Y&R's BAV Group Debuts Social Media Influence Measure

New York-based BAV Group, the insight division of marcoms firm Y&R, has launched a proprietary model called BAVSocial to measure the influence social media has on long-term brand performance.

BAV Group is built on Y&R's BAV (BrandAsset Valuator) tool, which attempts to map the impressions consumers have of various brands and their relation to them. Developed in partnership with IBM Watson, Pulsar and Crimson Hexagon, and employing Watson's advanced machine learning algorithms, the new BAVSocial model measures real-time conversation and engagement across social media communities; blogs; news; forums; and search patterns. In addition, it brings together hundreds of social media listening metrics - including four which are used to quantify a brand's equity and influence - and links them with the BAV brand model and database of consumer brand perceptions.

The model will be rolled out globally, launching first across North America and Europe. Kyle Boots (pictured) will lead the unit as Director of Social Analytics and Insights. He reports to BAV Group CEO Michael Sussman, who comments: 'In a sprawling online world of content, most traditional social media listening passively pipelines data and stops there. With BAV's robust data and our unique analytic approach, BAVSocial melds the social dynamics taking place today with a deep understanding of what it takes to build brands'.

Web site: www.yr.com .