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Most Talked About Brands Are Really Easy to Talk About.

by Patricia Verdolino on Oct 11, 2011

Facebook has launched the new “People Talking About” feature, which calculates user-initiated activities on a page; including posts, comments, Likes, shares, tags, and checkins. This feature is a real time way to measure consumer engagement beyond clicking “Like” and moving on.

Not surprising, the ten most talked about brands are some of the biggest and best in the world.  But they also are the brands that know who they are and consistently deliver their brand message at every touchpoint.

More importantly, these brands know what they sell. They know that they don’t just sell underwear, carbonated beverages, or potato chips. They sell fun, sexy, cool, happy, and control. Heck, one brand sells rainbows.

The brands that made the top ten also share simplicity of visual identity and well deserved (graphic) iconic status. Each brand has evolved their word mark + icon over time by stripping out the extraneous stuff and clearly capturing the essence of their brand. All of the top ten visual identities can live  just as successfully off of the package, cup, storefront, or sneaker as they do on them.

So, why are the most talked about brands talked about so often? Because they are easy to talk about. Because they talk to a consumer’s emotional needs and deliver both an intangible and tangible product.  And once you have the heart of the consumer, you’ve got them engaged and ready to keep talking about you.

Most Talked About Brands:

1. Starbucks
2. Coca-Cola
3. Victoria’s Secret
4. Skittles
5. Oreo
6. Red Bull
7. Playstation
8. Converse
9. Pringles
10. Converse All Star

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Join the Discussion

  • Mike Williams - Oct 12, 2011

    I like the idea of measuring conversation. If we could measure the tone of what people say (accurately) across social media it seems like it would be a pretty useful indicator; a simple metric in a net-promoter score kind of way (though would also probably have the same limitations and opposition and NPS.)

    That said, I have lots of problems with Facebook’s implementation. From what I can tell, the data pool of conversations on Facebook seems relevant only to big name brands and FMCG, the stats are not rigorous enough to be overly useful, and the more Facebook slices and dices the demographics behind them the more creepy and “watching-your-every-move” it feels. With FB’s drive toward features/policies that increase valuation before the IPO launch, the site is starting to feel less and less like a place I want to be, and more like a place advertisers want to be (while I happen to be there too). Social portals are a winner-take all race, and FB needs to carefully consider the value to (or impact on) the end user, especially with a (debatable) viable alternative in G+.

  • Patricia Verdolino - Oct 13, 2011

    Mike, totally agree. Especially with the strange feeling that Facebook was designed to sell data, and not connect/share with people. The social space is getting scarier by the day, and it is up to Facebook the brand to be mindful of the perceptions they are going to perpetuate about themselves.

FutureBrand is part of McCann Worldgroup, the official marketing services provider for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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