Looking to cement an effort around the integration of online social media and offline word-of-mouth marketing data, a new partnership has formed among three companies -- Analytic
Partners, Keller Fay Group and Converseon. The partnership combines offline word-of-mouth research and online social media data.Some initial findings of this combined
effort were released in November 2014, sponsored by Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) in partnership with several major brands, including AT&T, Discovery Communications, Intuit, PepsiCo
and Weight Watchers.The effort focuses on categories including telecommunications, food, beverage, software, personal services and television through online and offline consumer
conversations and recommendations.
Among the findings, the results revealed that on average, word of mouth drives 13% of consumer sales (or an estimated $6 trillion annually in the U.S.), and
can significantly amplify paid media/marketing. Also, that word-of-mouth, in higher price-point sales, resulted up to 20% of sales.
“Word of mouth is an area that begs for more
deliberate decision making and planning from marketers, as it works hand-in-glove with paid media,” stated Analytic Partners president Nancy Smith. “We now have in place the techniques and
know-how to measure the impact of all forms of word of mouth.”