Maltesers evaluation_Trufflenet

Uncovering consumer opinions

An analysis of social media conversationsfocused on Maltesers in the United Kingdom

Executive Summary 3

Introduction 7

Questions

1. What is the overall sentiment towards the brand? 82. What are the key prompts of conversation for Maltesers? 93. Which Maltesers products are most referenced? 144. What are the profiles of Maltesers commentators? 185. Where are these conversations occurring online? 216. Who are the most influential voices? 27

Conclusions and recommendations 32

Methodology 33

Contents

Uncovering consumer opinions 2

23,922Pieces of data

2,007 Relevant results

11.9Total data per

result

This report is designed to answer seven questions relating to social media conversations concerning Maltesers, using data from the online environment.

Trufflenet’s system searched the World Wide Web, based on the search term ‘Maltesers’ between 23 November 2011 and 2 December 2011. This search was conducted during the period leading up to Christmas including the start of Advent. Therefore mentions of seasonal Maltesers products and Christmas time activities are key features within results.

During the search the system returned a total of 2055 results. From these results we extracted 2007 that were relevant to this analysis. Those 2007 results provided 23,922 separate pieces of data that have been used throughout this analysis. That is a ratio of 11.9 pieces of data per relevant result (N.B. an explanation of data and results terminology is contained in the introduction).

The following section addresses each question with a summary answer, drawn from the information that is presented in this report:


1. What is the overall sentiment towards Maltesers?

Executive Summary

Trufflenet has developed a proprietary index based on the average sentiment expressed toward consumer brands and products previously analysed. Sentiment index scoring is generated on a 5 point scale and is arranged as follows: Love 3.3%, Like 11.3%, Neutral 77.4%, Dislike 6.4%, Hate 1.7%

Positive sentiment (‘Love’ and ‘Like’) towards Maltesers was 32.4% higher than the average positive sentiment for 65 other consumer brands. Among all conversations regarding Maltesers, 47.0% expressed positive sentiment.

Negative sentiment towards Maltesers (8.6%) was in line with the consumer brand average of 8.1% (Dislike 6.4%, Hate 1.7%).

32.4%

higher thanaverage positive

sentiment

Overview

Eating or having eaten Maltesers

(14.3%)

Spontaneous sentiment

(12.2%)

Having the chocolate (9.3%)

Executive Summary


2. What are the key prompts of conversation?

Maltesers conversations were mainly focused on eating or having eaten Maltesers (14.3%), spontaneous sentiment (‘I love Maltesers’) towards the brand (12.2%), and having or possessing the chocolates (9.3%).

Sharing tricks using Maltesers pieces (8.6%) and jokes (6.0%) were also prompts for several tweets and video mentions. Further discussions referred to wanting or craving the confectionaries (5.0%), product comparisons (4.6%), and taste (4.4%).

3. Which Maltesers products are most referenced?

Advent Calendars38.0%

White chocolatesingle bag

8.0%

Maltesers Box26.8%Maltesers single bag

8.0%

Maltesers incelebrations

4.3%

Maltesers big bag

3.4%

57.1%42.9%

Executive Summary


4. What are the profiles of Maltesers commentators?Gender:

There were 1720 results where commentators indicated gender. Of these results, 57.1% were female and 42.9% were male.

5. Where are these conversations occurring online?

2.7% of Maltesers conversations occurred on forums, namely, www.hotukdeals.com, www.mumsnet.com and www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk.

Remaining websites were found to have less than four mentions per site.

Location:

There were 1416 results where commentators indicated a specific UK location. Ascribed locations were then allocated to one of 12 regions.

Greater LondonSouth

East

North West

Yorkshire andHumberside

East England

Scotland

South West

WestMidlands

EastMidlands

NorthEast

Wales

NorthernIreland

21.9% of conversation participants were from Greater London

12.7% of conversation participants were from the South East

11.0% of conversation participants were from the Northwest

9.3% of conversation participants were from Yorkshire & Humberside

8.8% of conversation participants were from the East of England.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

84.8%

11.8%

2.7%

Executive Summary


6. Who are the most influential voices?

The most influential voices include those with Twitter accounts that were found to have the highest ranking Klout scores amongst overall results. (See page 19 for information on Klout score methodology.)

The highest ranking individuals include:

@ TheRealSupermum, Klout score: 84, number of followers: 4231

@ themanwhofell, Klout score: 66, number of followers: 21168

@ stephlarrrrrr, Klout score: 66, number of followers: 4622

Conclusions

Mentions of Maltesers were most prevalent on the microblogging channel Twitter and video sharing site, YouTube. As both allow for candid and open communication amongst consumers; Maltesers conversations are likely to remain popular on these and similar platforms.

