Hallmark's Journey into Social Media | Hallmark @ MRMW 2011

Hallmark’s Journey into Social Media
Experiences and Learnings

LISTENING
J.C. Hall
(1891 - 1982)

Social Media Listening
2000 - launched first consumer community for the purpose of research.
2005 – pilot w/ Umbria to understand the Hallmark brand in the social space.
2007 - pilot with Spiral 16 to understand Influential Bloggers.
2009 - major RFP with 8 vendors – find partner for research and marketing.
2010 - consulted with Ben Smithee; contracted with Collective Intellect for a look into holidays, ornaments.

1 Hard Question“Is there a framework we can use to understand social media data?”
3 “Simple” Questions
“Can we use social media sources to get new product ideas?”
“Can we use social media data to create marketing interventions ‘in season?’”
“Could we use social media data to help understand people and their lives?”

Hard Question“Is there a framework we can use to understand social media data?”

Social Media Analysis Space?
Discovery
Understanding people
Uncovering white space
Topics + dashboard
What you’re trying to accomplish
Specific Topic
Open Search
Ways of approaching the data
“Ocean” of Data
Small “pond” of data
Brand Reputation
KPI’s
Monitoring
Source: Hallmark CU&I, 2010

Consumer Leads
Focus
We Lead
Single Stakeholder
Multiple Stakeholders
Breadth of Learning
Hallmark Social Media “Listening” Activities

Consumer Initiated Conversation
Hallmark Initiated Conversation
Single Stakeholder
Multiple Stakeholders
Breadth of Learning
Listening audit showed that activities are many and varied
Focus of Conversation

9
Dimensions of listening
Feedback is more about the brand and rational
Discovery is more about the consumer and emotional
Source: CEB

Listening activities tend to fall towards feedback and tactical
Source: CEB

Research Landscape
Structured Data – it is what we made it
PA’s
Multivariate
Trackers
……
Focus
Groups
Communities
Ethnography
Observation
Qualitative
Quantitative
Social Media
Unstructured Data – it is what it is
Where does social media data play in the research landscape?

3 “Simple” Questions
“Can we use social media sources to get new product ideas?”
“Can we use social media data to create marketing interventions ‘in season?’”
“Can we use social media data to help understand people and their lives?”

What Did We Conclude?
Getting “New” Product ideas is very hard!
If you do lots of traditional research and ideation, chances are you’ve heard of thought of everything you will uncover through social media.

Some Thoughts on In-Season Marketing
Twitter promotional sweepstakes generated major spikes in Hallmark Ornament Mentions
Hallmark Gold Crown store visits emerged as a conversational theme - how could that be leveraged?
Emotional connection to Hallmark brand ornaments vs. those bought in Wal-Mart or Target – how could that be leveraged?
Focus on connecting the troops and their families – what would that look like?

What Did We Conclude?
Beware of making any marketing suggestions without having Marketing in the design and analysis discussions!
Research in social media begins to “rub up against” Marketing and can create friction!

Thoughts Going Forward

What Have We Learned About Social Media?
There are new vendors emerging daily in the social media listening space.
Most vendors provide the same capabilities – it is hard to find differentiation.

Social media data is messy (spam, advertising, porn, context) and requires significant validation and cleaning – suppliers are getting better and better at this, but it is still an issue.
Text analysis capabilities vary from vendor to vendor – you have to know what questions to ask to know what you’re getting.
Sentiment analysis is about 75-85% accurate (based on external research) and everybody does it at some level. It is of limited value.
It is difficult to classify individual contributors – but not impossible, and it costs more. This capability is still emerging.

Clear and specific listening objectives are essential to getting meaningful data and information from listening efforts.
Social media conversations can be very rich and could support many different aspects of our business.
Getting meaningful learnings and insights is very time and labor intensive, despite the software tools. There is a learning curve!

Social Media Data is…
Self-selecting/Opt-in–
Participants who create social media content must opt-in or choose to participate.
They may or may not represent your target consumer.
They do not necessarily constitute a “probability sample” of the population.
The researcher is not establishing the topic and controlling the conversation, but rather listening to whatever is posted.

+ Not recall-based –
Recall data is known to be the least reliable source of data.
Recall is usually the result of some stimulus (question, prototype) that can affect what the respondent recalls (due to priming).
Social media data is less subject to recall biases and errors, as it usually represents comments and observations made “in the moment” or shortly thereafter.

+ Longitudinal and Instance-based –
Tradtional MR is usually instance-based feedback/insights, social media research can represent “flow of life.”
There is a constant stream, or flow, of social media data continually being created.

+ Self-recording/Archival –
Conversations, both public and private, within the social media environment are archived and available for others to consume at will.
Conversations with people in traditional research methods are recorded, but are generally only available to permission-based viewers/listeners.
This creates an interesting blend of liability and value to researchers and brands.

Paradigm Shifts for the World of Market Research
Data Transparency –

Data Ownership –
Blurring Boundaries between Research and Other Divisions –

Control of the Environment –
Blurring of Qualitative and Quantitative –
Re-thinking Sampling –
Disproportionate Influence of Respondents

Shrinking space between brands and people.
Social media has “leveled” the playing field for both consumers and brands.

Relationships are the Ultimate Sources of Insights within Social Media –

Food for Thought
Just as Technology is NOT an Idea, so Social Media Listening is NOT an Idea! Both are means to achieving whatever it is we want to achieve!

Food for Thought
Resources: People, Time, & Money
Spectrum of Desired Outcomes

Social Media Research White Paper
http://www.slideshare.net/CuratingPixels/utilizing-social-media-to-understand-people
http://bit.ly/UnderstandingPeople

QUESTIONS?
Tom Brailsford – Hallmark Cards, Inc.
tbrail@hallmark.com
816-274-3989

http://www.outsideinstrategies.com	500
http://outsideinstrategies.squarespace.com	19

Hallmark's Journey into Social Media | Hallmark @ MRMW 2011

by ResearchShare on Jul 26, 2011

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

2 Embeds 519

Statistics

Hallmark’s Journey into Social Media | Hallmark @ MRMW 2011 — Presentation Transcript