Traditionally, marketers think of outcomes like they think of the weather – you sit back and see what happens.  Suffering from the lack of true and authentic knowledge of their audiences, or any provision for real-time data or analytics, they are consigned to a passive role: spend money and hope it creates the intended outcome. Well “hope” isn’t a strategy.

Not so with Social Media.  With Social, there is no passive tense.  Social media allows the marketer to jump into the fray and to CREATE outcomes instead of being a victim.

Take for instance the example of TV.  In the traditional model, media buyers would buy spots, ensure that the commercials ran, and then get feedback on their reception 3 months after the fact.  Furthermore, the feedback they got was not particularly nuanced.  So if change was in order, they had to employ their best guesswork based on 3 months of retroactive data to tweak and hone.  Then, another “Hail Mary” pass resulting in hope becoming the marketer’s best friend.

Today, the opportunity to make the switch from hope to strategy abounds.  With over a billion people offering opinions and discussing their likes and dislikes on the social web, marketers have an incredible opportunity to understand their audiences in real-time and to use this data to make instantaneous data-driven decisions across a host of areas from; new product development, creative messaging, campaign development, TV buying, digital media buying, keyword buying, content creation and the list goes on and on.  With the data, smart marketers can make mid-stream changes to the expressed interests and attitudes of their target audience.  At the heart of this is technology and an interpretation methodology that offers deep insights and takes the guesswork out of marketing.

Passivity is anathema to today’s marketer, brand manager, media buyer/planner, advertiser, and content creator.  Real time-data-driven decisions allow for the industry to get on its front foot and create more engagement and dynamic outcomes.

Let’s be clear.  Most people who write on social media outlets don’t do so just for the sake of doing it.  Some might, but the vast majority of people who share content, post comments, or offer sentiments and opinions online do so because they are in what Andrew Jeavons of Survey Analytics calls “the point of emotion.”  In other words, they are emotionally invested in the product, service or experience about which they are opining.

As Jeavons points out, most feedback is conducted via traditional methods that suffer from huge structural deficits.

1. Surveys – break-down for four reasons:  they are episodic, have limited sample-sizes, the answers are effected by the way the questions are posed, and because they rely on the concept of “recall.”  And recall is imperfect because it asks a person to offer information on a past event outside of the context and situation in which he or she experienced it.
2. Focus Groups – are skewed in three ways:  small sample sizes, self-selection population, and the dreaded “decibel rule’ – the loudest person in the room wins.  They are not real-time or data driven and they don’t parse their findings with the objective use of technology.

It appears to us that companies that make million-dollar decisions on this kind of “static” data are doing themselves a disservice.  We believe they should be using more authentic and real-time data in order to make data-driven decisions.

That is exactly why Social Media is so special, so different.  Because with Social Media, people become “micro-authors” when and where it matters.  Instead of a laborious production process, Social Media reduces the distance between the production and consumption of opinions; in fact, it even obliterates it.

In some contexts emotions are considered bad.  But if you truly want to know what consumers really think and want to be able to predict how they might behave, find them at the point of emotion.  Very likely that means you’ll find them on Social Media.

The opportunity is yours for the taking!  What you really need is real-time data, gathered and interpreted by smart technology and then put into practice by a team who now understands your customers’ REAL attitudes and interests.

No doubt about it. If you want to use the Internet to find something very specific, keyword search is a great place to start. But if you want to learn what you don’t know about customers and use that newfound customer intelligence to improve your company’s marketing efforts, I can promise you that keyword search falls flat. Why?

In Networked Insights latest report, “Thematic discovery: What every marketer — and marketing technologist — should know,” we explore three key reasons (pun intended) why search isn’t all things to all marketers. Then we introduce an alternative: thematic discovery.

Thematic discovery is an exciting new approach to social media data analysis — a marketer’s dream. It provides a highly accurate, authentic view of topics that people are engaged in through social media. It helps identify relationships between themes that may not have an obvious connection, how the themes correlate, and where people are likely to be talking about them simultaneously.

Learn more about how this information can help you develop media plans, choose celebrities to endorse products, and tap into the diverse interests of their target markets. Take a look at our report for a revolutionary new approach to social media data analysis.

Quarterly and annual reviews provide some idea of how the money is being spent, and frequency, reach, target rating points, media impressions and clip counting are among the longstanding measures of marketing effectiveness. But these are becoming less and less informative as the world moves at Internet speed.

