**The Digital Brand Index, which identifies, measures and analyses online tech talk across Asia Pacific, reveals nearly one fifth (17.4 per cent) of online discussion in Singapore during the festive season revolved around SingTel and StarHub, driven by the EPL and FIFA World Cup battles; and that consumer technology brands enjoyed online Christmas cheer
** The Edelman-Brandtology quarterly index reveals unique trends and insights into Singapore’s online fascination with technology brands
Singapore, January 18, 2010 – The latest Digital Brand Index (DBI), released today, reveals the extent to which football dominated online technology talk in Singapore in the run up to Christmas, overshadowing the vast majority of other conversations regarding technology brands. Between October and December 2009, passionate football fans flooded forums, blogs, social networking sites and news sites to discuss the latest bidding wars between SingTel and StarHub for EPL and FIFA World Cup viewing rights. Amplified by the heated battle between the rival telco’s, football forums in Singapore saw a staggering 1,162.5 per cent increase in conversations during the quarter.
The other significant force driving online chatter was the Christmas gift giving season, which drove discussions around technology brands up by 107.2 per cent. This quarter’s biggest movers and shakers in the buzziest brands league table were Google, which leapfrogged SingTel into first place with an increase in mentions by 244.6 per cent, and SAP, which plummeted 26 places with a decrease of 90 per cent. M1 was the highest new entry in the table, racking up 7,732 mentions and securing 4th place.
Now in its second quarter, the DBI reveals trends, movers and shakers, as well as insights and influential channels. This quarter, the DBI tracked 155,060 online conversations, pertaining to 73 technology brands, contained within 554 influential channels. Other key findings include:
· Google (over 20,600) and SingTel (over 13,700) topped the rankings by way of volume of conversations, with increases of 245 per cent and 50 per cent in the last quarter respectively;
· StarHub closed the gap on SingTel, enjoying a 137.3 per cent increase in online buzz;
· Canon (4.3) once again topped the Average Engagement scoreboard, ahead of LG (3.3);
· The centre of gravity for online conversation regarding technology brands in Singapore was once again dominated by Hardwarezone Forum, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (37,043 mentions) and Twitter Singapore (20,643). The channels combined accounted for over one third (37.2 per cent) of all chatter; and
· StarHub knocked SingTel from the top spot in the Channel Index, which reveals the number of unique channels discussing a brand.
Sanjay Nair, Director for the Technology Practice, Edelman Southeast Asia, said: “It’s clear that football, as a sport, presents a unique opportunity for technology brands to engage with Singaporean enthusiasts online. The findings also re-iterate our recommendation for brand marketers to integrate off line, online and traditional media activities for greater impact on bottom line, especially around peak consumer buying seasons and events.”
Kelly Choo, Co-founder & Business Development Director of Brandtology, said: “Brands owners should not only measure their online buzz and engagement levels, but also actively identify and engage influential channels and voices. This would translate to goodwill and brand preference and ultimately an increase in sales.”
Developed by Edelman and derived from Brandtology data, the research will be followed up in the coming weeks with a detailed report which will be free to download on both Edelman and Brandtology’s websites.
Survey Methodology
The DBI was conducted across eight key markets in the Asia Pacific region, namely, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore. Delivering deep online insight on a quarterly basis, the Asia Pacific Digital Brand Index monitors key brands from the following broad categories: Internet and Software, Consumer Electronics, Mobile and Telecommunications, Business and Consulting and IT and Technology, across a list of popular online channels – including influential blogs, forums, and online news outlets. The channels were selected by identifying conversations based on both qualitative as well as quantitative research. For more information, please visit www.edelmanapac.com/index.jsp?series=36 or www.brandtology.com/index.php/press_release/dbi2.
About Edelman
Edelman is the world’s leading independent public relations firm, with 3,200 employees in 51 offices worldwide. Edelman was named PRWeek’s “2009 Agency of the Year,” PRWeek’s “Large Agency of the Year” (for the third time in the last four years), and Holmes Report’s “2009 Best Large Agency to Work For” and was listed as a top-10 firm by Advertising Age in 2007 and 2008.
Edelman represents technology brands around the world, many of which are included in the Digital Brand Index. For more information about Edelman visit www.edelman.com.
About Brandtology
Brandtology is one of the largest independent business and brand online intelligence service provider that combines technology, processes and trained professionals to deliver accurate and relevant intelligence to global organizations. Our proprietary opinion mining technologies aid organizations in listening to digital conversations across countries in multiple languages while our trained Social Media Professionals ensures high accuracy and relevancy of the intelligence provided to clients. Astute use of such intelligence have enabled Brandtology’s global clients to make timely and informed strategic decisions for public engagement, crisis management, media planning, campaign measurement, product development and strategic planning, amongst other uses. For more information, please visit www.brandtology.com.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:17 pm
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