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Date:
If you "LIKE" will you Buy?: New Data on Social Media Exposure and Purchase Behavior
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WCAI Research Opportunity Sponsored by a Multinational FMCG Company
May 4th, 2012, 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST
Over the past two years, this major multinational Fast Moving Consumer Goods ("FMCG") company has carefully collected data for a specific product category in a Western European country. Using household scanners, television monitors, and network card data capturing devices, the company has recorded what its panelists have bought, what they've watched on TV, their banner ad exposures, and what's been presented to them on their Facebook news feeds. The company's products can be found in all major grocery chains, and their brands have strong presence across the television, online and social channels.
The purchase data is comprehensive, with daily purchases within the product category from 25,000 households over two years. When panelists bring a purchase home, they scan it and it is recorded as a purchase if it falls under the product category of focus. For a subset of 10,000 panelists, online banner and video exposures are available for four of the company's brands within the category. For the same group of 10,000, there are 12 months of social media data on all the Facebook News Feed updates they saw for the top 30 brands in this Western European country. This data includes whether the panelist is a "Fan" of one of the brands, whether he saw a post from a brand, whether his friend "liked" or posted about a brand, or even mentioned one of the brands. And finally, for a subset of 5,000 panelists, TV advertisement viewing data over 18 months will be available; consisting of the manufacturers, brands and creative IDs (specific creative pieces) panelists were exposed to. All data about individuals, manufacturers, brands, and categories will be masked.
The company encourages research on the role of social media communication in brand purchases that will help drive their social media strategy. The research can be specific to the company's brands or may compare the company's brands to other brands with different social media strategies. Researchers are encouraged to focus on 1) how social media affects brand purchases, 2) how consumers respond differently to direct and indirect exposures, 3) how social media interacts with traditional forms of advertising, and 4) what benefits individual-level data have over aggregate media spending data for determining ad effectiveness. Creative proposals on other topics are also welcomed.
To learn more about the data and business context, interested faculty, researchers, practitioners and doctoral students can attend a live webinar on Friday, May 4th, 2012, 12:00 - 1:00 pm EST. During the webinar the data will be described and executives from the company will be available for Q&A. The webinar will also be archived for those who cannot attend at the scheduled time. Please register at video.webcasts.com/events/wcai001/42014/.
After the webinar, interested researchers can submit proposals to wcai-research@wharton.upenn.edu by May 18th, 2012 at midnight to request access to the data. A committee including representatives of the company, Anindya Ghose (NYU), Wendy Moe (University of Maryland), Eric Bradlow (Wharton), Pete Fader (Wharton), and Elea McDonnell Feit (WCAI) will select the teams who will receive the data. Teams will be selected based on potential for academic contribution and ability to address issues of strategic importance to the sponsor.