NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Social media consultancy Converseon and word-of-mouth analytics firm ChatThreads have joined to create CHORUS™, the first system to comprehensively fuse advanced social media listening and analysis together with offline word of mouth tracking. CHORUS uniquely enables brands to clearly understand both the online and offline word of mouth drivers behind brand perception and purchasing decisions, and the interplay between them.

The partnership was announced at the annual Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) Re:think conference in New York.

“Until now, online social media listening and offline word of mouth tracking have essentially been two parallel universes,” said Rob Key, CEO of Converseon. “While an increasing number of brands are measuring online conversation, there has been a significant void in the measurement of online's impact in offline word of mouth, and vice versa. CHORUS solves the problem of how social media conversation impacts the proverbial offline kitchen table discussions. For the first time brands can clearly understand and measure word of mouth in all its forms.” Key remarks that even with the growing proliferation of online social media conversation, an estimated 80 percent of word of mouth occurs offline.

Converseon’s proprietary Conversation Mining™ technology, together with the mobile-enabled touchpoint tracking developed by ChatThreads, bridge a long recognized chasm between what is put forth in multi-channel advertising and marketing campaigns, and what enhances brand affinity, stimulates word of mouth discussions, and drives purchasing decisions.

ChatThreads Touchpoints™ is a mobile-enabled media tracking solution that allows real-time measurement of consumer exposure to any type of brand touchpoint, including word-of-mouth and traditional media. Touchpoints participants record their impressions as they are encountered, within a customized framework of “attribution modeling.” Touchpoints development, led by ChatThreads' Founder and Chief Research Officer, Dr. Walter Carl, was in response to client requests for understanding word of mouth impact within the context of other media channels. Converseon in turn, harvests the full range of social media conversation —blogs and comments, forums, photo and video sharing, Facebook, Twitter and more—over a given period of time to understand topics, volume, voice, sentiment, shared links, relationships, and location to inform marketing campaigns. Converseon’s social intelligence technologies infused with human analysis is designed to provide the deepest levels of insight including incident level sentiment, capture of sarcasm and slang, and intention.

CHORUS combines, organizes and reports data gleaned via these two methodologies to create a set of unique actionable insights to improve media and message optimization and allocation. This includes:

• Social media and offline word of mouth value: How word of mouth and social media impact purchase behavior and interactions
• Relationship: How online conversation drives offline word of mouth, and vice versa.
• Sentiment drivers: The sentiment towards brands and campaigns, as well as the drivers by channel or topic
• Target reach and Influence: The social media venues that have the greatest impact on my audience
• Amplification: How online social media conversation amplifies and impacts offline sentiment
• Segment behavior: How online conversation impacts various segment activity and behavior offline
• Messaging optimization: The messages that resonate most with the audiences, and across which channels

According to Dr. Walter Carl, “With CHORUS, marketers can now understand which media fuels discussions and decisions. It’s more than a post-mortem reporting system. Brands will be able to optimize media mix and messaging based on social media and word-of-mouth purchase drivers.”

ABOUT CONVERSEON

Founded in 2001, Converseon is a multiple-award winning full service social consultancy that helps leading brands “join the conversation” to meet business objectives. Converseon provides the listening/engagement technologies (Conversation Miner™), organizational consulting and engagement/activation services to provide a unique “end to end” social solution for leading enterprises. Among its recognitions is the 2009 SAMMY Award for “Best Social Media Agency,” a WOMMIE (for Best Word of Mouth Program), the OMMA Award for Best Use of Virtual Worlds, among many others. Headquartered in New York, Converseon’s team extends to Detroit, San Francisco, London, Switzerland and Australia. For additional information please contact Converseon at info(at)converseon(dot)com or learn more about Converseon at www.converseon.com, www.twitter.com/converseon or blog.converseon.com

ABOUT CHATTHREADS

ChatThreads is a leading provider of consumer word of mouth and touchpoints analytics that helps brands quantify the reach, purchase and trial impact of their consumer interactions. ChatThreads was established in 2007 by Dr. Walter Carl, its Founder and Chief Research Officer, after developing the company's proprietary platform while a faculty member at Northeastern University in Boston. ChatThreads works with clients in the consumer packaged goods, food & beverage, consumer electronics and pharmaceutical industries, including Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg’s, Kraft, Nike, Microsoft and Unilever. The company is based in Boston, MA. For additional information please contact ChatThreads at LearnMore(at)ChatThreads(dot)com or visit our website at http://www.ChatThreadsCorp.com.

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