A presentation entitled Integrated Social Media: Business Impact Study 2011, was given at the Advertising Research Foundation’s (ARF) AM 6.0 conference. The presentation explores the impact that social media has on sales. Presenters included Irfan Kamal- SVP, Digital/Social at Ogilvy & Dr. Walter Carl- Founder and Chief Research Officer at ChatThreads.

1. Integrated Social Media:
Business Impact Study 2011
Emerging Hot Topics Part I – #4
Irfan Kamal Dr. Walter Carl
SVP, Digital/Social Founder and Chief Research Officer
Ogilvy ChatThreads

2. The New, More Pointed Questions
Social is no longer an afterthought: It’s now
where many of our customers spend their time.
We need to plan budget allocations in
2011 and 2012 around concrete business goals.
To that end:
1. Can social media impact sales (spend / consumption)?
2. Which channel combinations are the most effective?
#ARFAM6

3. Situation
Can social media impact sales?
Two recent studies with conflicting results
– (+) Edison Research 2011: 24% of social network users cited
Facebook as an influencer of their purchase decisions
– (-) Forrester/GSI Commerce 2011: Social networks drove <1%
sales – based on directly traceable effect/referrer
#ARFAM6

4. Objectives
Evaluate the purchase impact of social media, by
itself, relative to and in conjunction with
other channels
Social media =
Facebook (brand page or feed item)
Twitter (brand handle or tweet)
Online video/Youtube or Facebook
Online rating/review
Blog
#ARFAM6

5. Methodology:
Overview
Category: Quick Service Restaurants (QSR), including the
following 5 brands: KFC, McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell,
Wendy’s (analysis was category and brand-specific)
Data (from ChatThreads BrandEncounter™ Platform):
Real-time capture of brand touchpoints reported via mobile
device (SMS) or Web browser companion button for 7 days,
surveys pre/post touchpoint tracking
Recruitment: Screened for recent QSR visits; active
on social media within the past week; QSR brand
fan/follower status
Participants: 404 participated on rolling 7-day basis,
submitting 5,623 touchpoints between 1/20/11 and 5/6/11
(2 staggered time periods)
#ARFAM6

6. BRANDS Findings Preview:
Significant Touchpoint Examples
Social media report examples:
FB BRAND FEED: “[Wendy‟s] face BLOG: People that love taco bell
book post on my wall the burger are just blogging at their experience
looks good – „Just a friendly there and people who work there
reminder that our burgers are are commenting on how much their
made with 100% pure ...‟” company is hiring because of the
need for jobs.
REVIEW: This person here FB FRIEND STATUS: “Friends
really loves KFC and goes been out at KFC and enjoyed a
there weekly. delicious meal.”
OOH report examples:
BILLBOARD: [McDonald‟s] great BILLBOARD:
billboards with a smiling face that [Subway] made me
spells out outrageous values want to buy it
#ARFAM6

7. Key Methodology Observations
To attempt to minimize the impact of
fans/followers who already spend more than
others, we looked specifically at the relationship
between touchpoint exposure and pre- and post-
changes in purchase (consumption, spend)
We looked at a short time frame (1 week) to focus
in on the immediate impact of the touchpoints
Only statistically significant (95% CI, p<0.05)
results are reported
#ARFAM6

8. Results Preview:
Exposure
#ARFAM6

9. Results: Exposure Volume
QSR Media Touchpoints
1.00
0.90
0.80
0.70
0.60
Index
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
TV ad Word of OOH Social PR Radio Online Print Search Website
mouth media (roll up) (roll up) (roll up)
(roll up) (roll up)
Source: ChatThreads BrandEncounter™ QSR Study. n = 5,623 touchpoint encounters. Participants n = 404. Q1-Q2 2011.
#ARFAM6

10. Results Preview:
Spend
#ARFAM6

11. Findings Preview: Does Social Media Impact
SPEND TREND?
YES. LIKELIHOOD OF A SPEND
INCREASE IS 1.5-7X*
EXPOSURE:
Social media (KFC) +7x
Social media + OOH (Category)… +1.5x
*Compared to people unexposed to these touchpoints
#ARFAM6

12. Findings Preview: Does Social Media Impact
SPEND AMOUNT?
YES. +17%
Social media + PR
(Category)
WEEKLY
SPEND
AMOUNT
#ARFAM6

13. Results Preview:
Consumption
#ARFAM6

14. Findings Preview: Does Social Media Impact
CONSUMPTION TREND?
YES. LIKELIHOOD OF A CONSUMPTION
INCREASE IS ~2X*
EXPOSURE:
Social media + TV ad (Wendy’s)… +2x
Social media + OOH (Category)… +1.5x
*Compared to people unexposed to these touchpoints
#ARFAM6

15. Findings Preview: Does Social Media Impact
CONSUMPTION FREQ?
UNCLEAR*.
?
7 DAY
CONSUMPTION
FREQUENCY
*Is the magnitude significant enough to be managerially important?
#ARFAM6

16. QSR Findings Preview Summary:
Social Media Purchase Impact
Social+PR Exposure
+17% increase in spend
(category)
Social+TV Exposure
2x greater likelihood of higher
consumption (Wendy’s)
EXPOSURE
Social only Exposure TV only Exposure
7x greater likelihood 3x greater
of higher spend (KFC) likelihood of higher
spend (Taco Bell)
Social+OOH Exposure
1.5x greater likelihood of higher
spend or consumption (category)
#ARFAM6

17. QSR Study Preview:
Conclusions
Social media, particularly when combined with
OOH, PR or TV exposure is associated with
significant purchase shifts across QSR
– +17% week-on-week spend amount increase
– ~2x higher likelihood of consumption increase week-on-week
– Multi-channel matters! Only 1 significant result by itself vs.
4 significant in combination with other channels
Relative to exposure, social media appears to
provide strong impact
– Evaluate driving purchase by increasing exposure to social +
OOH/PR/TV combinations
#ARFAM6

18. QSR Study Preview:
To Explore
Data across other industry sectors
Data across online or hybrid sectors (e.g. e-tail)
Data across extended time periods, to capture
longer-term effects (e.g. for TV ads)
Correlation with specific brand activities within
social media
Larger sample sizes to look at finer interactions
#ARFAM6

19. Thanks, and for More…
Irfan Kamal, irfan.kamal@ogilvy.com
twitter: @irfankamal
Dr. Walter Carl, walter@chatthreads.com
twitter: @ChatThreads
#ARFAM6

20. Appendix:
Data Collection
Detail
#ARFAM6

21. Data Collection Platform:
ChatThreads BrandEncounter™
Wendy’s
1 Visited brand’s
Participant records brand,
Facebook page
touchpoint and experience
3 via SMS or browser button. Very positive
Time/date is auto-stamped. 8:09 pm; 1/24/2011
400+ participants recruited through Geo-located.
3rd party proprietary community. Aberdeen, WA
4
Pictures of the touchpoint
can be added to record.
EVENTS
2
5
Participant encounters Participants can also add
a brand touchpoint. notes.
Consumers can record
any touchpoint including
social, TV, search, print,
online ads and OOH.
All brand touchpoints captured, including
social, TV, search, print, online ads, OOH (total of
21)
#ARFAM6