Now CMOs can create the same level of visibility into their marketing spend that other operational areas have done for years. The efficiency of marketing – especially spending on advertising – can be improved by analyzing customer “conversations” carried out across social networks and other channels. Advanced techniques and capabilities are available now to capture the pulse of the marketplace as never before.

Armed with this information, CMOs can work with their CFOs more closely to identify — really, for the first time — the minimal effective amount of spending needed to drive the greatest market awareness. This new form of “marketing intelligence” can dramatically reduce “spray and pray” spending and contribute more effectively to earnings per share improvement. In this way, both CMOs and CFOs will understand and track — with far greater accuracy — marketing’s accretive value to the enterprise and shareholders.

Download our new report to learn about the emerging role of social media analysis.

Food lovers everywhere are drooling with delight that Hidden Valley Ranch, America’s best-selling salad dressing, has released a “new thicker, creamier version” of its popular dressing. In an attempt to dominate our tables and take market share away from Heinz Tomato Ketchup, Hidden Valley has launched a new campaign calling the condiment “the new ketchup”, a topping and dip for everything.

With 15% of ranch dressing used on foods other than salad and vegetables we thought we’d take a deeper dive and examine the expressions of ranch dressing lovers from across the social web. We put our conclusions together in two fun lists, 10 food items people like to dip in ranch dressing, and five ranch flavored foods people love.

Top 10 Foods to use Ranch Dressing

1. Pizza
2. Buffalo Wings
3. Salad
4. Fried Chicken and Chicken Fingers
5. Hot Dogs
6. Chicken Wraps
7. Carrots
8. Pizza Rolls
9. Celery Stick
10. Broccoli

Top 5 Ranch Flavored Foods

1. Doritos Cool Ranch
2. Baked Lays
3. Ranch Sunflower Seeds
4. Pringles
5. Corn Nuts

Finally, we can’t talk about Ranch Dressing without thinking about Melissa McCarthy’s Saturday Night Live skit where she plays a disturbingly obsessive fan of Hidden Valley products.

Returning in ABC’s latest comedy, Don’t Trust the B— in Apt. 23, James Van Der Beek is finally returning to TV as a meta version of himself – a post-modern Dawson to be exact, one who is challenged at actually being James. Confusing? Yes, but no less confusing than the title of the show that has undergone several transformations and successfully shares its Twitter handle “@Apt23” with frequent  instructions of where to find a house party.

However with that aside, Apartment 23 represents the last of the new shows promised at the 2011 Upfronts. It also represents the latest socialTV experiment, having released the first two episodes of the series early online. While there have been numerous shows this season (Awake, Smash, and Once Upon a Time to name a few) that have premiered early online, they have all performed with mixed results. As we saw with these other shows (namely Awake), early pilot releases garner lots of positive buzz, new Facebook Fans, and Twitter followers for the show, but rarely guarantee long-term success. This is partially due to the lack of sync between the live-TV consumer and the digital-consumer which is often apparent when using traditional GRPs as a performance metric instead of social alternatives (like the Social Index, # of Twitter followers, etc.). Still according to pre-premiere conversations, Apartment 23 seems doomed to being marginally successful with social viewers, due to its placement at the end of a lackluster TV season, and right before the summer, it’s going to struggle with GRPs regardless of fans.

This struggle, however life threatening to the show’s renewal, still offers many opportunities for brands and networks to unlock the hidden value within this program. As noted in the image below, we can see that the show’s audience skews older, female, and more affluent. This aligns a bit with the fact that it has been over 10 years since Dawson’s Creek was first on the air and those original fans have aged and matured in their lifestyles.

Another thing to note in this slide is that while all social channels are active when new episodes premiere, Twitter is the real connective tissue that keeps conversations flowing from one episode to the next. While some reports may have you believe that this is a normal behavior, Twitter conversations don’t always flow between episodes. Tweeters demand constant stimuli to keep them interested in a particular topic so more often than not slow-burning forums and blogs tend to be the connective tissue. If we’re seeing Twitter as the dominant consistent channel, then that means there is somebody stoking the fires on Twitter between episodes. As far as the overall conversation goes, the discussions trend positively and in favor of the show in general:

What is more fascinating are the visualizations of these conversations:

The illustration above identifies that James Van Der Beek has the largest single cluster of conversation. It also indicates that within the Apartment 23 conversations there are those who watched the episodes online early and enjoyed them (top right hand corner), and those who are just mentioning the show’s name within a larger discussion of ABC’s show lineup (bottom left hand corner). Minus the Krysten Ritter conversations that are helping to connect the two conversation clusters together, it appears at this point there are still more conversations originating from people that have yet to watch the pilot.

