Kaizo has been shortlisted for this year’s DADI Awards in the ‘Best Use of Social Media’ category for its work on Unilever VIP, an online community that encouraged consumers to engage more closely with 11 of the company’s iconic brands, including PG Tips, Carte D’Or, Persil, Domestos, Magnum and Cif.

The DADI Awards recognise and reward digital excellence. The awards will be announced in London on 8th November 2012.

For brief details of the campaign please visit www.kaizo.co.uk/experience.

New research released today (06 June 2012) reveals the latest winners and losers in terms of brands’ online reputations. Lumix comes out top overall in the study, with budget airline Easyjet, ASDA, Shreddies and ASUS winning the sector battles.

The Kaizo Advocacy Index, a bi-annual audit of online reputation, has analysed digital news and social media outlets to rank UK household names including; supermarkets, cameras, airlines, breakfast cereals and computer manufacturers. The study is based on consumers’ actual behaviour and experience by analysing what appears on; the first three pages of a Google web, news and blog search, the top twenty tweets and the top ten Facebook pages, discounting any pages owned by the brand in question. The sentiment is recorded and a percentage score calculated which can be positive or negative.

Lumix ranked first overall in what was a very high scoring camera sector, whilst all PC brands also scored very highly, as both sectors relied largely on positive product reviews to influence the sentiment of coverage.  Meanwhile, Shreddies proved that content remains king in the cereal category, by creating engaging, shareable content that focused on nutrition and health, a subject of high importance to many parents.

With the economy and value clearly top of mind, no frills airline Easyjet and budget supermarket chain ASDA performed the best in their sectors. Whether it’s introducing small benefits to improve customer experience without compromising on price or a real push towards cheaper own-brand products, during periods of recession, those companies which focus on value are likely to fare well.

Supermarket and airline brands in particular often suffer from large volumes of negative feedback, particularly on social media, by consumers dissatisfied with the service they receive. Brands can help to counter these negative posts by creating positive news, great examples of which include Sainsbury’s renaming its tiger bread ‘giraffe bread’ following a letter from a three-year-old girl, Virgin Atlantic launching its ‘Upper Class Red’ lipstick, and HP hiring chauffeur-driven vans to whisk business people around London.

Below are the headline summaries for supermarkets, airline, cameras, cereals and PCs. The full press release including executive summaries for each sector can be found here and overall results for each sector can be viewed in the main report here

• Supermarkets – Savvy supermarket ASDA leads and powerful partnership sees Waitrose take second place

• Airlines – Customer expectation allows Easyjet to soar past Virgin Atlantic

• Cameras – All smiles for the Lumix camera whilst it’s a bad picture for Kodak

• Cereals – From nutrition to nookie, cereal brands remain full of energy

• PCs – ASUS finishes on top as tablets reign supreme whilst HP gets creative to boost its reputation online

Vodafone and Del Monte scored the highest in this season’s Kaizo Advocacy Index published today (7 April 2010), thanks to Apple and a Naked ice lolly respectively. Overall, though, the trend across vital sectors such as airlines and mobile telecoms was down, with disaffected customers becoming increasingly vocal online.

 The Kaizo Advocacy Index is a biannual study that measures the online reputation of 20 brands across Food, Software, Airline and Mobile sectors.

 The study found that in order to increase online reputation, brands need to be creative and make the most of new product launches, whilst maintaining a reliable and sincere service.

 Vodafone benefited from a raft of positive coverage around the launch of the mobile brand’s network on Apple’s iPhone helping it increase its score by the most across all brands. Del Monte once again promoted its products in a fun, creative way. This year’s promotion of its ‘Naked Fruit’ range using the Man from Delmonte wearing nothing but his Panama hat created positive reaction online. Completing the top five across all sectors were Hovis, Symbian and SAP.

