Cymfony's Influence 2.0

The Road to Super Bowl XLII

With the Patriots steamrolling through the NFL this season, many people here in the Boston area are thinking a lot about the Super Bowl coming up this February.  But here at Cymfony, the Super Bowl has become a year-round obsession – but for a different reason:  It is the perfect example of Influence 2.0.

We tracked discussion of last year’s game and conducted several studies on the audience impact of the media coverage and consumer discussion of last year’s Super Bowl advertisers. Over the past month, these studies have been published in a variety of publications.

• Visibility vs Surprise: Which Drives the Greatest Discussion of Super Bowl Ads?  To be published in the 12/07 issue of the “Journal of Advertising Research” from the ARF.

• What This Year’s Super Bowl Advertisers Can Learn from Doritos. Published in the 11/07 issue of Media Magazine

• Is There No Such Thing as Bad News? - How controversy drives word-of-mouth around Super Bowl advertising and how it can bite the brand. Published in 11/07 “Measuring Word of Mouth Vol. 3” from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association

I encourage you to buy the WOMMA and JAR publications for the full story (and other great research as well).  We've also compiled some of the insights from each of these studies in a brief informational abstract that is available for download on our site now.   

The gist of our findings: Last year's success of advertisers like Doritos and Nationwide changes Super Bowl advertising -- it's no longer about great buzz after the game, pre-game media coverage is just as important, maybe more so.

(Disclosure: shameless plug coming) In response to this change, we are stepping up our analysis and launching a new product: the Super Bowl Advertising Audience Impact Report. Check it out at www.cymfony.com/superbowl.asp Clients will get a timely, in-depth analysis of the media coverage and consumer discussion of Super Bowl advertisers each week leading up to and immediately following the game on February 3.

This report will address:

• How much coverage is each advertiser generating? 
• Which ads are consumers discussing online? What are they saying?
• What is the quality and tone of the coverage?
• How is the event impacting consumer engagement with the brand?
• How are pre-game promotional strategies influencing coverage?

After the post-game coverage peaks on Monday after the game, our Super Bowl analysts will lead a detailed online briefing Tuesday afternoon to discuss the ad winners and losers as reported by consumers and the media. This will all get wrapped up in a comprehensive report a couple weeks later when the coverage is complete.

Some of us around here are as excited about this new report as we are about the steamrolling Patriots.  (OK, we admit it, we're social media geeks!)

Yes, I'm still here

Sorry for the long silence -- I didn't realize how long it had been until a friend of mine emailed me to see if I was still here!

As you can imagine, we are really busy since the acquisition by TNS Media Intelligence. You'll see some new elements to our web site soon -- and more really exciting developments in the near future. Stay tuned!

And I'll soon plug back in and resume commenting on the continuing evolution of social  media.

The New TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony Generates Media Buzz

It has been an exciting week here. We don’t normally use the blog to toot our own horn, so I hope you’ll indulge us this once as we share some of the coverage.

TNS Media Intelligence’s acquisition of us generated a generous amount of buzz in both traditional media as well as in the blogosphere.  In fact, showing the influence of the blogosphere, news of our acquisition broke on PaidContent.org and had multiple blogs (Micro Persuasion, KD Paine’s PR Measuring Blog, and Customer Listening Blog to name a few) link to the post before we even announced.  And, that didn’t stop other media from writing about it following our announcement – here is a taste of the coverage:

• AdAge TNS Eyes the Next Frontier: How to Track Viral, Chatter (subscription required)
• AdWeek "TNS Media Intelligence is branching into the growing field of online buzz tracking with the purchase of Cymfony." (subscription required)
• Adotas TNS Acquires Cymfony
• PR Week  "TNS Media Intelligence (TNS MI), a provider of strategic advertising information, has acquired Cymfony, a market influence analytics company."
• ClickZ’s Blog TNS Acquired Listening, Tracking Service
• Marketing Vox TNS Acquires Social-Media Researcher, Cymfony
• Forrester’s Marketing Blog "The news is out - TNS has acquired Cymfony.  The new operating unit will be called TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony"

For more media coverage of the acquisition, visit the In the News section on our website. 