From all of this information (the demographics, the location of where these conversations are occurring and the level of interest behind them) we are able to craft a unique image of the Apartment 23 audience. Through this image we are then able to analyze and ascertain what content (outside of Dawson clearly) that they engage with and what kind of content they resonate with. Examples of this content can range from celebrities, to musicians, brands, and even other TV shows. For this particular audience we discovered that over the last 30 days, some of the top content that resonated with them included actor James Franco, listening to the new The Black Keys album, shopping at Target, and being  fans of Modern Family.

Yesterday was a rough day for the avid supporters of Rick Santorum as he officially announced the end of his presidential campaign. While he certainly had his fair share of social supporters, the majority of conversations involving Santorum, particularly on Twitter, skewed negatively and sarcastically (mind you this is of course not a new observation). So even though political topics are not our primary interest here at Networked Insights, since a lot of our clients don’t build political campaigns into their media plans, we can’t say no when asked to use our tools and expertise to present some real-time insights behind cultural events and social trends.

Below is a quick summary of Twitter’s reaction to Santorum’s announcement:

One of the more interesting insights to take away from this is that while the conversation built up and then directly collapsed following the official televised speech, the majority of tweeters did not indicate any interest in actually watching the presentation.

To read more about these social reactions check out Emily Steel’s article at the Wall Street Journal.

With the first of the three Social TV Summits occurring this year having just wrapped itself up, this is a great point in which to reflect upon the atmosphere of the eco-system and the highlights from this particular experience.

While occurring simultaneously with NBCUniversal’s Social TV Symposium, Social TV Summit San Francisco clearly adapted a certain culture from its surroundings as it was by far the tech-heaviest SocialTV event of the year. This was clearly due to the proximity of the tech-driven valley next to the classic Bentley Reserve building that the event was being held in. This particular Social TV Summit was also unique in the wide-diversity of individuals with 20+ years of experience in television content, to hardened road warriors of the SocialTV circuit, to serial entrepreneurs, and to first-timers eagerly trying to sell their product.  The common factor found in all of these individuals is abundant positivism that this space will continue to grow and evolve in a unique and fascinating. This of course is not to say that there wasn’t a palatable undertone that if some of these companies (particularly those in the ever-expanding second screen space) disappeared before the end of the year, we should not be surprised. However I’ve never seen a SocialTV space with so many deals and partnerships being completed in the quiet corners of the conference.

Led by conference veterans Andy Batkin and Jack Myers, this particular Social TV Summit did manage to have a unique panel for almost every facet of what falls under the greater SocialTV umbrella. The following is the key takeaways from each segment:

Keynote with Erik Martin from Reddit.com

While the topline discussion was about his own role in helping Reddit.com oppose the “Stop Online Piracy Act”, Erik is at the same time passionately arguing for the validity and strength of the Reddit.com community. A public space that was frequently overshadowed in the media by communities like Facebook and Twitter until these recent protests. Their success in helping to suppress the SOPA act should indicate to the larger SocialTV eco-system the importance of non-Twitter communities when understanding the overall social viewpoint on topics.

Silicon Valley Executive Roundtable

Introducing a dynamic representation of individuals representing some of the biggest names in tech over the last decade (Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, MySpace, and AOL), it is always interesting to see where these guys are heading. Pete Thompson at Microsoft, represented their recent plan to reposition the Xbox away from being a gaming console and into a full content delivery platform. Janet Balis at AOL candidly discussed how their Huffington Post is about to become their own streaming digital video news platform, and Adam Cahan formally of Into_Now and currently representing Yahoo! made sure to lace the conversation with some intriguing directional thoughts.

The Second Screen Panel

Showcasing their products to the audience one by one, the conversation finally got interesting once they all had to discuss their viewpoint on the direction of the second screen experience and consolidation of that marketplace. Who’ll be returning for the next summit, and especially for next year, is always an interesting debate.

SocialTV Data

Led by the charming Mashable executive, Stacy Green who inquired how many of us had actually watched Downton Abbey on PBS, the most competitive panel of the day challenged many preconceptions of the role of the brand, fan, and network in the future of TV. This is for many reasons the space to continue to watch evolve.

Keynote with Christy Tanner, TVGuide.com

While this is the second time (the first being at TVNEXT) I’ve seen Christy present her research on TV fan behavior, I think she gets better and looks like she’s having more fun with each appearance.

Hanging out with Venture Capitalists

This was one of the more unusual panels to see, and definitely made sense to hold with the strong VC-supported tech scene in San Francisco. This was also the panel that you could tell everyone was listening to in hopes that they can one day use those learning’s to unlock some funding.

