Top Restaurant, Beverage & Technology Brands Dominate Global Social Media in 2012, As Social Network Ad Spending Grows 42% to $8B

Coke, Gatorade, Apple, Google, Starbucks & Burger King Generate Highest Share of Voice

Women Spend More Time on Social Media, but Men Initiate More Brand Conversations

Stamford, CT – Leading global restaurant, beverage and technology brands generated the most chatter on social media in 2012, as young consumers amped up social network conversations and major advertisers increased social media spending 42.1% to $7.94 billion, according to the PQ Media/uberVU Top 100 Brands in Social Media Worldwide 2013.

The world’s top 100 brands generated 56.7 million online and mobile social media mentions from July to December 2012 (2H12), while global social media impressions totaled 83.59 billion in the six-month period. Although women spend more time on social media, men initiate more online and mobile social media conversations about the top 100 brands, accounting for 55% of the total, according to the

The world’s top 100 brands generated 56.7 million online and mobile social media mentions from July to December 2012 (2H12), while global social media impressions totaled 83.59 billion in the six-month period. Although women spend more time on social media, men initiate more online and mobile social media conversations about the top 100 brands, accounting for 55% of the total, according to the PQ Media/uberVU Top 100 Brands in Social Media Worldwide 2013. Brands with strong worldwide appeal generated more online and mobile conversations, with 57% of conversations starting outside the US.

Only three product categories over-indexed on the broader social media average score of 100, according to the PQ Media/uberVU Social Category Development Index (SCDI). Restaurants led with an SCDI of 338, followed by Beverages at 223 and Consumer Technology at 178. Restaurants consistently scored the highest SCDI throughout 2H12. Seven of the top-10 brand categories generated more mentions from males, such as Automobiles, while only three categories were dominated by females, including Personal Care.

Three of the top 10 categories – Restaurants, Beverages, and Consumer Technology – generated over 70% of social media share of voice (SOV) in 2H12, according to the PQ Media/uberVU Top 100 Brands in Social Media Worldwide 2013. Two CPG categories that account for significant ad spending – Personal Care and Household Products – combined for less than 7% of social media conversations, indicating that brands with large ad budgets, such as Procter & Gamble, don’t necessarily control social media conversations. Restaurants dominated overall social media with a 33.4% SOV, as the top-3 brands generated at least 2.3 million mentions each (Starbucks 2.4M, Burger King 2.3M, McDonalds 2.3M); followed by Beverages with 23.2% SOV (Coke 5.2M, Gatorade 2.7M, Sprite 2.4M); and Consumer Technology ranked third with 17.2 % SOV (Apple 2.5M, Google 2.5M, Samsung 1.7M).

Meanwhile, global social media ad spending grew at an accelerated double-digit rate in 2012 to reach almost $8 billion, due in large part to increased traffic and time spent on social media by young consumers, creating a growing perception of high engagement, according to the PQ Media/uberVU Top 100 Brands in Social Media Worldwide 2013. “The importance of engagement through social media platforms continues to grow. As such, uberVU’s goal is to help brands improve their social media results by providing customized, real-time insights,” said Mark Pascarella, uberVU CEO.

With worldwide social media advertising spending projected to rise almost 40% again in 2013, brands and agencies need stronger metrics to justify the shift of spending to social media from other media platforms. “The lack of standardized metrics is a major growth challenge for emerging media,” said PQ Media CEO Patrick Quinn. “While there isn’t a definitive metric for social media yet, brands need a way to track their progress. A key measure of progress is the percentage growth of social media presence over time.”

For example, more consumers joined social media conversations throughout 2H12, as impressions per mention jumped each month of the six-month period, reaching 1,646 in December, up 35% compared to July, according to the PQ Media/uberVU report. Twenty-five of the top 100 brands over-indexed the broader social brand average, scoring above 100 on the PQ Media/uberVU Top Brands Development Index (TBDI), led by Coke with a TBDI of 911.

About this Data Report:

PQ Media and uberVU have produced monthly social media data reports since July 2012, which are available at www.leadingsocialbrands.com. The new PQ Media/uberVU Top 100 Brands in Social Media Worldwide 2013 includes exclusive data and indices on global social media spending, and leading brands by product category, mentions, impressions, sentiment, gender and global region. The report is 40 pages and includes a standalone Excel workbook featuring 136 tables and charts.

About PQ Media

PQ Media (www.pqmedia.com) is a leading provider of data and strategic insights on digital and alternative media and technology worldwide. The PQ Media Digital & Alternative Media Research Series includes econometric data and predictive analytics on 47 global advertising and marketing channels, including custom reports identifying brand-specific social media reach and growth by global region, product category and competitive set.

About uberVU

uberVU (www.ubervu.com) is a leading social marketing platform and real-time social media audience measurement service provider. uberVU covers all four social media marketing value pillars – monitoring, analytics & reporting, engagement and workflow – and has the only integrated dashboard of audience characteristics that can be deployed throughout organizations and geographies.