This article was co-authored by Joe Pinaire and Allison Squires.
On Fridays, the Atlantic Wire takes a look at weekly top movers in the Dachis Group Social Business Index. Each Monday, we dig a bit deeper to into ranking changes.
This week The Atlantic Wire discussed shifts in the SBI score from Volkswagen AG, Dunkin’ Brands Group and Advance Publications. However, a number of other big brands were also on the move. Let’s take a look at some of the changes in rank for Abercrombie & Fitch Co. and Unilever.
Abercrombie & Fitch Co.
Retail clothing giant Abercrombie & Fitch Co. jumped 11 spots in the rankings this past week, moving from the 87th spot to 76th. Fueling their climb in the rankings, the Ohio-based company launched their international ‘Hot Guys’ campaign, promising shirtless male greeters to patrons of varying outlets. Designed largely to gain publicity and drive foot-traffic to their stores, the offline experience has driven significant buzz in the social sphere, as well. Supporting the effort online, A&F is engaging their 5.8 million Facebook fans with photos of the campaign and fans are reacting to the content with an outpouring of high praise and desirable behaviors (i.e. likes, comments, shares). Another large source of buzz is being driven by online conversation in Singapore, where the bold campaign has challenged cultural norms and sparked debate over the societal implications of allowing such a campaign. With the ultimate fallout in Singapore yet to be seen, the campaign supports the wide-held belief that sex sells (and drives social buzz)–even when you replace ‘Summer Girls‘ with shirtless guys.
Unilever
Unilever rose this week to spot 33 on the Social Business Index, primarily due to external propagation to non-followers of the brand. Last week, Unilever jumped due to Axe’s Facebook page, hitting two million fans and driving the subsequent jump in signal. This week, however, the rise can be attributed to different causes, primarily Dove’s and Ben & Jerry’s respective Facebook pages.
Dove started the Self-Esteem Fund in 2006, and ever since has been working to educate and inspire women with support from their 3.9 million fan base. One call-to-action on December 11th asked fans to ‘like’ the post as a sign of support for the cause, eventually resulting in 3 thousand likes and almost 50 fans comments. Simply put, this behavior supports the notion that passionate fans are usually willing to engage with a brand when asked.
Moving forward, the Ben & Jerry’s Facebook page also contributed to Unilever’s rising position on the SBI, as fans continue to share the brand signal to non-followers. Ben & Jerry’s is a go-to destination for ice cream year-round, and their newest flavor, Schweddy Balls, featuring fudge covered rum and malt balls is still a hot topic for the ice-cream company. It will be interesting to see if conversation around Ben & Jerry’s will dwindle as people start making their New Year’s Resolutions and what eventual affect this will have on Unilever’s SBI ranking.
The Social Business Index analyzes signals from over one hundred million social sources globally and measures effectiveness of strategies and tactics organizations employ within social channels. To learn more, visit SocialBusinessIndex.com and follow @DGSBI on Twitter.
