Nielsen and Facebook recently released a study outlining the positive relationship between paid and earned media on brand awareness and engagement metrics. The study is the first joint research report from the two companies following their September 2009 announcement that they were partnering to develop quantifiable brand-focused measurement for advertisers on Facebook. This white paper outlines the cumulative results of their “BrandLift” studies across 14 Facebook campaigns.

360i POV on Nielsen and Facebook’s Advertising Effectiveness Study

Key Takeaways

What prompted the study?: As social marketing continues to evolve, marketers, agencies and publishers have been struggling to understand the impact of social channels on driving brand metrics – and, more importantly, how to measure and compare this impact alongside traditional brand media channels. Measuring brand awareness, ad recall and purchase intent within the context of Facebook advertising will help marketers understand the value of running paid and earned media together and could inform larger decisions around their media mix and budget allocation.

Why is this important to marketers?: Looking at the bigger picture, this study highlights the importance and impact of online media, both paid and earned, on driving brand metrics. Social marketing as earned media is becoming a bigger part of the marketing mix, but is often planned and evaluated separately from traditional digital media channels. Thus far, there has not been a definitive study showing the complementary connection between paid and earned media. Nor has there been the framework through which marketers and agencies can plan these two mediums together.

Next Steps: Marketers need to begin looking at paid and earned media initiatives as complementary and know that planning them together can impact brand metrics. Marketers and their agencies will need to develop strategies that include both, clearly laying out how they’ll play off each other.

When planning a campaign that’s meant to engage consumers beyond the initial click, it’s imperative that consumer behavior and social context are taken into account. Marketers and agencies have the ability to drive that behavior by including the right tools and support to help their audience connect with their brand and amplify their message.

Stay tuned for more thoughts right here on our blog and via Twitter at http://twitter.com/360i.

Last week, the discovery of a hidden feature in the Yelp iPhone app sparked buzz about augmented reality (image via Flickr).

Now that augmented reality has established itself as the technology buzzword of the year, what impact will it have on social media?

Google Trends shows the growth curve for augmented reality, first appearing in the United States in November 2008, and then picking up more steam in March and June of this year. Putting it in perspective though, over the past 12 months, there were 16 times as many searches for “widgets” and nearly 26 times as many searches for “Second Life.” It has some catching up to do with the emerging trends of yesteryear.

So what is augmented reality (often abbreviated as AR)? Here’s the simplest definition I can muster: augmented reality provides a layer of digital content over real-world experiences. Vague? Perhaps. But it covers the main ways augmented reality is used today.

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Chick-fil-A, one of the most popular brands on Facebook, is testing out a DR ad that offers up a free food for users who fill out an online form (image via Inside Facebook).

Facebook announced yesterday that they are testing a new DR ad unit. This new unit will complement the series of “engagement ad” units they launched in December and are part of their attempt to offer broader appeal to marketers.

Their latest unit features the familiar “sponsored” box in the right rail. When a user interacts with the unit by clicking, a data collection form pops up. Like all Facebook ads, that user’s action becomes distributed in his news feed to his friends, creating a viral effect. This makes it a great test for coupon distribution or a “free sample” effort like the current test. And like all Facebook ads, they can be targeted based on a host of criteria from demographics to expressed interests.

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