Forrester Groundswell Awards: Listening

Bacon Lovers' Talk by Oscar Mayer and Networked Insights

By Networked Insights

Oscar Mayer teamed with Networked Insights to garner deeper consumer insights and inspire marketing innovation as well as explore ways in which Oscar Mayer could use social media to connect with consumers and identify opportunities for growth. This award submission highlights the solution Networked Insights provided (utilizing technology to develop an online community and then monitoring the discussion to listen to consumers) and the results Oscar Mayer received.

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(1 vote)
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InterContinental Hotels Group and Communispace: A 24/7 Listening Channel that Drives Revenue

By IHG and Communispace

Three private communities of roughly 300 members each—all from IHG’s loyalty program—pipe customer ideas and opinions into their organization everyday. Using traditional methods such as surveys and threaded discussions and more innovative techniques such as photos, video, and even voicemail, IHG turns to the communities for help in developing promotions, new features and services for their loyalty program, hotels, brands, and everything in between.

IHG connects daily with their communities to listen to their ideas and ask members everything—from what is most important to them during their typical hotel stay, to what they think of an upcoming promotion. Customer insights are funneled back to stakeholders and executives, giving management an ongoing connection to their most important customers. Insights are integrated into strategic business decisions, training documents for the hotels and call centers, creative briefs for promotions and ad campaigns, and marketing materials.

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(8 votes)
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How The Martin Agency and Communispace Helped Everyday Moms Become Walmart’s Muse

By Walmart, The Martin Agency, and Communispace

Walmart had a unique opportunity in the downward trending economy of 2008–2009: not only to help moms by being a low-price leader, but to build deeper relationships with moms who needed to find new ways to help their families succeed on less. As well, heading into the recession, Walmart was facing an identity crisis—it needed to rediscover who Walmart is at its best. The Martin Agency set out to make a new emotional connection between Walmart and its 200 million shoppers.

In order to understand their customers in a new way, they needed a new research tool. They needed social media and specifically, they needed a private online community. They needed to hear from their customers constantly and Communispace could give the voice of their customer a constant presence. Communispace created three communities of 300 Walmart Moms and let them talk. Walmart listened.

Walmart gained surprising insights from the online communities; for these moms, saving money wasn’t a burden, it was a badge. The greatest inspiration to Walmart was hearing moms tell other moms how the retailer had helped them pull off great feats of family fun and fiscal fitness, against all odds.

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(5 votes)
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Vh1 empowers viewers to engage, discuss, and affect the future of the network

By Passenger and VH1

In May 2009, Vh1 launched Vh1VIPs, an exclusive, branded online community for fans of Vh1, TV and pop culture in general. Their primary goal was to gather essential insights on viewer motivations and lifestyles. Passenger’s proprietary platform and focus on member engagement led Vh1’s strategic insights and research team toward direct and dynamic conversations with its audience.

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(6 votes)
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FOX turns to its Passenger community to gather feedback on American Idol

By Passenger and FOX

In an effort to understand viewer preferences of its most popular show, American Idol, FOX turned to its Passenger-powered online community, Project FOX. Through the community FOX was able to gather great feedback that prompted American Idol executives to change the format to the show. The new format showed a measurable positive impact in the Nielsen ratings.

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(2 votes)
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The Coca-Cola Company: connecting with consumers worldwide

By Resource Interactive

We created a new experience for The Coca-Cola Company's homepage that uses consumer generated content - via social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube - to expose visitors to live dialog about the company. This provides investors, press, career seekers and consumers an on-demand look into the vibrancy and reach of the organization. And it provides a direct path to and compelling reason for The Coca-Cola Company and its brands to listen to what their consumers are saying.

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(10 votes)
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WeeWorld Users Get Political as Presidential Election Goes Viral

By WeeWorld

WeeWorld, a popular social game and virtual world for teens, became a hot spot for young voters and those not of age to vote throughout the election process based on WeeWorld users' demand for their own political forum. A more politically focused and cause-oriented generation, WeeWorld users embraced the use of the virtual world for political activity, conversation, debate and celebration surrounding the presidential campaign and inauguration.

Presidential nominees welcomed a new generation of technologies as a portal to young voters, and WeeWorld provided a community to foster such dialog. While election/ inauguration coverage was "tweeted" and live streamed, it was also simulated in virtual worlds - reaching the non-voting audience like never before. WeeWorld users watched election coverage live with other WeeMees from around the globe, attended a virtual inaugural ball, participated in blogs/forums, and adorned their avatars with partisan gear, political pickets and other swag to show their spirit. A majority of the 30 million WeeMees participated and some even planned movements and celebrations on their own.

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(9 votes)
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McNally Smith College of Music Joins The Conversation

By Risdall Marketing Group

McNally Smith College of Music is a contemporary music school located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Formerly known as Musictech College, McNally Smith was being overshadowed by its previous brand and was having a difficult time differentiating itself from the large, well-known music colleges in the US.

Risdall Online Marketing Group created a social media optimization strategy that engaged prospects while they were talking about music schools or music college alternatives. Instead of “shouting” messages into the online world, McNally Smith listened to what was happening, and created conversations to engage with those surrounding their industry and brand.

McNally Smith leveraged many online listening tools such as Radian6 to compile all mentions surrounding their industry. Then, McNally effectively engaged in the conversations through Twitter, RSS, Facebook, blogs, YouTube and other media.

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(6 votes)
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NASCAR "Fan Council" - The Engine that Drives Insight into Avid Fans, powered by Vision Critical

By NASCAR and Vision Critical

With TV ratings and attendance slipping after a decade of growth, NASCAR refocused attention on the avid fan and worked with Vision Critical to develop a private online community to engage with core fans. Known as the NASCAR "Fan Council", this pre-qualified online community of 12,000 fans is a foundational element in NASCAR's competition, business and marketing decisions. On average, NASCAR engages members at a minimum twice a month on input specific to all industry stakeholders.

There is no incentive to participate as these passionate fans feel honored to be a part of this exclusive club. It's this enthusiasm that helped fuel a recent major rule change within the sport. After fan sentiment within the community ran high for a new restart format where drivers raced side by side as opposed to single file, NASCAR picked up the comments and pushed the feedback to senior management, who initiated a new double-file restart rule - to overwhelming positive reviews. It's a great example on how vital NASCAR views the "Fan Council" as a channel for fans to voice their ideas and opinions. And something NASCAR President Mike Helton supported when referencing on national television, cementing the value of the "Fan Council" as a vital listening agent.

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