Commentators’ tendency to share positive opinions about the brand online is indicative of an overall good response to Maltesers brand products. The high proportion of positive sentiment towards Maltesers is distinct among average scoring found in Trufflenet’s proprietary sentiment index. Continued social media monitoring that incorporates sentiment analysis is likely to uncover further details on consumer preferences and decision-making.

Courtesy of Mars chocolate UK


Introduction

The number of people seeking information and advice on social and digital media continues to increase significantly. The growth of social media beyond innovators and early adopters also increases the potential for regular consumers to use it to influence behavior and change opinions. This presents considerable opportunities and threats for companies engaging with consumers.

However, the growth of social media channels has also fragmented the audience, who are less likely to get information from a single source (such as a company website). The wide variety of companies and charities that now use digital media means that consumers have a vast number of brands competing for their attention.

By gleaning intelligence from consumers’ digital behavior companies can get deeper insights into attitudes and habits, identify trusted sources of information and devise compelling campaigns which reach the target audience and engage consumers.

When this report refers to results, it is speaking about the raw material Trufflenet’s system generates when it scours the Internet. Data, on the other hand, refers to a refined result – a result that has been considered relevant, and topics and values applied to produce a piece of data that is applicable to the analysis.

The test for whether a result should be considered data (a relevant result) is that its value must be clear and completely unambiguous. No assumptions are made about data, for example unless someone clearly states where they are located, or it appears in their biographical information a location value is not applied.

In all graphs that appear in this analysis you will find an equation n = x. X is the number of pieces of data which combined have formed the basis of the information in the graph, unless otherwise stated.

It is important to bear in mind when considering the information contained in this project the data is not linear. A single result may provide data to answer one or multiple questions, meaning that data sets throughout are not always directly comparable. It is important to consider the volume of data used to answer any question, depicted in the ‘n’ values of graphs and in other varying locations – particularly when drawing conclusions to inform next steps.

Definitions

Introduction

Conditions


1. What is the overall sentiment towards the brand?

Graph 1.1 Sentiment towards Maltesers in comparison with average sentiment for 65 other consumer brands

Sentiment Key

n=2007

Trufflenet’s sentiment scale offers comparison with average sentiment percentages for 65 other consumer brands.

Maltesers garnered a particularly high proportion of positive sentiment online (47.0%). Affirmative sentiment toward Maltesers was 32.4% higher than average positive sentiment found in Trufflenet’s sentiment index (average positive sentiment 14.6% - Love 3.3%, Like 11.3%).

Negative sentiment toward Maltesers (8.6%), was in line with the consumer brand average of 8.1% (Dislike 6.4%, Hate 1.7%).

Due to the greater proportion of positive sentiment towards Maltesers found during this monitoring period, neutral sentiment (44.4%) was much lower than the 77.3% average. This 32.9% difference in neutral sentiment between Maltesers and the 65 consumer brand average is indicative of the highly emotive and expressive nature of Maltesers discussions online.

13.8% 3.3% 33.2% 11.3% 44.4% 77.3% 7.7% 6.4% 0.9% 1.7%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Maltesers

Avg. sentiment for 65 other consumer brands

I love Maltesers.

Nom nom nom

@faiza_BABY

I think my favourite chocolate is Maltesers ♥

@Bensalvi23

maltesers give me goosebumps; too weird a texture!!

#sweettoothoverload :(

@MMMinaj

Neutral

Dislike

Hate

Love

Like


1. Conversations concerning the act of eating

or consuming Maltesers

2. Commentary where individuals only mention

positive or negative feelings such as ‘love’ or ‘hate’ toward the brand

Eating/eatenSpontaneoussentiment Tricks

Jokes Crave/want Comparison Taste

Combo Health Bought Gift

Addictive Relaxing Competition

3. Conversations where individuals talk about buying or possessing

Maltesers

4. Playing and sharing tricks using Maltesers

pieces

5. Telling and posting jokes featuring Maltesers

6. Mentions of craving or wanting Maltesers

7. Conversations where one Maltesers product was compared to other confectionary brands or

products

8. References to the taste of Maltesers products

9. Mentions of consuming Maltesers with another food

or drink item

10. Mentions of Maltesers in relation to an individual’s

health

11. A person in the process of buying or having bought

Maltesers

12. Maltesers mentioned in reference to giving or

receiving a gift

13. Maltesers referred to as being addictive

14. Mentions of having Maltesers when relaxing or

to enable relaxation

15. Reference to a competition having to do

with Maltesers

Graph 2.1 Key prompts of conversationn = 2076

2. What are the key prompts of conversation?

14.3% 12.2% 9.3% 8.6%

6.0% 5.4% 4.6% 4.4%

Having/possessing

4.2% 3.8% 3.7% 2.7%

2.6% 2.6% 2.5%Recommendation

16. Mentions of recommending a Maltesers product

1.6%

What are the key prompts of conversation?


