A recent study from BzzAgent measures the results of social media marketing campaigns on brand advocacy over a year’s length of time, looking at how long product opinion and purchase intent are affected following each campaign. “Social marketing is great at getting advocates excited about a product so they’ll want to share their opinions and recommendations with many others,” the study asserts, but “how long does the love last?”
The study started with an immediate boost in product opinion (nearly 40% increase), likelihood to recommend (22% increase), and purchase intent (31% increase) created by the brand advocacy program. Participating consumers were then surveyed every three months over the course of the year to see how their attitudes changed about the products as time passed. As reported by eMarketer, the study looks at campaigns involving consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands.
Looking at brand advocates for several consumer products, the study found that from the initial campaign results, a high level of positive brand sentiment was retained over the period of one year:
- 94% of the lift in product opinion was maintained
- 91% of the lift in likelihood to recommend
- 88% of the lift in purchase intent
A look at the effects of social campaigns on brand advocates’ likelihood to recommend a product:
The immediate and long-term effects of social campaigns on purchase intent:
While the study is limited to brand advocates (not surprising, since BzzAgent is a social marketing agency specializing in brand advocacy) and only focuses on consumer packaged goods, it gives marketers positive indications that social media campaigns may have long-lasting effects for their brand.
What do you think?