Cymfony Acquired by TNS Media Intelligence

Many of you may have seen the buzz that broke over the weekend in the blogosphere. Well, the rumors are true. Cymfony has been acquired by TNS-Media Intelligence. Not only is this a validation of Cymfony but it is another strong confirmation of the growth and importance of social media as a critical place for intelligence, corporate reputation monitoring and understanding word of mouth discussions.

This is the beginning of a great new chapter in the Cymfony story. This will accelerate our growth but more important allow us to expand our offering with the leading market research company in the world. My vision has always been to broaden our analysis and correlation of media and research that drives marketing influence and hence impact.   We started with traditional media when we offered Brand Dashboard in 2002, then added social media with Digital Consumer Insight and then put them together with other sources such as customer service email in one platform 2 years ago, called Orchestra. My vision has always been to analyze the many different influences that drive public relations effectiveness, consumer brand preference, corporate reputation, and brand image. 

We will operate as wholly owned subsidiary of TNS Media Intelligence providing public relations and marketing professionals the most sophisticated system for monitoring and measuring their effectiveness with our award winning customer service and technology.

Yet, this deal will allow us to add the third and, arguably, the largest, influence: advertising. TNS MI’s enormous store of ad occurrence and expenditure data is essential to every company.

As we bring that data together with Cymfony’s ability to capture and analyze traditional media coverage and social media conversations, CMOs will at last have a truly holistic view of how all their communications are working to shape their brands’ and company’s place in the market.

Stay tuned over the coming months as we build the products and services that will help marketers harness all these influences.  And thanks for everyone’s support.

I've been tagged!

Peter Kim at Forrester jumped on the "five things you don't know about me" meme; he tagged his new Forrester colleague David Frankland who tagged me. I generally keep this blog focused on business issues. But what the heck. In the holiday spirit, here are five things you don't know about me...

1. I play the Scottish bagpipes. I started in college, played competitively for many years, achieving Grade 2 status in the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association (yes, there is such a thing).
2. I was a geology major at William College. How did it get from there into the advertising/marketing world? Buy me a drink sometime and I'll give you the whole long, convoluted story!
3. I sing in my church choir. I'm more of a bass, though I'm trying to stretch my range into baritone. Our organist/choirmaster is amazing -- I have an OK voice but I've never had any prior voice training. In the past few years I've learned a lot and he has had us sing some amazing pieces.
4. I'm a alternative energy nut: I drive a Toyota Prius, (which I bought in 2002, long before the recent run-up in gas prices) and put solar photovoltaic panels on my roof a year ago. Next, I'll probably put a solar hot water system on the roof, especially if I can track down the Swedish system I read about recently that uses hot water for air conditioning.
5. 5. I'm a dog nut. But I've had a really tough year. Two of my beloved girls went to doggie heaven this year: Sadie, age 16, last February and Gina (at left) age 13 this past Monday (I'm in deep mourning this week). We're down to one dog right now, but we'll add to the pack soon! (see the whole pack at petcentric -- Sadie is the little Sheltie mix next to Gina in the background; DeeDee the black lab in the foreground is now the lone dog in the household).

I would have tagged Pete Blackshaw, but someone got to him first! So my tags go to Jackie Huba at the Church of the Customer, Bob Liodice at the Association of National Advertisers, and Todd Defren at Shift Communications.

The last post on Cymfony's Marketing Insight Blog

This will mark the end of Cymfony's Marketing Insight. But don't worry -- we'll be back on Monday.

We've been working on some stuff we think is really exciting. We're making the transition over the next couple of days. Monday we'll have new announcements, new resources, a new approach and a new look.

We have a lot of work to do yet, so I have to get back to it. See you Monday.

Cymfony and Sphere -- a perfect pair!