Conversation participants often referred to the time of day in which they would eat or had eaten Maltesers. In particular, 8.1% of conversations about eating Maltesers revealed that the chocolates were consumed or going to be consumed at night. Other discussions indicated that they had been eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner (5.4%).

Despite it being the lead up to the holiday season, Maltesers conversations that also referred to Christmas were few (1.7%). Sentiment driven conversations contributed to 17.6% of Christmas references. An additional 20.6% of Christmas mentions were with regards to having or possessing the chocolates; and 23.5% of Christmas references were found in conversations about eating or having eaten Maltesers.

Several Maltesers conversations were humorous (17.1%), including those that referred to playing tricks (8.6%) and telling jokes (6.0%). 11.3% of jokes and tricks conversations stated a desire for fitting in or having a mouthful of Maltesers.

Which types of conversation were most emotive?

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Graph 2.2 Prompts that generated sentiment n = 2076

Competition 2.0%Tricks 9.6%

Jokes 43.2%Comparison 44.8%Bought 46.8%Eating/eaten 46.9%Having/possessing 51.3%Gift 64.3%Combo 73.5%Health 76.0%Relaxing 77.3%Addictive 83.6%Craving/want 85.7%Taste 95.6%Sentiment 97.9%

Prompts of conversations for which there was a significant proportion of positive and negative expression were deemed the most emotive. For these conversations, the percentage of combined positive and negative sentiment results found for the overall conversation type are shown in the graph above.

Most key prompts generated non-neutral sentiment. Just six of the 15 key conversation topics produced conversations that were less than 50% emotive.

Commentators rarely expressed emotion when mentioning Maltesers competitions (2.0%) or tricks (9.6%), largely a reflection of the instructive and informational nature of the posts concerned.

Of the most emotive prompts, sentiment (98.0%) and taste (95.7%) generated 29.3% of overall positive sentiment and 31.8% of overall negative sentiment expressed toward the brand.



0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Graph 2.3 Positive or negative sentiment of prompts n = 2076

Positive 79.4%Negative 18.5%

Sentiment


Taste


Craving/want


Addictive


Relaxing


Health


Combo


Gift


Having/possessing


Eating/eaten


Bought


Comparison


Jokes


Tricks


Competition



Prompts that generated sentiment

As was shown in the previous section (see graph 1.1), online conversations about Maltesers were more positive than negative.

Positive expressions concerning the taste of Maltesers largely included the terms “yum” or “yummy” (30.8%).

Conversations with the greatest negative sentiment included those referring to health and Maltesers (51.9%), followed by those concerned with Maltesers’ addictiveness (20.0%). 14.0% of negative expressions alluded to a feeling of guilt or naughtiness in consuming an excessive amount of chocolate.

Individuals expressed ‘love’ in 26.8% of conversations that refer to craving or wanting Maltesers; of those conversations, 30% mentioned Maltesers large box. 28%OF

CONVERSATIONS

yummy health



Prompts by gender

20

15

10

5

0

Eat

ing/

eate

n

Sen

timen

t

Hav

ing/

poss

essi

ng

Joke

s

Cra

ving

/w

antin

g

Tric

ks

Tast

e

Com

paris

on

Com

bo

Bou

ght

Com

petit

ion

Graph 2.4 Prompts by gender n = 1788

15.6

%13

.2%

12.8

%13

.3%

10.0

%8.

4%

6.2%

4.8%

6.1%

3.9%

6.0%

13.9

%

5.7%

3.7%

5.2%

3.8%

4.3%

4.1%

2.9%

4.2%

1.8%

3.0%

Male Commentors Female Commentors

Twice as likely to talk about or share videos of

tricks using Maltesers (men 13.9%, women 6.0%). 83.9% of tricks and tricks commentary were shared via YouTube.

Twice as likely to be

concerned with health issues related to

Maltesers (women 4.8%, men 2.4%). They also tended to describe the

chocolates as ‘addictive’ more often than males

(women 2.7%, men 1.8%).


3. Which Maltesers products were most referenced?Graph 3.1 Product mentions n = 537

The prevalence of Maltesers Advent calendar mentions is a likely reflection of seasonal product availability. Specific references to Advent calendars were found in 10.2% of overall Maltesers mentions. Conversations which specifically refer to having or possessing Maltesers contributed to 25.0% of Advent calendar mentions.