The Media Industry’s Viewpoint

Hosted by a digital spiritualist, Khris Loux of Echo, this panel was passionate to the core. Jason Hoch, the current SVP of digital at World Wrestling Entertainment (and formally of Discovery Communications), read off examples of recent campaigns that though simply listening he was able to harness the WWE fans and double the activity on their owned properties. Laurel Bernard, EVP at FOX Broadcasting, also walked us through their various examples of enriching their fan experiences, which tended to be fairly Facebook heavy. Elizabeth Shaw, analyst at Forrester Research, rounded out the panel by bringing the debate around creating ROI back to a common level for the entire room.

The Brands and Agencies Roundtable

Andrea Harrison, the Director of digital engagement for Pepsico, was the stand out star on this panel. She clearly proved how having a strong passion for digital and loving to adapt frequently to the newest technologies can help drive successful engagements with fans, particularly with creating spaces that they feel comfortable participating within.

Don’t have a Don Draper? No problem. Social data can inform you on who’s your real star.

It’s incredibly common with TV shows, particularly comedies, to have one of the supporting characters be more popular than the lead. A classic example of this would be Kramer (Michael Richards) from Seinfeld, and a contemporary example would be Barney Stinson (Neil Patrick Harris) from How I Met Your Mother. Using social data we can see that on average every episode Barney has 20-30% more social conversations about him than the lead character Ted (played by Josh Radner). Insights like that can help direct creative decisions to highlight which stars to bring out and which ones to possibly bury in order to please fans. These insights would also traditionally be costly and slow to gather (through focus groups and surveys), and the decisions were often times made upon gut feelings. Through a product we call Content Sync, we’re able to inform in real-time using social data how to better align with your show’s audiences in order to better retain and grow them. In the meantime Don Draper needs to watch out for Roger Sterling, because in the recent premiere of the fifth season of Mad Men, Roger was considered by many as the humorous anchor of the episode.

Got Community? NBC does, and social data can help better monetize SocialTV fans.

Recently ending its forced hiatus, NBC’s Community is back on the air and social fans could not be more excited. A lot of the buzz can be attributed to the cast and crew (particularly Alison Brie) actively participating in social channels in order to galvanize fans in to action with the message “#6SeasonsAndAMovie.” Now while Community might not last as long as fans would love it to there are many current opportunities to use real-time data to better leverage the socialness of these fans. With Audience Sync we’re able to inform networks on what other content those fans are engaging with and what kind of content is resonating with them. For example fans of Alison Brie trends towards being predominately male and are also primarily comprised of gamers, comic book collectors, UFC and NCAA fans, and anti-SOPA supporters. Some of the brands important to them are Bioware, Image Comics, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Real-time social data and a product we call Audience Sync also allow for opportunities to unlock audiences on more ad/brand restricted programming like Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones by allowing marketers to reach those fans through other overlapping content (hint: like Community).

New show with a small budget? How social data can get you HBO quality marketing without HBO’s budget.

Not every program has the advantage of a big marketing budget like Game of Thrones does behind its launch, but every program does have the opportunity to make their marketing spend more efficient and their launch just as successful. Through Media Sync we’re able to tap into real-time consumer data to evaluate and validate current media buys, brand integrations, celebrity endorsements, and digital ad placement. In regards to launching a new program, a product we call Media Sync is able to identify the programming that best syncs with your target audience and can discern between programming that may have the same baseline GRPs, but have much higher social value. On the digital side, social data can also provide insights into communities and can inform, for example, whether gamifying exclusive access to a show’s pilot (like the “Decryption Lab” for Showtime’s Homeland) will be more successful than just distributing it early to a digital content distributor like Hulu (recent examples of this would be NBC’s early release of Smash and Awake). Bottom-line is if your budget is small use social data to pre-inform decisions to avoid spending money on mass-marketed content that doesn’t resonate with your target audience.

How helpful are social media conversations in identifying a TV program’s brand affinity and audience segments? Judging from what we’re reporting in Networked Insights’ Social TV Insights Spring 2012 eBook, I’d say the answer is “very.”

The eBook, Maximize Advertising Campaigns with Social TV Audience Insights, provides a look at the themes and interests that are generating social media conversation around some of TV’s top shows. For example, fans of “The Voice” are sharing wedding plans and discussing which retailers offer the best wedding registries. “Revenge” fans are escaping the high intrigue of The Hamptons with family-friendly trips to Disneyland and Disney World. Home ownership and furniture shopping have captured the attention of viewers tuning into the angst and antics of the 30-somethings on “How I Met Your Mother.”

