketing. Among them, is SocialLight, a new tool developed by Publicis' Denuo unit that enables agencies and advertisers to understand how, when and why someone makes a recommendation about a brand to someone else via online social media.

"Not a lot of information exists on the actual moment of recommendation. The actual moment of advocacy for a given brand in a category," Dan Buczaczer, senior vice president-director of Denuo told a group of Publicis executives crammed into the New York offices of MediaVest Wednesday for an internal debriefing of the new social media tools being collected by the VivaKi Nerve Center.

Buczaczer said Denuo, an agency who's motto keeps changing, but currently is "Tomorrow, Tangible, Today," created SocialLight to help marketers develop strategies and build marketing programs utilizing both word-of-mouth and social media platforms, because there was relatively little information on the precise inflection point brand recommendations are actually made. (A variety of communications planning research in recent years indicates that recommendations from friends, family, colleagues and professionals are the most powerful communications platform for many brands and categories, far surpassing the influence of advertising.)

Buczaczer said Denuo built SocialLight to pinpoint the moment of recommendation, and explained that it actually is "a custom piece of research built specifically for your client in your category, based on how you define your category, against a competitive that you also define. And against a target that you also define." Like many things Denuo does, SocialLight is iterative, though it utilizes six standardized components.

First, SocialLight defines the category. Then it maps the conversation taking place on a social media platform or via word-of-mouth. Then it "listens" to the conversation to figure out how to "translate that into actions," such as recommending going to a store, taking a test drive, etc. Then it analyzes the dynamics taking place around those advocating a brand, as well as those who speak negatively about it. Then it evaluates the elements of who is making the recommendation: who they are and why they are making a recommendation. Finally, it provides basic turnkey recommendations for a brand based on the analysis.

Buczaczer referred to this last component as a "layer of light consultation," and as in the way many of the elements of VivaKi's new social media toolkit work, provides an opportunity to retain the tool provider - in this case Denuo - for deeper consultation.

At its base level, Buczaczer said SocialLight builds its recommendation analysis on a sample of 1,500 social media recommenders over the course of an eight-week timeframe that costs an average of $55,000.

To date, he said Denuo already has been working with brands ranging from automotive repair service Midas to consumer electronics marketer Samsung to financial services firms Discover and UBS.

In the case of Midas, for example, he said SocialLight was used to understand "the types of conversations going on" during the "in-garage experience" that could influence the future loyalty of a customer.