The competition #LightenupitsFriday by Twitter account @lowcostholidays ran on 1 December 2011 and contributed 27.8% of Maltesers box mentions. Contestants could win a free box of Maltesers on the upcoming Friday if they entered the competition and retweeted the post.

Specific Maltesers product mentions were identified in 26.8% of search results.

Of Maltesers White Chocolate single bag mentions, 13.6% suggested that it was a limited edition product for the holiday season despite its availability year round.

Advent Calendar 38.0%

Box 26.8%

White Chocolate Single Bag 8.2%Single Bag 8.0%Celebrations 4.3%Big Bag 3.4%Tube, Ice Ceam, Maltesers Milkshake, Maltesers Tree, 4 Bag Multipack 2.8%

Treat 1.1%Pouch 1.5%Large Box 2.0%Hot Chocolate 2.4%

Which Maltesers products were most referenced?


Graph 3.2 Positive and negative sentiment toward Malteser products n = 2076P

ositi

ve 4

8.8%

Neg

ativ

e 11

.2%

Adv

ent

Cal

ende

r

Pos

itive

10.

3%N

egat

ive

1.2%

Whi

te

Cho

cola

teS

ingl

e B

ag

Pos

itive

6.6

%N

egat

ive

0.8%

Box

Pos

itive

5.8

%N

egat

ive

2.9%

Cel

ebra

tions

Pos

itive

4.1

%N

egat

ive

0.0%

Hot

C

hoco

late

Pos

itive

2.9

%N

egat

ive

0.8%

Sin

gle

Bag

Pos

itive

1.2

%N

egat

ive

0.0%

Ice

Cre

am

Pos

itive

1.2

%N

egat

ive

0.0%

Mal

tese

rsM

ilksh

akes

Pos

itive

0.8

%N

egat

ive

0.4%

Big

Bag

Pos

itive

0.4

%N

egat

ive

0.0%

Pou

ch

Pos

itive

0.4

%N

egat

ive

0.0%

Larg

e B

ox0

10

20

30

40

50

Positive Comments Negative Comments

A number of positive comments about Maltesers Advent Calendars were

expressed as excitement about opening the first door (19.5%). An additional 18.6% of positive comments celebrated having them; 14.4% referred to receiving it as a gift. 6.8% of positive mentions were associated with a desire to open all doors at once; and 4.2% alluded to the taste of chocolates inside.

Negative expressions typically highlighted the fact that the calendars contained normal chocolate rather than Maltesers (53.8%). A further 25.9% of negative remarks referred to disappointment with receiving them as gifts.All negative comments about Celebrations featured complaints about the product not containing enough Maltesers.

Male Resultsn=738

Female Resultsn=982

11.5%

6.5%

1.9%

0.9%0.5%

0.3%0.3%

0.1%

1.1%

2.8%0.5%

0.1%

9.4%

7.9%

1.9%

1.3%

0.7%0.2%

0.1% 0.1%

2.5%

1.6%0.3%0.4%

Advent Calendar

Box

White Chocolate Single Bag

Celebrations

Hot Chocolate

Ice CreamMaltesers MilkshakesLarge Box

Big Bag

Single Bag

PouchTreat Bag



Graph 3.3 Product mentions as percentages of all male or female results



Product mentions by gender

maltesers taste so much better out of the box than the

packets

@kimburton Got given an advent calendar. Had a choice between

Maltesers & Mars. I gt Maltesers. :)

@rayoflight86 RT @Leyonah: When will the manufacturers of Celebrations realize that they need more Maltesers per pack & less Mars Bars & Milky Ways. -_-

@theycallmejae

Top product mentions by both genders were nearly equal--26.5% of male and 26.4% of female conversation participants referred to them (see graph 3.3). Among the total category, Advent calendars and Maltesers boxes were most mentioned, with 40.3% garnering positive sentiment.

Maltesers boxes (female 7.9%, male 6.5%), Celebrations (1.3%, 0.9%), and hot chocolate (0.7%, 0.5%) were more likely to be mentioned in female discussions than male discussions. 20.5% of female Maltesers box mentions were in relation to a competition; 16.7% concerned eating the product. Female commentary on Celebrations was often driven by sentiment (30.8%); and 42.9% of female mentions of hot chocolate were made whilst relaxing.

Male Commentors Female Commentors

A slightly larger proportion of male commentators than female commentators

talked about Advent calendars (male 11.5%, female 9.4%).

There were 7.6% more female

mentions (92) than male mentions (85) of Advent calendars

overall.