The eBook highlights how using social data can unlock the potential of ad campaigns, maximize the performance of ad inventory, and uncover hidden value in dayparts. Sound interesting? Download the eBook today.

As fans of the movie Talladega Nights would know, stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in the Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads.

The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 largely dried up their business and today NASCAR is the largest sanctioning body of stock car racing in the United States.

The audience that follows NASCAR racing is a very loyal bunch of followers that average over 30 Million, which is on par with many sporting events such as the Stanley Cup, the World Series, and the NBA Championship.

But when we think about the advertisers to that audience its mostly CPG brands: Skoal, Budweiser, MillerCoors and M&Ms or more Retailer brands such as: Home Depot, DuPont, Caterpillar, BF Goodwrench and Lowes.

So we thought it would be interesting to track and analyze the social data surrounding NASCAR over the last 30 days in order to reveal audiences segments that are under loved by brands. And then we took it a step further to suggest brands that should be advertising that aren’t on NASCAR by looking at what else that exact audience talks about.

As expected what we found in the social data was quite interesting. The audience beyond the NASCAR sports fans actually ranked well with one of our audiences that we call “Fashionistas” this audience has a great interest in fashion and they love finding ways to get fashionable brands for less. Next most popular audience was the TV Fanatics, which seems reasonable to us, perhaps MTV or USA Networks could have their own car. Home Owners was obvious since may home owner brands already advertise on NASCAR. However the Consumer Electronics audience was a bit of a surprise to us. Our thoughts ran wild thinking of the Samsung Galaxy II car or an Apple iPhone car. And then Millenials and Gamers were the next most popular audiences. And brands like Monster headphones and World of Warcraft we big with those audiences.

The point being for a brand like NASCAR that has such broad appeal – using a stereotype for an audience description can be inaccurate. Pockets of highly engaged fans that could make great targets for some brands will be overlooked. For NASCAR this is a lost revenue opportunity and for brands this is a lost awareness opportunity.

February has been a stellar month for Networked Insights. Our success has only been achievable through the support of marketers who are uncovering the value of social media data analytics. This month’s highlights include:

• Networked Insights named one of The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company
• CEO Dan Neely spoke at Social Media Week 2012 >> Watch it now!
  
• Unprecedented media coverage of our brand analysis of Super Bowl XLVI commercials

This week Jason Kapler and Sean Reckwerdt are representing Networked Insights at the Gravity Summit and TV Goes Social Conference in Los Angeles. Our resident social TV team is excited to share how networks and content creators are using social data to open a real-time window into audiences. The voice of the viewer as expressed in social media is informing development, production, and marketing around long-form content for broadcast.

Before they headed to the airport, we asked Jason and Sean to each share a shortlist of thought leaders they’re most excited to connect with at this year’s event.

Sean Reckwerdt’s Top 5 at Gravity Summit

1. Ann Glenn, Social Media Manager, Sony Imageworks

2. Matt Meeks, VP Audience Engagement, Warner Bros Television

3. Derek I. Smith, VP Operations, Fox Filmed Entertainment

4. Shira Lazar, Creator and Host of What’s Trending

5. Joel Price, Social Media Manager, San Diego Chargers

Jason Kapler’s Top 5 at TV Goes Social

1. Jacob Shwirtz, Social Viewing, MTV Networks

2. Hardie Tankersley, Vice President, Online Content, Fox Broadcasting

3. Rick Liebling, Creative Culturalist, Young & Rubicam

4. Nick Demartino, Nick Demartino Consulting

5. Andrew Wallenstein, TV Editor, Variety

Want to see more of Networked Insights talking Social TV?

Watch CEO Dan Neely’s presentation at this year’s Social Media Week.

Dan Neely at SMW12

Last week Networked Insights CEO Dan Neely spoke at KIT Digital’s “My Social TV App Thinks I’m My Dad: Privacy Issues In The Age of Convergence” during February’s Social Media Week in New York. Moderated by Digiday writer Jack Marshall, the panel also included Alan Wolk from KIT Digital, Mike Sommers of Viggle, Jim Spare represented GoMiso and Mike Monello of Campfire.

The lively conversation covered topics such as social TV, second screen apps, content creation, and social data. With strong points of view expressed on behalf of networks, advertisers, and audience no clear consensus was expressed which underscores the exciting ambiguity that comes with disruptive technologies and consumer behaviors.

