• Ad Age, Thursday, April 10, 2008 10:32 AM

Word-of-mouth--especially from family and friends--leads the pack in terms of influence on brand choice, but marketers still face a major challenge making it scalable, according to new data from Publicis media network ZenithOptimedia. As powerful as it may be, "we as an industry are not doing as good a job as we could do in generating it," says Bruce Goerlich, ZenithOptimedia's president of strategic resources, North America.

Consumer touchpoints were each given a "contact clout factor"--a number on a scale of 1 to 100 that indicates relative influence on purchasing. Recommendations from family and friends led the pack with an average score of 84. TV ads and Internet search were next, with an average score of 69 and 67, followed by magazine ads at 60, newspaper ads at 55, outdoor ads at 45, radio ads at 42, and Internet banner ads at 41.

The ROI tracker also measures brand association, or the percentage of consumers who say they have seen or heard of a brand though a touchpoint in recent months. TV is still king in this category with 22% of consumers recalling an ad.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »