One of the double-edged side-effects of the process of ‘locking on’ to a new brand is a certain engagement with low-grade spam-generation-pornography.

New brands are being requested and added to the tracking system all the time, some demanding initial work in order to set the classifier on the right tracking path.

For example, there is a stationary producer named ‘Avery Dennison’. The thing is, in order to pick up its ‘everyday’ mentions in the informal areas of the web – blogs, etc., - we need to track it in its short-hand: ‘Avery’. And so here come the exclusion terms: bird-related content must not get a look in - and then there is ‘Tex Avery’ – creator of Daffy duck, ‘Roger Avery’ – co-writer of Pulp fiction, and Cardinal Avery Dulles, an outspoken fire-brand.

Now this type of ‘dirty’ pick-up is dealt with by adding an exclusion term or two, but what happens when the tracking of ‘Avery’ means we start picking up the whitest of noises – a common typo, and when this, in turn, means an over-abundance of porn? (more…)

Filed under: Brand Matching by Phil Newman

New research from Millward Brown shows that online communities, blogs and message boards are the most likely sources of negative opinions about brands.

According to the brand consultancy’s survey of over 1,000 UK consumers fully one third of people who had used online communities, contacts and blogs said they’d received negative brand opinion from those resources.

We couldn’t agree more with Tim Wragg, Head of Client Service at Millward Brown UK, who has this advice for marketers: “There is no doubt that marketing campaigns using online communities are a key part of the marketing mix, but marketers need to truly understand how their online activities will impact their brand and be prepared to monitor positive and negative conversations in these communities”.

(more…)

Filed under: Research by Giles Palmer