 Rhodri Harries, Managing Director of Kaizo, said:

“Del Monte is a great example of a brand which is not afraid to take a few risks and customers clearly respond to this online. Associations with popular brands also often help increase positive conversations as shown with Vodafone.

 “The current economic climate means that consumers want more from products and services. If brands are honest, provide helpful customer service, offer true value for money, or provide some light relief, then they will be consistently recommended. If not, then their reputation can suffer.”

 Virgin Atlantic, knocked off the top spot in the last report due to Del Monte’s launch of an ice lolly shaped like 007 actor Daniel Craig, saw its score slip further. The airline sector in general performed poorly, as poor customer experiences over delays, cancellations and extra charges were all aired by frustrated customers online. With research completed prior to the BA strikes we can expect this to have worsened in recent weeks. Most mobile brands also performed poorly as consumers bemoaned network coverage and the quality of customer services.

 Improved product ranges and appealing promotional offers ensured food brands remained ahead of the pack. Hovis performed well alongside Del Monte, with its decision to only use British wheat in their loaves generating a rich supply of positive content. Creative PR also helped food brands score high with fun publicity stunts such as Kellogg’s development of a laser to brand their Corn Flakes with the Kellogg’s logo boosting scores.

 Of the software brands, Symbian increased its score, pulling away from the rest of the brands in the sector, as it strengthened its reputation for being a robust and flexible operating system for mobile devices.

 Harries continued:

“When consumers care about the product or service, such as a flight or phone, they are more likely to talk about negative issues that arise than positive experiences. With many brands still feeling the effects of the downturn, social media is playing an ever-increasing role.”

 The Kaizo Advocacy Index uniquely explores a brand’s reputation from the position of a customer’s own online experience and directly compares this with other brands within the industry. Replicating the way customers search for information on the Web has shown that brands which actively promote online communication generate more positive comments as a result.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• Kaizo is an independent award winning PR and Digital Consultancy. Our strategies and campaigns seamlessly integrate traditional and social media to increase opportunities for business and consumer brands online and offline. We achieve genuine results across a range of sectors that includes: technology, consumer gadgets, food & drink, FMCG, health, science, transport & travel and industry.

Clients include: Unilever, Flip Video, Elsevier, Quantum and Johnson & Johnson.

•  Background to study

Google is the first port of call for 80 per cent of web searches and has a significant influence over the way consumers form brand opinions. Consumer generated content in Google Blogs and Groups are having an increasing impact on a brand’s recommendability. Even brands that perform well through a news search can be negatively impacted by user generated content.

 Research from the London School of Economics shows that companies with above-average recommendability and below-average negative word of mouth, grow four to five times faster than other companies. Not surprisingly, negative word of mouth is more powerful than positive word of mouth by a factor of three-and-a-half times.

With so much buzz about the rise of social media and how important it is for brands, it’s too easy to forget the importance of offline conversations. According to stats mentioned recently by WOMMA there is a 90% to 10% split between offline and online Word of Mouth. It also shares that three quarters of this offline brand chat takes place face-to face and 15% by phone.

When you add to these stats the fact that Nielsen research shows that personal recommendations are the most trusted form of marketing, with 90% of people trusting the recommendation made by a friend, then having a plan and an integrated PR programme to actively stimulate these offline conversations is a must.

One issue raised by marketers is that it is hard to measure or track the impact of offline WOM. But is that really true?

If you have a smart plan to create positive recommendations for people to engage with your organisation or buy your products or services, then it’s completely possible to identify the way to track the impact of your programme. The consumer engagement initiative we created for Simple is a good example. By involving brand advocates with a product ahead of launch we stimulated the desire for over 8000 more people to sign up as advocate advisers – in just 5 days. The only way these new recruits would have heard about the benefits of becoming an adviser was from their friends. When you consider that these 8000 recruits were stimulated by just 4000 existing advocates, you can see the cause and effect and the power of offline WOM. Is your organisation using the 90 to 10 ratio to your advantage?