Cymfony and Sphere share the same vision that traditional and social media are converging. We're really excited about our partnership!

Sphere is the hot new blog search engine that is getting rave reviews. They have great relevance scoring technology and great spam detection. If you haven't used them, check it out. I think you'll really like the results you get.

You also have to try their "bookmarklet" called Sphere It! Download it onto your toolbar, go to a news article, click it and it brings up the relevant blogs to that article. Or go to Time.com, who has already embedded Sphere It! at the beginning of top stories.

Cymfony innovated the monitoring and measurement platform that combines both traditional and social media content, so Sphere is a great partner for us. We'll use this relationship to develop even more sophisticated ways to track how the traditional and social media world influence each other -- and help our clients track the influence they are having on the market.

PS. Sorry to have "gone dark" on you for the last two weeks. This is the first of several exciting things we've been working on. You'll see more over the next couple of weeks....

blogs social media partnerships

A Giant Leap for the Word of Mouth Marketing Industry

I am very excited to be serving on the Word of Mouth Marketing Association Board. The knowledge, talent, and energy of the newly expanded Board will accelerate the growth of this new industry.

First off, let me thank and congratulate Pete Blackshaw, Dave Balter, and Jonathan Carson for all the work they have put into founding WOMMA and building it to the point where it needs this expanded Board. You guys have accomplished an amazing amount in just a couple of short years.

I also want to thank Andy Sernovitz for the vision, drive, and enthusiasm he brings to the task of creating a respected marketing discipline out of something as intangible as word of mouth marketing.  I've been involved with a number of marketing associations over my career and none have accomplished as much in as little time.

Congratulations to my fellow Board members. I feel a little like when I went from high school to college: I went from being top of my class to middle of the pack! On the WOMMA Board, I am among  the smartest, most visionary people in all of marketing. I know it will be a challenging and exciting experience.

And thanks to all the WOMMA members for electing me. I'll work hard to keep the momentum going and to educate marketers on how WOM will help them adapt the forces which are changing marketing so rapidly.

word of mouth marketing WOMMA consumer-generated media

Cymfony Finalist for 2006 MITX Awards

Following up last year’s win in three categories, Cymfony is once again a finalist for the 2006 MITX Awards.   This year Orchestra is a finalist in the Performance Management and Analytics Application category! 

The MITX award ceremony will take place June 7th at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston.  Wish us luck!

Cymfony's Blogoversary and a Fond Farewell

Cymfony's Marketing Insight blog is celebrating its first anniversary this month.  I can't believe it's been an entire year since I created this site and wrote my first blog post.  We've since added contributors from many internal teams including account management, product development, marketing, sales, engineering and even the executive offices.  Our goal when launching the site was to provide "tips, advice, best practices and market perspective from insiders and guests of the company....on topics such as media measurement, blogging analysis, corporate reputation management, natural language processing and more."  And it still is with some minor tweaks along the way. 

I joined Cymfony in the spring of 2004 to manage corporate communications for the company.  I knew early on I wanted to launch a corporate blog - I just wasnt sure how to do it and to be quite honest, I was very nervous about where it was going to take us. In the begining there were more questions then benefits in my mind...

who should post? what should we write about? what if we say something wrong?   Still, I wanted Cymfony to launch a corporate blog as a communications tool and a resource for customers - a place that Cymfony employees could go to share their perspectives on topics that they want to write about.  I don't edit the site, nor do I approve posts before they go live.  I am far from being considered an  "a list" blogger and our site hasn't made any top 10 lists but we have been successful doing what we set out to do - provide an open dialog in a niche space.

Ironically after a year of posting, today is also my last day at Cymfony.  I'm leaving to help my husband grow his financial services business.  (Who knows, I many even start a blog for Lighthouse Capital Advisers!).  It's been both fun and challenging to keep Cymfony's blog fed with original, insightful, and thought provoking content.  I hope it continues to flourish. 

