Marks Major Shift in Media Buying Strategy and Publisher Evaluation
PALO ALTO, Calif. & CHICAGO – Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) and ShareThis announced the integration of ShareThis’ Social Quality Index (SQI) into SMG’s comScore Media Metrix® interface for media planning purposes. SQI is a universal measure of social activity on the web. The integration marks the evolution of social from a networking tool to an industry planning resource. For the first time, media planners will be incorporating SQI scores into their evaluations of publishers to determine media allocations.
“Two years ago, we teamed up with ShareThis to leverage SQI in our media buying approach, and it has been an invaluable media planning and buying metric across multiple verticals and client KPIs. We’ve seen significant increases in campaign results across the board”
SQI provides scoring insights spanning 27 key content categories based on ShareThis’ vast reach across more than two million publisher sites. SQI scores are calculated using a patent-pending algorithm that measures how social a site’s content is, relative to other sites with the same type of content. These indexed scores help advertisers identify the most shared and valuable content and engaged audiences across the web.
Media Planning Insight that Improves Ad Campaign Performance
One of the most basic human behaviors, sharing is affecting and redefining every element of communications in ways that are rapidly altering the advertising and publishing industries. By optimizing toward high SQI-rated sites, campaigns will reach the most social audiences and generate higher user engagement. SMG clients have seen impressive results from integrating sharing insights into their campaigns such as ad interaction increased by 66 percent, newsletter sign-ups by 234 percent, and store look-ups by 236 percent. Brand preference lift was 18 percent while purchase intent rose 26 percent.
“Two years ago, we teamed up with ShareThis to leverage SQI in our media buying approach, and it has been an invaluable media planning and buying metric across multiple verticals and client KPIs. We’ve seen significant increases in campaign results across the board,” said Lisa Weinstein, President, Global Digital and Data & Analytics, Starcom MediaVest Group. “Integrating ShareThis’ social metric into our comScore interface gives us the intelligence we need all in one place and makes our media planning more efficient. We encourage our publisher partners to adopt SQI given its proven merit measuring marketing effectiveness.”
“The integration of SQI with comScore’s audience data is a first-of-its-kind effort to incorporate the value of social-sharing into the digital media planning workflow,” said Andrew Lipsman, vice president of Industry Analysis, comScore. “By collaborating with our clients in this manner to deliver innovative solutions, we help power improved campaign performance.”
Changing the Way Content and Inventory is Valued
This is the beginning of new value of content in an increasing social and cross platform environment. In a world where content selection in media plans is increasingly reliant on machine bidding, SQI gives the industry a measure of what content real people like the most. With this standard social quality measure, sellers can set price floors and buyers can make bids on domain names.
“As the first provider of third party social insights integrated into Media Metrix, we’re enjoying a significant increase in visibility for SQI and continue to push forward with our partners to make it an industry standard,” said Kurt Abrahamson, CEO of ShareThis. “SQI is a tool for publishers to distinguish themselves as leaders in engaging, shareable content and attractors of high referral traffic. Social acts, page views and incremental traffic have become the new monetizable value of an online publication or website.”
About ShareThis
ShareThis powers the social web, touching the lives of 95 percent of U.S. Internet users across more than two million publisher sites and 120+ social media channels. It makes content more engaging for publishers and marketing more effective for brands by tapping into the purest expression of interest-based social activity. ShareThis is the company for those wanting to make the world more connected, trusted and valuable through sharing. Based in Palo Alto, CA, the company is privately held. To learn more visit http://www.sharethis.com
About Starcom MediaVest Group
Starcom MediaVest Group is the Human Experience Company. We believe experiences matter. They enhance lives and build brands. We bring brand experiences to life through SMG’s three global agency brands: MediaVest, Starcom, and Spark. Ranked one of the largest brand communications groups in the world, Starcom MediaVest Group (www.smvgroup.com) encompasses an integrated network of human experience strategists, investment specialists, content creators and digital experts. With nearly 6,500 employees in 110 offices worldwide, SMG partners with the world’s leading companies including The Coca-Cola Company, Kraft Foods, P&G, Samsung, Walmart, among others. In 2010, Adweek named SMG “Media Agency of the Decade.”
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.