4. What are the profiles of Maltesers commentors?

57.1%

42.9%

Graph 4.1 Gender of commentorsn = 1720

85.7% of results included commentators specifically identified as female or male. As shown in graph 4.1, there were 14.2% more female than male commentators.

Female remarks were more often driven by eating or having eaten Maltesers (15.6%) than male commentary (13.2%). Conversely, conversations concerning spontaneous sentiment toward the brand were more often carried out by males (13.3%) than females (12.8%).

Whilst there were more female conversation participants overall, male discussions rendered a higher proportion of Maltesers product mentions (26.3%) than female ones (25.3%).

0 10 20 30 40 50

1.1%0.7%

Hate

6.1%8.9%

Dislike

47.3%40.0%

Neutral

32.1%35.6%

Like

14.8%13.4%

Love

Graph 4.2 Sentiment towards Maltesers - By Gender Key

n = 982 n = 738

Aside from expressions of sentiment (31.0%), ‘love’ toward Maltesers was expressed by females talking about the taste of the chocolates (15.2%), eating or having eaten them (8.3%), or craving (wanting) them (7.6%). ‘Hate’ featured in conversations prompted by sentiment expressions (71.4%).

Males that expressed ‘hate’ towards Maltesers also tended to do so in spontaneous sentiment driven discussion (75.0%). Aside from male remarks prompted directly by spontaneous sentiment (46.5%), ‘love’ towards Maltesers was rarely of a single conversation type or focus.

‘love’28.2%

‘hate’1.8%

Greater London21.9%South

East12.7%

North West11.0%

Yorkshire andHumberside

9.3%

East England8.8%

Scotland7.2%

South West6.7%

WestMidlands

6.4%

EastMidlands

5.9%

NorthEast4.7%

Wales 4.4%

NorthernIreland1.1%

What are the profiles of Maltesers commentors?


Graph 4.3 Location of commentators n = 1416

Yorkshire and Humberside was the only other region for which results were proportionately higher than normally found within the general UK population (Y&H 9.3%; UK population share 8.6%). Just 1.6% of Maltesers conversations from the region were driven by key conversation prompts such as eating (.2%) or taste (.2%).

Location-specific data was gathered from information voluntarily provided within online commentator biographies. Noted locations were then allocated to one of the 12 UK regions indicated in the map above.

12001 UK Census22001 UK Census

Greater London produced 21.9% of location-specific data, a significant deviation from the locality’s 13.0% proportion of the overall UK population . The prevalence of Greater London results may be partly explained by the larger number of Londoners concerned with eating Maltesers (London 17.6%; Non-London 13.6%).

What are the profiles of Maltesers commentors?


Graph 4.4 Prompts by Location (London and non-London) n = 2086

0 5 10 15 20

2.6%Addictive

2.3%Gift

3.9%Bought

3.7%Health

3.8%Combo

4.3%Taste

5.0%Product

5.0%Want

6.0%Joke

9.3%Trick

9.6%Have

12.3%Sentiment

13.6%17.6%

Eaten/eating

2.9%

4.9%

2.6%

4.2%

6.2%

4.9%

2.6%

7.5%

5.9%

3.9%

7.5%

11.1% Yorkshire and

Humberside

Eating Maltesers was a popular focus among commentators in the Leeds area of Yorkshire and H u m b e r s i d e

( 2 6 . 1 % ) . C o n v e r s a t i o n p a r t i c i p a n t s based in the East, specifically Essex, frequently discussed s p o n t a n e o u s sentiment toward the brand (21.8%).

Londoners were less than half as likely to share tricks using Maltesers than non-Londoners (London 3.9%, Non-London 9.3%). Amongst non-Londoners, mentions of tricks featured in Leeds-based commentary (8.6%), followed by that of the West Midlands region, Birmingham (7.1%).

Greater London generated 23.2% of all product mentions. Products featured in London commentary comprised mainly of Advent calendars (34.7%) or Maltesers boxes (25.0%).

For non-Londoners, product comparisons often included references to Cadbury’s Advent calendars or other Cadbury products (21.6%). Product comparisons rarely featured in Greater London discussion (2.6%).

Key

=

=

n = 982 n = 738

Non - London

London


5. Where are these conversations occurring online?Graph 5.1 Volume of top five website results n = 2007

of conversationsoccurred on Twitter, a likely indication of the prevalence of this platform for online communication, as well as Maltesers-specific commentary.

11.8%11.8% of Maltesers mentions occurred on YouTube, reflecting the visual and interactive nature of conversations concerning the brand (i.e. jokes, tricks).

91.3% of female discussion was held on Twitter and 8.6% YouTube. Commentary among males was 80.1% Twitter-based and 19.6% occurred on YouTube.

