Socialmediaworx

As social media continues to grow and word of mouth strategies prove themselves to ever more critical, what is the relationship between traditional ad-buys and social media?

The latest report from Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Nielsen’s BASES research division suggests that the two go hand-in-hand, and that marketers that “treat traditional advertising and word of mouth management as two separate animals do so in error, since the two are so closely connected.”

From MediaWeek:

“Among 80 consumer packaged goods brands launched in 2005 and 2006 that Nielsen studied, the top 10 percent of products with the most buzz spend nearly $20 million in advertising. In contrast, the products that accounted for the bottom 50 percent of buzz generated spent roughly $5 million, or a quarter of what the most buzz-generating brands spent.

However, ad spending is not the only factor in play, found the report, as certain brands simply lend themselves to more buzz. Just 10 percent of the brands studied accounted for 85 percent of total buzz generated, indicating that select brands drove more than their share of interest. Nielsen said it discovered that over the counter drug brands - given consumers’ high involvment with them - along with brands with edgy image drove a disproportionate amount of buzz.”