• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, December 10, 2009

As the Vancouver Olympics unfold and NBC Universal tries to persuade advertisers their spots are resonating, the broadcaster is looking beyond the Nielsen sample that measures mostly reach. NBCU has hired a word-of-mouth agency to gauge reaction to campaigns from Coke with expected spots featuring charismatic speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno.

The Keller Fay Group, which has a TalkTrack system said to monitor more than 350,000 conversations about brands annually, will track online and offline banter in real-time during the February games.

Results could help advertisers decide which spots to run more frequently and what dayparts to place them in.

NBCU is carrying the games on a slew of networks.

The initiative appears to be an offshoot of NBCU top researcher Alan Wurtzel's efforts to use the Olympics as a "Billion Dollar Research Lab." It aims to show that more people are using online video, mobile, etc. to watch the Games. The pursuit started last year in China to convince advertisers that running campaigns across multiple platforms can improve engagement.

Keller Fay said it will monitor the buzz Olympic advertisers are able to generate with their campaigns by using "a projectable sample of more than 8,000 consumers ages 13-69."

NBCU's move follows similar efforts by CNN and ESPN. A CNN study reportedly looked at the Lexus brand and determined that people who saw ads for the vehicles on multiple platforms were four times more likely to discuss Lexus than the general population. ESPN, in turn, found its football broadcasts prompted considerable conversation about the advertisers in them.

Keller Fay said its research has "illustrated" that positive word-of-mouth can yield "higher levels of 'buy/try' recommendations and can help increase purchase intent."

Ed Keller, CEO of the agency, states that the Olympic research will serve as a "new tool for advertisers to gain a fuller understanding of the viral impact of their Olympics investment."

Post-Vancouver, he says marketers may be able to use the research to gauge the value of an Olympic sponsorship.