How Marketers Measure Brand Influencers Around Key Events

Ford astutely tapped into one of the biggest star powerhouses on the planet — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — to publicize the release of the 2018 Mustang. The former WWE superstar posted a video of himself surprising a U.S. Army combat veteran with one of the brand new vehicles. The video garnered over 20,000 impressions on the day it was released.

Sounds great on the surface – but was it really? Evaluating a campaign’s true reach and impact requires rock-solid media intelligence. Applying metrics to media data helps brands answer questions like: Was this campaign a success? Did this campaign reach our desired audience? Has the perception of our brand changed as a result of this campaign?

Measuring the Impact of “The Rock”

Metadata attached to social media posts show when an influencer mentioned your brand or key issue — and illustrates the reach of the message through shares and likes. Analyzing the trending topics and hashtags over a specific period identifies the key events that could have potentially captured the attention of the influencers. In Ford’s case, its top influencers have primarily been large publications: Forbes, the NFL and USA Today. This is useful, if basic, insight.

Ford released their 2018 Mustang on January 17. If we take the first spike – the result of a presidential tweet – as an outlier, it’s noteworthy that the release generated the most media mentions for their entire first quarter.

When looking at media mentions for January 17, we can see who Ford’s top influencers are. Each of these mentioned the new Mustang, with two of them writing stories about the Rock’s presentation. The Rock was also the 11th largest influencer for the day.

The involvement of these particular influencers doubled the average number of daily mentions for Ford and increased net positive sentiment by over 20%.

Companies need to regularly incorporate influencers into their communications strategy. They provide a unique pathway into new audiences, which feels more authentic than anything that directly comes from a corporation. Applying metrics to their activities lets brands know how campaigns can be improved as well as showing tangible ROI.

If you would like to learn more about how to identify key influencers around your brand, download our eBook: “Identifying the Influencers that Matter”.