Facebook To Measure Olympic Brand Effect

Facebook is to measure the effect of London 2012 on leading brands associated with the Olympics and Paralympics – tracking how sponsorship of London 2012 by major brands such as Coca-Cola, Visa and Lloyds TSB influences consumer habits.??

The social network giant has over 750 million active users around the world.??

According to the Financial Times, Facebook will track how news spreads around its web pages, run polls to see how marketing messages have changed sentiment around this or that brand. ??

Facebook claims that this analysis will allow brands to make changes if their adverts are failing.??

Kathy Dykeman, Facebook’s lead on measurement for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told the Financial Times: ‘Going into the Olympics next year, it’s hard to quantify what the word-of-mouth [benefit] of sponsorship is’. ??

‘Capturing who is telling the stories and what impact it’s having will help us going into 2012’.??

Facebook research and analytics team have already run a similar initiative at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa last year.

??According to a Facebook poll, it was found that videos by Umbro, the England kit sponsor, make people who saw them more likely to buy its sportswear than those who did not.??

Earlier this year, the social networking site launched a platform for its advertisers – both current and prospective ones – to tag brands on photos in the same way users tag other people.

??Researchers also discovered last year that what people said about a new movie on Twitter can predict its opening weekend takings at the box office.