Watch the Social Media Week panel on-demand now >>

I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that today; Networked Insights was named one of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies in 2012 by Fast Company. The editorial team at Fast Company evaluated information on thousands of businesses across the globe to create the World’s Most Innovative Companies issue, which features Networked Insights in the #39 spot of the top 50! The editors also broke out several of the most innovative industries and listed us in the #3 spot in advertising which is a signal to me that the market is really valuing real-time data analytics and strategic planning when it comes to advertising. Moreover, we appeared ahead of top brands such as Klout, Buddy Media, Target and Wieden+Kennedy.

I am also honored to have Networked Insights be recognized among some of the world’s leading innovators in the field of advertising and beyond. To be on the same list as advertising and industry giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google is a testament to the power that real-time social analytics is having in today’s changing marketplace. We are proud to be leading the charge in harnessing the power of big data to help companies make smarter decisions with their media dollars every day.

Fast Company picked up on the fact that 2011 was a “big year” for Networked Insights. The publication also called out major wins, including the company’s campaign for MTV’s Teen Wolf, Kraft’s Oscar Meyer Select and a $20 million investment from Goldman Sachs.

Our analytical platform uses advanced discovery analytics to deliver marketing and media recommendations to clients that allow them to better plan and optimize their advertising spend, delivering at least 10% efficiency on their media investments.

You can check out the rest of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies issue (March 2012) which will be on newsstands beginning February 21 or online at www.fastcompany.com/MIC.

Ford was the most talked about automotive brand in the Moms Audience, during the month of January, with just under a quarter of the conversation (24.4%). Since the beginning of January, posts increased 11%.  Positive sentiment for Ford has decreased noticeably during the past thirty days, dropping to 38% positive, from 51%. Even with the decrease in positive sentiment, words such as love, great, good and nice were still common.  Honda (22.8%) and Chevrolet (14.4%) finished up the Top 3.

January’s Insight on the Move was Britax, the car seat and stroller manufacturer, with an increase in conversation of 75%.  Positive sentiment for the brand remains high, at 35%, dropping slightly from 38% in December.  Consumers readily used words such as love, good, great and easy to describe their Britax products. Britax edged out other children’s brands Graco (22.4%) and Gerber (20.9%), to be the most talked about children’s brand in January.

The most talked about homes store during the month of January in the moms audience was IKEA with almost half of the conversation (46.5%). Lowe’s and Home Depot rounded up the top three stores in this space, with 22.2% and 14.8% of the conversation respectively. Overall, IKEA conversations have increased 45% during the past month. Positive sentiment for the brand has remained high at 32%, and words such as love, great, good and awesome were common, often used to describe various pieces of furniture purchased.

Tide was the most talked about laundry detergent within the moms audience since the beginning of January, with 47.2% of the conversation. The two nearest competitors were Dreft and Method, each with 11% of the conversation. While Tide chatter has dropped 13% the past month, positive chatter has held constant at 30%, and words such as great, good and safe were common. The single most talked about clothing item associated with Tide was diapers.

Grocery store Kroger is an Insight on the Move with a 53% increase in conversation during the month of January.  Currently Kroger is the second most talked about grocery store with 23.5% of the conversation, following organic favorite Whole Foods with 32.3% of the chatter.  For the past 30 days, Kroger conversations focused on coupons, mostly for formula and organic items. At the same time Kroger was most frequently compared to Wal-Mart, Walgreens and Target.

This data was collected using our SocialSense Audiences product. SocialSense Audiences is an analytical platform designed to deliver fast, high-quality insights around specific vertical markets and audiences.

We started by pulling in over 11k tweets/min 30 min before the superbowl – what follows is our real-time analysis of the Super Bowl advertising effectiveness:

The Giants used “In the Air” tonight for their pre-game video montage, and the sentiment around that trended negatively

Fans still think that Faith Hill is still beautiful, but her silver pants are the best part

Jack in the Box bought a promoted tweet about bacon which spams over the “Ronald McDonald House” tweets

First Hyundai ad (using the Rocky theme) was “meh” was SuperBowl viewers

Audi’s vampires didn’t suck with sb viewers. Har har

Hyundai’s “cheetah” manages to capture it’s prey…

Elton John was meh (did he use his own personal outfit?), but Flavor Flav had some viewer loving

Bud Light Platinum ads aren’t doing so well with viewers. Maybe Crystal Pepsi should make a comeback

Chevy’s anti-Ford, Silverado was a hit with viewers, but Twinkies looks to be the bigger winner. #survivor

Godaddy never fails to disappoint viewers, and the first #crashthesuperbowl Doritos ad is trending positively with viewers

Chevy ads are scoring big with social viewers so far

Taxact was a “meh” with viewers, and Budweiser’s making their best moves inside of a GE ad

Salsa fans are getting hungry for some more moves #victorcruze

#Gooooooooal, viewers are digging Beckham’s moves, but H&M who?