Best of luck to all and thanks for the adventure.  Keep in touch! Cindy

Welcome to Knowledge Center

This week, Cymfony has launched a new section of our web site to help you understand trends in PR measurement and consumer-generated media: the Cymfony Knowledge Center. We have started with four sections: Blogs, CGM, Web 2.0, and PR Measurement.

We've carefully selected a few of the most important studies from organizations like comScore and the Pew Center plus informative articles from publications llike Forbes, Clickz, and Information Week. Our goal: to give you the maximum information in the smallest amount of reading.

I hope the Cymfony Knowledge Center will become a place where you turn to get a crash course on a new topic or for help when you are trying to educate a collegue or your management about these new trends.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how helpful this section is as well as your nominations for other articles you think should be in here.

marketing, pr measurement, web 2.0, cgm, blog

Predictions for 2006 - New Technologies Less Threating to Marketers

Since Jim Nail arrived as CMO about 6 weeks ago he has covered a lot of ground here at Cymfony (we are certainly keeping him busy). Today, for example, he's in NYC meeting with journalists at six different publications. Granted with Jim’s established reputation, it wasn’t extremely difficult to land the intro interviews with the journalists covering our sector (trying to coordinate them all in one day was another task altogether). The key will be to keep the meetings coming as the year progresses.

So it goes without saying that as 2005 came to a close, Jim was asked more than once to offer his predictions for 2006. Here are a few highlights:

“In 2005, blogs seized marketers’ attention the way Napster grabbed the record industry’s: This new technology threatened their proven ways of doing things. In 2006, marketers will realize that blogs per se are not important, but the interrelationship between blogs (and other consumer-generated media, or CGM) and mainstream media (MSM) is what is really important. They will focus on how CGM influences the stories in MSM, and how CGM extends the life of stories in MSM. Marketers will then seek tools and partners that can help them identify, model, and predict when a topic will enter this “media echo chamber” where MSM and CGM together amplify the impact on a company’s image and reputation for good or ill.”

“In 2005, companies had the epiphany that consumers, empowered by technologies ranging from TiVo to blogs, has wrested away control over marketing. In 2006, companies will come to view these technologies less as a threat or a new channel to insert their messages into. Instead, they will realize that these technologies create data and a record of conversations that serve as a new source of insight about consumer media consumption habits and their engagement with marketing messages. Market researchers who learn how to meld the insights from these sources with more traditional research methodologies will become more valuable to their company.”

I expect 2006 to be an exciting year for Cymfony, our clients and the industry. 

Jim Nail Joins as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

It is clear that the marketing world is undergoing some significant changes as consumers gain control. Marketers need to know what consumers are saying today what are their preferences, concerns and what might be an issue. Waiting even a month can make the information stale and often crises could have been averted if early warnings were provided. As you may know, Cymfony has been helping companies measure and guide communications strategies by looking at traditional media for over 4 years now. Over the last year we have launched new products and services to help customers monitor and analyze new forms of social media as well. We released a convergence solution for MSM and CGM called Orchestra. Now, with the hiring of Jim Nail, we are taking yet another step to consolidate our vision and produce offerings with a proven leader both in marketing and technology. I’m pleased that Jim has joined Cymfony today as our chief marketing and strategic officer. Jim's work over the last 8 years at Forrester covering marketing and this space as well as working at agencies and marketing companies provides a perfect mix as we seek to deliver the most relevant and value added solutions for our customers. . His background in marketing, advertising also lends itself perfectly to our focus on the growing convergence of PR, advertising and marketing. We believe that the mix of automated technology and human analysis will continue to make Cymfony a leader in the space. We look forward to Jim contributions and insight to Marketing Insight.

About Last Night - Cymfony Honored

Okay, so I'm still on a bit of a high after the Massachusetts Innovation Technology Exchange (MITX) award ceremony last night.  (Not only because I got to meet the spokesnumeral "number 2 guy" Brian Frates from Boston's PBS powerhouse WGBH/Channel 2 ). It's because Cymfony took home three awards including  best "Applied Technology", "Best Use of Technology" and "Best of Show"!  Proof is in the photo.  MITX describes the awards as the largest and most prestigious awards competition in the country for technology innovations and celebrates the best creative and technological accomplishments emerging from New England.