An additional 2.7% of platforms used include the forums: www.hotukdeals.com, www.mumsnet.com and www.cardiffcityforum.co.uk. Remaining website results (0.7%) were found to have less than four mentions per site.

0 300 600 900 1200 1500 1800

5cardiffcityforum.co.uk

24www.mumsnet.com

236www.YouTube.com

1702twitter.com

www.hotukdeals.com 26

Where are these conversations occurring online?


Graph 5.2 Prompts of conversation on Twitter and YouTube n = 1938

2.2%Trick

2.9%Competition

3.1%Relaxing

3.2%Addictive

3.2%Gift

3.5%Comparison

3.6%Health

4.3%Combo

4.3%Bought

5.1%Taste

6.4%Desire/want

6.4%Jokes

10.5%2.5%

Having/possessing

58.5%

0.8%

0.0%

0.0%

0.4%

0.8%

0.0%

1.7%

0.0%

0.0%

0.4%

3.4%

14.6%Sentiment

16.7%3.8%

Eaten/eating

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

0.4%

Key

=

=

Greater London was the setting for 17.4% of Twitter commentary. In contrast, just .1% of YouTube conversations were found to be of London-origin, a possible reflection of limited regional data on this channel (93.2%).

The majority of YouTube results included comments about tricks using Maltesers (58.5%). Almost all of these tricks involved people blowing on individual Maltesers pieces in order to make them levitate.



Graph 5.3 Product mentions on Twitter or YouTube - By Volumen = 513

1Maltesers 135g Pouch

2Tube

3Maltesers Milkshakes

3Maltesers Tree

4Ice Cream

6Treat Bag

8Pouch

11Large Box

13Hot Chocolate

16Big Bag

23Celebrations

36White Chocolate Single Bag

402

Single Bag

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

128Box

2030

Advent

0 25 50 75 100 125 150 175 200 225

12

The high volume of Twitter results overall resulted in 92.6% product mentions. Of these results, gender-specific Advent calendar mentions were 45.3% female and 41.9% male. Tweets about Maltesers boxes were 50.7% female and 30.7% male, the remaining 18.6% were not gender-specific.

All YouTube product mentions were gender-specific, split evenly. Of these results, Maltesers box mentions were 58.3% female and 41.7% male.

Product mentions found on YouTube (3.1%) were less reflective of the overall proportion of relevant results found on this platform (11.8%). Despite the availability of seasonal products during the reporting period, there were no references to Advent calendars or Celebrations found within YouTube results.

=

=

Key

List of top websites - By Volume

Domain Volume Rank

twitter.com 1702 1www.youtube.com 236 2www.hotukdeals.com 26 3www.mumsnet.com 24 4cardiffcityforum.co.uk 5 5

To assist in identifying websites of importance to Maltesers, this section presents the top ten websites by volume of results.

Against each website you will see eight categories:

Name: The name of the website.

Website: The website address that appeared in the results.

Volume: The number of results the website or domain returned, relevant to this analysis. In brackets is the rank of the website against all relevant results.

S. E. Traffic: The percentage of traffic to a website originating from a search engine, averaged over a three-month period ending January 2012. A lower percentage is indicative of a more committed readership. This data is sourced from alexa.com.

Reach: Estimated percentage of global Internet users who visit the website, averaged over the three-month period ending January 2012. The higher the percentage, the greater the volume of traffic to the website. This data is sourced from alexa.com.

Contact: A contact email address for the website owner.

Country: Country in which the organisation or individual website owner is located.

Description: A brief description of the website and its content.



Name: TwitterWebsite: twitter.comVolume: 1702S. E. Traffic: 5.2%Reach: 9.5%Contact: N/ACountry: United States



YouTube

Twitter

HotUKDeals

Description: A popular and heavily subscribed microblogging website, where users share 140 character long status updates (‘tweets’) with fellow users (‘followers’). Free accounts are available to both individuals as well as businesses.

Name: YouTubeWebsite: www.YouTube.comVolume: 236S. E. Traffic: 10.1%Reach: 33.2%Contact: [email protected]: United States

Description: A video-based social media platform where users upload and view a variety of user-generated, amateur content as well as TV, movie, and advertisement clips. While content is free to view without a login, additional features such as the ability to upload and playlists are restricted to registered members. Registration for basic membership is free.

Name: HotUKDealsWebsite: www.hotukdeals.comVolume: 26S. E. Traffic: 12.2%Reach: 0.1%Contact: N/ACountry: United Kingdom

Description: A UK-based forum where consumers share shopping deals, offers and advice. Forum features separate forum streams for freebies, vouchers and competitions. There are 500,000+ members and 960,000 threads.