#Transformers what? No wait it’s Battleship – viewers are confused about the trailers. FYI John Carter of Mars is not Avatar 2

Can you say #Shazam ? Viewers really liked the song in the Chevy Sonic, but the ad went splat

#Skechers is running for the endzone, and Cars.com is right behind it, but viewers aren’t sure why they like it. Teleflora could’ve really used Beckham though

The local ad break is pretty weak

LMFAO’s rep went up with their appearance, but the non-Madonna viewers aren’t as keen. #madonna

Was college student style slack-lining the best Cirque du Soleil has to contribute? #madonna

Viewers are buzzing about Clint Eastwood’s PSA on Detroit, oh wait I meant Chrysler ad… once again Chrysler manages to earn goodwill for its brand but doesn’t earn the big  mentions

The Internet’s love affair with Betty White is helping to lift up #TheVoice ‘s conversation in a big way

Viewers think that Nicki Minaj and MIA should dump Madonna and do a collaboration album

#Dannon did well, but like H&M  #JohnStamos is the big winners 

Is #Leno the new #Neuman or #BettyWhite ? Acura and the Soup Nazi are the big winners with social viewers

#Century21 did ok, but not the largest conversation so far

Social viewers are making some interesting observations about how racially sensitive Budweiser’s “historical” ads are. 

As predicted #Voltron won it for the #metlife ad #ThisIsHowYouMeasureDemographics 

#Honda ‘s doing well with viewers, but there’s quite a few that would argue that a #CR-V is no #Ferrari … 

#BudLight ‘s attempt to “help rescue dogs” is getting some mixed results with viewers #MakeDogSlaveryIllegal #DoAsISayNotAsIDo 

The Darkness was a big win for Samsung, especially because people are actually associating the two together. I’m looking at you Beckham!

#Kia‘s ad with Adriana Lima and Motley Crue is doing ok with viewers but probably not the break-out hit they were hoping for. #Teleflora might have hurt them a bit by showing off Adriana first 

The ATS is probably a smooth ride, but viewer reactions to Cadillac’s ad is a bit bumpy, and telling people to Green Hell isn’t helping. #superbowl #SocialTV

GoDaddy is still disappointing viewers and the Pussycat Dolls are not helping at all. #superbowl #socialTV

Harry Potter fans are all over the Awake trailer especially approving of playing #ShipsintheNight in the background #shazam 

History Channel’s Swamp People ad is getting some mixed reviews with viewers 

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Make Every Ad Perform Like a Super Bowl Ad

Every year the Super Bowl draws millions of viewers to what is arguably America’s grandest event. Along with the game itself, the spectacle encompasses both pre-game programming and the “lead-out” show that airs immediately following the post-game festivities. Media sellers promote the before and after slots to advertisers as valuable brand opportunities. However, for media buyers and brand managers, the benefits gained have to justify the costs.

One factor in determining whether such buys are worth it is knowing that you’re reaching your desired audience. But gathering audience intelligence beyond traditional demographics is an expensive and time-consuming process – an exercise that only adds cost to what is already the largest ad spend of the year.

One way to save money and still achieve optimum reach is to advertise on the lead-out show. While trending toward family-friendly programming, lead-out shows have historically retained a good share of viewers from the Super Bowl. Last year, the lead-out show was “Glee.” Two years ago, it was “Undercover Boss.” This year, it will be the first episode of a new season of “The Voice.”

“The Voice” was last summer’s breakout hit, largely because of its social TV integrations that connected all the judges, performers and viewers in a real-time feedback loop. This real-time conversation enabled many second-screen experiences for viewer interaction, on Twitter and beyond. At the same time, these experiences opened up even more opportunities for brands to integrate with and obtain significant reach.

Both in raw numbers and from a social media perspective, “The Voice” shows promise as a cost-effective opportunity. But is it in sync with your desired audience? Networked Insights’ Audience Sync uses proprietary real-time analytics and topic discovery tools to show you who is talking about your product or service across the entire social web. Audience Sync can also slice those same conversations in real time based on consumer traits, hobbies and behaviors, breaking audiences into segments such as “extreme gamers,” “moms” and “millennials.”

