Social's Voice - Michael Kassan

When you take a truth out of context, it remains true but it's no longer useful.

Peyton Manning can't run. That's true. Does that make him a bad quarterback?

My smartphone screen is only a few inches in diameter. That's true. Does that make it an ineffective way to watch video?

If you studied an apple, you'd know the truth of apples. Would that data also teach you all you need to know about nutrition?

Isolation is, by definition, unconnected. It's unwise to make general assumptions from something you observe in isolation. In fact, it can be dangerous.

This is what makes last week's industry kerfuffle over the implications of a Coca-Cola study which found that social buzz or chatter has no effect on short-term sales such a teachable moment.

Several teachable moments, in fact, all of which, regrettably, we should have learned by now. First, that no touch point, channel or platform can propel a campaign to success by itself, nor should it be expected to. Integration is everything. And secondly, measurement needs to be evaluated in context and according to its proper role.

You cannot infer that social buzz or even social media, for that matter, does not produce business results just because of one study. It is one learning only.

I agree completely with Wendy Clark, Coke's Senior Vice President of Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities, who responded to the debate over her company's finding with the common-sense observation that the study was designed to look at one piece of the puzzle, not the whole picture.

She observed that the study's finding is accurate but studied in isolation could be misleading. "None of our plans are simply social, or TV, or mobile or experiential," she writes. "On the contrary, it's the combination of owned, earned, shared and paid media connections … that creates marketplace impact, consumer engagement, brand love and brand value."

Now that is a truth you can extrapolate from. Integrated marketing by definition is agnostic and inclusive. To be effective, modern campaigns need to be viewed across platforms. Multiple touch points create resonance and increase campaigns' effectiveness.

A recent MarketShare study examined the impact on marketing effectiveness of what it calls Social Voice, the combination of offline and online discussion and mention of brands. The research revealed that social conversations about brands have a discernible ability to amplify a campaign's effectiveness. The study revealed that a 10% increase in marketing spend generated a 0.2% to 2.5% increase in Social Voice on and offline.

Tellingly, the study also found that a 10% rise in overall Social Voice produced a 0.5% to 1.6% increase in online search activity—and a similar increase in Social Voice lifted sales by 0.2% to 1.5%.

As Wendy writes, the combination of media (with social networks as a core campaign component) is stronger than any individual medium. Shouldn't we know that by now? Shouldn't we recognize the perils of putting platforms, processes or people into silos—and know that we absolutely cannot afford to do that with measurement results either?

Digital, mobile, and all of our other platform choices—these are adjectives, not nouns. They are tools, not strategies. It's an integrated world and whether or not a tweet unleashes an instant torrent of shoppers into the mall is not the point.

Let's keep the silos closed and evaluate data in its proper, overall context. In our marketing ecosystem, no one can afford to make assumptions about the whole forest by obsessing over a single tree.

Michael E. Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink, LLC, a leading Los Angeles and New York City-based advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing, advertising, media, entertainment and digital technology. Michael can be reached at michael@medialinkllc.com

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