Whitevector: Online Christmas discussions
Whitevector‘s latest research report looks at online conversations in the all-important Christmas season.
‘Christmas’ and in particular everything related to ‘Christmas shopping’ is a popular discussion topic containing several different themes that are relevant to many consumer brands. Besides chatting about the holiday season in general, people talk about which presents to buy, what food to prepare, where to travel for the New Year celebrations, and so on. These discussions contain a lot of useful information for a marketer, who above all needs to know how consumers perceive his brand and what are the reasons for buying or not buying his product.
If you look at forum based online discussions in the UK, there were approximately 210,000 Christmas related discussions in October 2009 alone. These discussions naturally increase in volume when approaching the middle of December – the busiest time of the Christmas shopping season. Consequently any marketer for whom Christmas is an important sales season, would do well to analyse online discussions to see how his brand’s presence in social media changes when getting closer to Christmas.
Benefits of a Christmas buzz analysis project
Analysing online discussions regarding (for example) a brand, its competitors and category topics before and after the Christmas period is very similar to a social media based campaign analysis. In a campaign study, one can compare the level and nature of online discussion before the campaign was launched, during the campaign and after it. Usually the amount of discussion increases rapidly after the launch of the campaign and it usually keeps raising interest during the campaign. As the campaign period ends, the level of the discussion usually decreases as well. However, a successful campaign can generate discussion months after the campaign itself finishes, as it starts to live a life of its own in social media.
Besides knowing what is being said about one’s own brand during the studied time period, a Christmas buzz analysis project has at least three more concrete benefits. First, the analysis enables a marketer to identify key target groups and thus better position one’s brand in the future. Secondly, by finding key discussion themes a marketer can fine tune his marketing message and SEM keywords for the next season’s advertising. Thirdly, a marketer can gain a better understanding of why Christmas sales succeeded or failed by comparing online discussion data with Christmas sales and media investment figures.
Most popular discussion topics over the Christmas period
There are two main themes within Christmas-related online buzz that are particularly relevant to businesses: Christmas presents and Christmas preparation. When looking at discussions regarding Christmas presents, consumers talk especially about what kinds of presents to buy, what are the many and various options within the chosen product categories, and where to buy the chosen products.
Thus, before Christmas the discussions focus on reviewing the options in the market whereas after the holidays people tend to talk about the gifts they have received. This post-Christmas discussion is a great source of feedback on how desired the presents were and to find out if there has been anything in particular that has drawn consumers’ attention.
When looking at brand and product related online discussions around Christmas time, there are a few specific categories that will be discussed more than others. These categories include:
- Clothes, shoes, accessories, home decorations
- Cosmetics
- Electronics
- Food, drinks, sweets, pastries
- Movies, music
- Retail, e-commerce, department stores, shopping centers
- Smaller loans, credit cards
- Sporting goods, equipment
- Toys
- Travelling, hotels
To summarise, a Christmas discussion-based analysis helps a marketer to both measure and assess the success of the Christmas season and to collect learnings that will help him improve next season’s planning according to the lessons learned from the analysis. The most discussed brands over the Christmas period relate to Christmas presents and preparation.
Christmas buzz analysis offer
Whitevector is prepared to offer MediaTel subscribers a special analysis of a Christmas campaign over three months to help a consumer brand analyse all relevant online discussions over the Christmas season. This special offer allows advertisers and agencies an easy entry to the world of online discussion analysis, as we will provide the client with full customer support and all the necessary service work. The research objective of the study is to analyse how the Christmas period impacted the visibility and positioning of one’s brand in online discussions.
For more details of Whitevector’s special Christmas offer, please contact:
Tommi Lehtonen
+358 50 511 4386
tommi.lehtonen@whitevector.com