Media – Integration of Social Media with Traditional Media is Strongest

Social media has fast become an outbound marketing choice for businesses of all sizes. Measuring sales impact of social media with hard metrics, however, has eluded many marketers due to the difficulty in putting together a viable side by side test model to measure sales gains.

The advertising agency – Ogilvy &Mather conducted a case study in the Quick-serve restaurant (fast food) business and published their findings. The results showed the impact of social media alone and when coupled with other media outlets such as print, television and public relations. See the chart below taken from the study:

This study is “diary-based”, where consumers are asked to record any contact they may have had with the brand advertising and their associated intent to purchase or actual purchase over several days. Its impact is significant, but not perfect, as it is measures only what people want to record and remember. Marketers have very few measurable studies in this area.

Ogilvy’s key conclusions are that social media is best integrated with other types of media to be effective and, most importantly, that the results are measurable. The study also concludes that the impact of social media on changing brand perception is stronger than other forms of media and is far more immediate. Traditional advertising takes a long time with multiple exposures to accomplish this same goal.

There will certainly be more custom studies conducted by individual brands to determine the strength of social media in the marketing mix. If the results hold up to these, the movement of media dollars to social (media) will only accelerate.

Are these results in line with your experiences? Let us know.