New Report Suggests M&M’S Ranked Highest Among Super Bowl XLVI Advertisers

March 23, 2012

Researchers at NYU Stern’s Center for Measurable Marketing (CMM) announced that M&M’S ranked highest among Super Bowl XLVI advertisers in generating Conversational ROI.

The confectioner generated the highest initial levels of online engagement in CMM’s in-depth analysis of online buzz, seek finishing second only to Doritos in terms of continued conversation.

Partnering with Crimson Hexagon, a global provider of social media analysis software, and the Marketing Productivity Group, the leading provider of “state-of-the-science” analytical insights for marketers, CMM’s study highlights which Super Bowl advertisers can expect to see the biggest Conversational ROIs on their multi-million dollar investment. According to CMM, Conversational ROI measures both the direct impact of word-of-mouth communication on marketing performance, including dollar sales, as well as the amplification effects which social provides to both offline and online paid channels of communication.

E. Craig Stacey, Ph.D., director of research for NYU Stern’s CMM and founding partner of the Marketing Productivity Group, said: “With the advent of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, brands now have the opportunity to actively enter the conversation. What marketers need to grasp here is that we finally have the opportunity to quantify the impact of what consumers are saying and feeling – and not simply the return on the aggregate dollar amount spent on social media.

“We are calculating the ‘Conversational ROI’ generated for the Super Bowl advertisers by examining the overall level of conversation surrounding the ads, the proportion of positive sentiment toward them, and how long conversations are carrying over into the future,” explains Stacey. “At $3.5 million per 30-second Super Bowl ad, the number and length of the spots are also taken into consideration in calculating the Conversational ROIs.”

Crimson Hexagon President and CEO Patricia Gottesman, added: “We are thrilled to contribute to NYU Stern’s CMM study that unquestionably defines the importance of in-depth social media analysis. By being able to understand and digest millions of online conversations, brands can adjust their communications to meet consumer demand, and dramatically impact their ROI. We are excited to be at the forefront of a new wave of marketing research that could forever change the rules of advertising.”

“Based on our analysis of the 2011 campaigns and previous social media research,” said Stacey, “we know that positive conversations about movie ads translate into ticket sales at the box office.” He added, “If the studios can sustain, or even build upon the positive online buzz generated and deliver on viewers’ expectations, word-of-mouth can be a very effective media vehicle for studios. While the Super Bowl may not have provided the optimal target audience for The Lorax Movie, Universal Studios went on to build a very successful word-of-mouth marketing campaign in the following weeks, translating into a box-office blockbuster.”

Throughout 2012, CMM will continue to track the online buzz generated by these advertisers. “In particular, we will monitor conversations about the brands’ marketing actions and consumers’ feelings toward the brands and their purchase behaviors,” said Stacey. “By linking these online conversations to the brands’ marketing and in-market sales, we continue to demonstrate how this network of paid, owned, earned and shared media all work together in driving sales.”