To demonstrate some of the counterintuitive insights this process can discover, we put “The Voice” through Audience Sync. The top results were predictable. TV fans identified as millennials and moms, particularly those who watch “American Idol,” contributed the largest share of conversations. Expectedly, both groups are target fans for “The Voice.” However, surprising conversations came from sports fans, not only of football but also tennis and NASCAR, as well as gamers. All of them like Cee Lo Green, one of the show’s judges.

Audience Sync offers many other opportunities to increase your knowledge in real time of how your audience behaves and interacts socially. This capability also allows you to optimize your strategies for buying (are you truly reaching who you want?) or selling (are there unexpected audiences that open the door to nonconventional brand sponsorships?). You can use this rich data to understand your online consumers. Or, if you don’t, your competitors will.

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Make Every Ad Perform Like a Super Bowl Ad

Many people consider the National Football League’s choice of Madonna to headline the 2012 Super Bowl Halftime Show as, well, curious. It’s been more than 20 years since the artist released her landmark albums “Like A Virgin,” “True Blue” and “Like a Prayer.” Of course, a lot of music fans think artists from the 80s are timeless. Just the same, we thought we’d explore which acts sports fans talk about most in social media to see if there might have been a better fit.

Audience analysis is a key, unique aspect of Networked Insights social media analytics. In this case, we created an audience based on the people talking about the Super Bowl across all social channels. By analyzing their comments, we were able to uncover the musical acts they most discussed. We also looked at conversations around Madonna to see how well sports fans received the news of her appearance.

Using our proprietary real-time analytics and topic discovery engine, we learned that the most desired halftime acts are performers famous for rocking the stadium, especially bands with a front man. The Foo Fighters were the unanimous top choice, with Hank Williams Jr., Tom Petty and Peter Frampton also mentioned.

Super Bowl fans were less than kind toward the Material Girl, however. Many feel Madonna is past her prime, and showcasing her is a desperate attempt to appeal to an older female audience. Of the posts we uncovered, the measurable sentiment was 41 percent negative in nature, while only 3 percent positive.

To avoid such blowback, Networked Insights uses Content Sync to help networks, brands and agencies leverage real-time data to better understand their target audiences. Staying in sync with your audience allows you to uncover trends and insights that can improve marketing decisions. Content Sync helps eliminate guesswork or gut-based decisions on product placement and celebrity endorsement by allowing your audience to drive decision making.

Had the NFL tapped its audience for insight into who should perform at halftime, the result would have been a halftime show that increased social buzz and viewership – in other words, a can’t miss, must-watch Super Bowl experience aligned with the desires of its target audience.

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Make Every Ad Perform Like a Super Bowl Ad

Now that we have the most boring sports weekend of 2012 out of the way (come on, who could stay awake for the Australian Open, and the Pro Bowl – really?), it’s time to crank up the Super Bowl hype. Advertisers are certainly obliging. Some are already previewing the game spots that they’ll be spending $3 million to air.

Feeling left out of the action because you can’t spring for that kind of scratch? Not to worry. Just a couple of clicks will take you to Networked Insights’ Media Optimization Guide, Super Bowl XLVI Edition, a treasure chest of ideas that can help you make every ad perform like a Super Bowl ad

Topics the guide covers include using real-time social data to understand your audiences and deliver them relevant content. We reveal how you can reach NFL fans without an NFL budget, and how you can overcome a media lockout. The guide also has tips on leveraging social data to understand a TV show’s audience before it airs. And, it takes a look at how you can improve your TV marketing with real-time audience intelligence.

The guide has some entertaining information on two aspects of the big event – the halftime show and the program that NBC airs immediately after the game – that are stories unto themselves. All I’ll say is with what we’ve been hearing ahead of Madonna’s appearance, I can’t wait for the social chatter as her performance grows nearer and once she hits the stage (prediction: it isn’t going to be all bouquets). And, if you’re doubting that The Voice is going to keep football fans tuned in postgame, you might be surprised by who’ll be rooting for Team Adam, Team Blake, Team Cee Lo and Team Christina.

Finally, throughout the guide you’ll find examples of how Networked Insights tools make all these insights possible – Audience Sync, to discover who is talking about your product or service across the entire social web; Content Sync, which taps real-time data to better understand target audiences; and Media Sync, which enables networks, brands and agencies to leverage real-time data to uncover where their audience is consuming media. Together, they provide a playbook for you to unleash Super Bowl-power advertising.

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Make Every Ad Perform Like a Super Bowl Ad