Ed Keller

Insights to help marketers create more effective connections with Creators to grow their business

On a range of important dimensions, consumers are far more excited by brand experiences than traditional advertising. They consider brand experiences to be more likeable, unique and exciting. This is not a niche audience we are talking about: 80% of Americans have engaged (18%) or are interested in engaging (62%) with brand experiences, and this interest is high across all age cohorts.

But wait ... there's more!

I have now dug deeper into the data and discovered that the group… Show more

On a range of important dimensions, consumers are far more excited by brand experiences than traditional advertising. They consider brand experiences to be more likeable, unique and exciting. This is not a niche audience we are talking about: 80% of Americans have engaged (18%) or are interested in engaging (62%) with brand experiences, and this interest is high across all age cohorts.

But wait ... there's more!

I have now dug deeper into the data and discovered that the group that is the most engaged with brand experiences is the segment that many marketers most covet -– consumer influentials (or what Reach3 and I have dubbed InfluenXials). These are not the paid influencers with huge followings on YouTube or Instagram, but everyday influencers -- the ones who organically share recommendations with friends and family. They do so sometimes online and other times offline, but either way their recommendations are highly valued. Show less

"Are you experienced?" asked rock legend Jimi Hendrix. Today the question for marketers is, are brand experiences part of your marketing mix? If not, they should be! According to new research, consumers are far more excited by brand experiences on a range of important dimensions than traditional advertising.

It’s time to pass the mantel of "the one number you need to know to grow" from the Net Promoter Score (NPS) to a new metric – Share of Search (SOS).

Share of Search is proven to be highly correlated with and predictive of market share. And whereas the NPS touted the benefits of a single survey question, Share of Search is even simpler – no surveys are required. And it is ‘always on.’

Generating “buzz” is a marketing objective for many Super Bowl advertisers, but “buzz” as
a campaign objective should not be limited to big tent-pole events like the Super Bowl.
It should be a key objective for all advertising. Fifteen years ago, researchers estimated
word-of-mouth (WOM) could triple the value of advertising through a “ripple effect”
(Hogan, Lemon, and Libai, 2004). The current study confirms the theory that there is
a close and valuable relationship between… Show more

Generating “buzz” is a marketing objective for many Super Bowl advertisers, but “buzz” as
a campaign objective should not be limited to big tent-pole events like the Super Bowl.
It should be a key objective for all advertising. Fifteen years ago, researchers estimated
word-of-mouth (WOM) could triple the value of advertising through a “ripple effect”
(Hogan, Lemon, and Libai, 2004). The current study confirms the theory that there is
a close and valuable relationship between WOM and advertising success, and it further
examines that relationship as a reason to make it a campaign objective and a key part of
the measurement of advertisement performance. Show less

Marketers are increasingly focused on social marketing, encouraging consumers to share content as well as recommendations, seeking more emphasis on consumer “expressions” and not just “impressions.” But how should expressions be achieved and measured? The authors argue for a holistic approach, one which recognizes that consumer expressions occur most often face-to-face and are not primarily the purview of online social media. Given research that demonstrates a powerful relationship between… Show more

Marketers are increasingly focused on social marketing, encouraging consumers to share content as well as recommendations, seeking more emphasis on consumer “expressions” and not just “impressions.” But how should expressions be achieved and measured? The authors argue for a holistic approach, one which recognizes that consumer expressions occur most often face-to-face and are not primarily the purview of online social media. Given research that demonstrates a powerful relationship between word-of-mouth and paid advertising, the authors suggest the need for a new advertising model, one in which a key goal of the ad is to foster conversation; the conversation then persuades the prospect, which leads to purchase. Show less

Word of mouth (WOM) is now widely believed to help drive consumer decision making. What has not been as widely discussed is the relationship between advertising and WOM. New empirical data collected by the authors over a three-year period show that 20 percent of WOM discussions refer to paid advertising in media. Further, the research finds that conversations that are “advertising influenced” in this way are significantly more likely to involve recommendations to buy or try a brand when… Show more

Word of mouth (WOM) is now widely believed to help drive consumer decision making. What has not been as widely discussed is the relationship between advertising and WOM. New empirical data collected by the authors over a three-year period show that 20 percent of WOM discussions refer to paid advertising in media. Further, the research finds that conversations that are “advertising influenced” in this way are significantly more likely to involve recommendations to buy or try a brand when compared with other WOM discussions about brands. These findings hold across a wide range of product categories. Show less

As demand for word of mouth has grown, so has the need for insight into how influencers stimulate demand, say Ed Keller and Brad Fay, Keller Fay Group