Nielson Pees In The Social Media Kool-Aid With Their Recent Report

Here’s how the Advertising Age article, Want Online Buzz For Your New Product?, starts off:
“Want lots of word-of-mouth buzz behind a product launch? Your best bet may be a big ad campaign. That’s the somewhat ironic conclusion of the first mash-up of data from two Nielsen Co. properties – the Nielsen BuzzMetrics word-of-mouth measurement service and ACNielsen Bases, which tests new-product concepts with consumers… ‘Marketers haven’t really lost control of their brands just yet,’ said Rob Mooth, VP-product development at Bases. ‘What we found were that the products that get the most buzz were the ones that were paying for it. … Advertising agencies are probably more relevant than they’ve ever been for your business.’
So where does that leave Digital Marketing Agencies and all of us who are waxing poetic on the power of Social Media and Word of Mouth Marketing?
“‘Winners love to experiment,’ Mr. Calhoun said. ‘The willingness to build cultures around experimentation I think is huge. We’re trying to instill that as well. … Nielsen Connect is our first experiment – six endeavors that try and marry the media franchise with our consumer franchise in ways that are creative and hopefully satisfy some need. I don’t expect that we’re going to go six for six. I don’t think we’ll go three for six. We may go one for six.'”
It’s probably also important to read the full article to see the types of products that were tested. My guess is that when you add in products or services that have a more online spin (i.e. the channel is a better fit), results may vary.
Nonetheless, I think it’s hard to argue that we’re still in the, “everything is ‘with’ not ‘instead of'” model that I am quick to advocate when looking at newer marketing channels.
Check out the full article here: Advertising Age – Want Online Buzz For Your New Product?