Name: mumsnetWebsite: www.mumsnet.comVolume: 24S. E. Traffic: 24.0%Reach: 0.01%Contact: [email protected]: United Kingdom



CardiffCityForum

mumsnet

Description: A highly subscribed and commonly referenced UK-based forum for parenting advice. The website is utilised for product reviews, support, guidance and parenting tips. Discussions carry a wide variety of topics and issues.

Name: CardiffCityForumWebsite: www.cardiffcityforum.co.ukVolume: 5S. E. Traffic: 16.9%Reach: N/AContact: [email protected]: United Kingdom

Description: A forum which deals with Welsh football and ‘all things Cardiff City’. Discussions range from upcoming games, players and general sport information.

A complete list of websites by volume is available upon request.


6. Who are the most influential voices?To help understand and identify the most influential individuals in Maltesers focused social media conversations in the UK, individuals with the highest Klout scores from amongst the relevant results used in this analysis were examined.

Klout is an industry standard influence measure; it aggregates social networking activities to create a score which reflects an individual’s level of influence according to online actions such as content creation or social media engagement. (See http://klout.com for further information).

Rank of Individual Twitter Sites

Username URL Klout Score Followers

SkTheRealSupermum http://twitter.com/TheRealSupermum 84 4231themanwhofell http://twitter.com/themanwhofell 66 21168stephlarrrrrr http://twitter.com/stephlarrrrrr 66 4622ShappiKhorsandi http://twitter.com/ShappiKhorsandi 64 65756ohrandomrebecca http://twitter.com/ohrandomrebecca 63 380Keris http://twitter.com/Keris 61 1799BradBurton http://twitter.com/BradBurton 59 6412JTLovell1979 http://twitter.com/JTLovell1979 58 1515MargoJMilne http://twitter.com/MargoJMilne 58 1135JaybesArmy http://twitter.com/JaybesArmy 57 11885

To further assist in identifying individuals that may be of interest to Maltesers, each account that appeared in the top ten list above is analysed in detail herein.

Against each individual you will see nine categories:

Userame: The individual or business’ online username.

Website: The address at which the individual or business’ remarks are posted.

Klout Score: The influence rating applied to the individual or business’ account using Klout score ranking, on a scale of 100. (Klout scores were obtained 23 January 2012.)

Followers: The number of followers the individual or business’ has on Twitter; an indicator of the popularity of the user generated content. (Stats recorded 23 January 2012.)

Tot. Tweets: Total number of tweets the individual or business has posted from their Twitter account; an indicator of the long term activity of the user. (Stats recorded 23 January 2012.)

Avg. Tweets: Average number of tweets per day the individual or business has posted; an indicator of the recent level of activity of the user. Stats provided by www.howoftendoyoutweet.com (Stats recorded 23 January 2012.)

Bio: The biographical information provided by the individual or business on their Twitter account.

Country: The country the individual or business resides in (where available).

Description: A brief description of the account and its content.



TheRealSupermum

Username: TheRealSupermumWebsite: http://twitter.com/TheRealSupermumKlout Score: 84Followers: 4231Total Tweets: 22851Avg. Tweets: 67.6Country: United KingdomBiography: Blogging about my chaotic life with 6 kids, providing you with an honest insight into parenting & blogging, the good, the bad & the ugly.

Description: Mum who blogs and tweets about parenting her six children as well as general topics. Followers typically include other mum bloggers and family-focused accounts.



themanwhofellUsername: themanwhofellWebsite: http://twitter.com/themanwhofellKlout Score: 66Followers: 21168Total Tweets: 71182Avg. Tweets: 65.8Country: United KingdomBiography: Novelist, illustrator, freelance writer. Be warned: I do tweet quite a lot.http://www.themanwhofellasleep.com/FAQ.htm

Description: Writer and blogger. Tweets are in text and picture form and can be humorous or sarcastic, at times. Followers include students, writers, photographers and similar professions.

stephlarrrrrr

Username: stephlarrrrrrWebsite: http://twitter.com/stephlarrrrrrKlout Score: 66Followers: 4622Total Tweets: 46236Avg. Tweets: 19.7Country: United KingdomBiography: http://www.formspring.me/stephlarrrrrr

ShappiKhorsandi

Username: ShappiKhorsandiWebsite: http://twitter.com/ShappiKhorsandiKlout Score: 64Followers: 65756Total Tweets: 7107Avg. Tweets: 7.3Country: United KingdomBiography: Welsh songstress

Description: Tweets personal opinions about social activities and other topics of general interest to young people. Followers tend to be teenagers and often engage in one-on-one exchanges with the user.