Congratulations to all involved and a special thanks to MITX for great night!

What Do You Do Again, Dear? A Cymfony Update

Almost everyone reading this blog knows that Cymfony is a market intelligence and media analysis company.  But I can tell you first hand that my own mother has a hard time understanding what that means.  Comparatively, prospective clients who approach Cymfony sometimes don't know exactly what Cymfony can do for them.  They come to us knowing that they need to be implementing a global PR measurement program, or that they need to analyze user created content or blogs, or that they need to keep track of what their competitors are doing to stay ahead of the curve.  They know Cymfony can help but they don't always know how to ask or what they really need.  Additionally, prospective customers and clients come from various areas of the corporation and with different needs. 

With the recent launch of the new Orchestra platform, Cymfony has enhanced the "look and feel" and expanded the functionality of its automated dashboard solution and is providing even more in-house strategic consulting services.  Over the next few months we are going to be updating our materials to further explain what Cymfony can do and all of the features and benefits of Cymfony's offerings in a clear and consistent manner.  I've been told too many times that Cymfony is the real deal, doing amazing work but that we haven't really been able to explain all of our capabilities.  We want to change that.

For example, a big difference from Cymfony's Brand Dashboard or Digital Consumer Insight products is that Orchestra provides a real time side-by-side analysis of mainstream media (MSM) and consumer generated media (CGM).  But what does that mean and why is it important?  Well, for one it provides the user with improved visibility into both CGM and MSM environments.  For instance, by tracking and analyzing the impact of perceptions from online audiences to mainstream publications you can have an early warning system to proactively manage or mitigate issues - such as the Kryptonite case study illustrated all too well.  And this is only the beginning.  Analyzing CGM and MSM under one platform is an important new service for anyone involved in:

• Media Strategy and analysis
• Managing Corporate Reputation
• Competitive Intelligence
• Market Research
• Customer Behavior Analysis
• Product Launches
• Product Monitoring and Analysis
• Campaign and Event Analysis

Helping marketers, pr and communications professionals, brand managers, competitive intelligence professionals or anyone involved in the areas above to monitor, benchmark, analyze, discover and report is what we do best.  So, over the next few months we'll be using this blog from time to time as another tool to provide a more in-depth view of Cymfony and its services.

marketing, public relations, blogs

September Event Line-Up

Wow, I just took another look at the fall conference calendar and it's really swinging into high gear. It's nice to see that more and more events have added discussions around blogging to the agenda including PRSA's "Blogging 101 for PRPros" presented by Elizabeth Albrycht on Sept. 16th and IABC's teleseminar on "The Importance of Analyzing CGM" by Sam Whitmore on Sept. 22nd.  Cymfony will be sponsoring and/or speaking at a number of events as well in September including CMO Perspectives, AMA's Marketing Research Conference, MEDIA magazine's Forecast 2006, Business Intelligence, Summit on Measurement and NYMega Tech Day. Info on these event and more can be found here.

Word of Mouth vs. Advertising - WOMMA Style

As a member of WOMMA I've been asked to promote it's upcoming event on Word of Mouth vs. Advertising.  Here's the info if interested. WOMMA kindly arranged for "Friends of Cymfony" to receive a $50.00 discount - just enter the code: cymfonyisawesome (and no, I didn't create the code but I think it's another fun and creative tactic by the folks at WOMMA). 

Blog Monitoring is the Tip of the Iceberg

Cymfony's CEO Andrew Bernstein was recently interviewed by Craig Douglas of the Boston Business Journal to discuss the company's latest round of funding.  Read the article here.

"Certainly monitoring blogs is important if someone is saying something positive or negative, but that's just the tip of the iceberg," Bernstein said. "Customers are really interested in mining info to proactively manage their brands."