• by Larissa Faw , October 31, 2017

In an attempt to understand the sprawling online world of content, Y&R's brand consultancy BAV Group is introducing BAVSocial, a new model that combines the group's analytics with filtered social-media chatter and engagement.

The New York-based team will be led by Kyle Boots as director, social analytics, reporting to Michael Sussman, CEO, BAV Group. The shop will also create teams from existing BAV staff across Y&R's network to better serve international clients.

BAVSocial was developed in partnership with data providers, including IBM Watson, Pulsar and Crimson Hexagon. It employs IBM Watson machine-learning algorithms to improve conversation targeting.

"We wanted to go beyond social listening and challenge established measures like positive sentiment, for example, which we found is less significant to long-term brand building and financial impact than industry practice suggests," says Boots.

Sussman adds, "Most traditional social listening passively pipelines data and stops there." This model, by contrast, measures real-time conversation and engagement across social communities, blogs, news, forums, and search patterns. These metrics are then linked to BAV's 'BrandAsset Valuator' database of consumer brand perceptions.

“BAVSocial takes everything we know about a brand’s equity and links it to what we know about a brand in the social universe," he says.

The model is first launching in North America and Europe before eventually rolling out globally.