Description: Tweets informally about upcoming performances, music, and family life. Followers comprise of writers, performers, artists and media professionals.


ohrandomrebeccaUsername: ohrandomrebeccaWebsite: http://twitter.com/ohrandomrebeccaKlout Score: 63Followers: 380Total Tweets: 16820Avg. Tweets: 19.7Country: United KingdomBiography: Rebecca. 18. Loves To Make Friends. Video Maker. Member of 52geeksayear. RANDOMNESS!! http://www.youtube.com/ohrandomrebecca

Description: Video producer that tweets for a response and to draw attention to her YouTube channel. Tweets also include posts for her blog and Facebook account. Followers often describe themselves as “YouTubers”, producers, DJs and musicians.

Keris

Username: KerisWebsite: http://twitter.com/KerisKlout Score: 64Followers: 1799Total Tweets: 85722Avg. Tweets: 47.6Country: United KingdomBiography: Author of YA novels DELLA SAYS: OMG! and JESSIE HEARTS NYC. I’ve been on Twitter since it was all fields. http://dellasays.wordpress.com

BradBurtonUsername: BradBurtonWebsite: http://twitter.com/BradBurtonKlout Score: 59Followers: 6412Total Tweets: 83982Avg. Tweets: 73.1Country: United KingdomBiography: MD of 300+ group breakfast Network - AUTHOR: Get Off Your Arse books - Dynamic and naturally energetic MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, with infectious enthusiasm.http://www.bradburton.biz/

Description: Author and motivational speaker—tweets about general topics and for the purpose of gaining more followers. Followers typically include entrepreneurs, trainers, and service providers.

Description: Writer and blogger who tweets about writing and daily life. Followers are often writers from Australia, US and the UK.


JTLovell1979Username: JTLovell1979Website: http://twitter.com/JTLovell1979Klout Score: 58Followers: 1515Total Tweets: 110608Avg. Tweets: 100.4Country: United KingdomBiography: Generally to be found in house for boring health reasons. You can be oh so smart, or oh so pleasant. I’ve tried smart. I recommend pleasant. (also @JTinjail)http://jamielovell.blogspot.com/

Description: Blogger who tweets about personal life and health concerns. Followers comprise of various backgrounds and interests namely, mums, carers, professionals and business accounts.

JaybesArmyUsername: JaybesArmyWebsite: http://twitter.com/JaybesArmyKlout Score: 57Followers: 11885Total Tweets: 57637Avg. Tweets: 171.5Country: United KingdomBiography: when my strength was gone, and I just gave up on life, In my darkest place, you were my guide. JLS mean everything :*

Description: Member of popular UK music group, JLS. Tweets are often about JLS, music, daily life and general issues. Followers are largely JLS fans, as well as other music professionals and students.

MargoJMilneUsername: MargoJMilneWebsite: http://twitter.com/MargoJMilneKlout Score: 58Followers: 1135Total Tweets: 44701Avg. Tweets: 81.9Country: United KingdomBiography: I write, sometimes for money. Full time #spoonie, part time wheelchair user. Lover of skulls, medicine geek. Being held hostage by a cat: please send help!http://funkymangosmusings.blogspot.com/

Description: Writer and blogger who tweets about issues concerning the disabled as well as general issues. Followers are of a wide range of professions and interests including those with disabilities, writers and parents.


Conclusions and recommendations

There are a number of conclusions that can be drawn from this report that may assist Maltesers in considering future use of the online environment.

In the lead up to the Christmas period, mentions of Maltesers frequently referred to seasonal products, Advent calendars and Celebrations. Given the popularity of unprompted and candid seasonal product mentions, use of Christmas product themed social media activities may continue to encourage online interest amongst Maltesers and chocolate fans. Whilst other Mars brands such as M&Ms and Galaxy utilise Twitter for communication, Maltesers does not appear to have a dedicated English language Twitter account. Engagement featuring the Maltesers Christmas product range, such as a Maltesers Advent calendar or Celebrations Twitter fan page, may allow for valuable insight into individual product audiences.

YouTube was frequently used to demonstrate tricks using Maltesers pieces; emphasising that entertaining and humorous exchanges involving the chocolates are contributory to online buzz for the brand. Aknowledging YouTube’s prominence amongst those wishing to show tricks using Maltesers, Maltesers may consider developing a channel dedicated to showcasing tricks or competitions involving the chocolates.


Methodology

Trufflenet combined powerful automated search with intelligent human analysis in order to produce the data contained in this report.

By listening to, rather than directing respondents, we are able to produce a far more natural picture of what people are really thinking and saying.

By capturing tone of voice directly from our audience, we help our clients to ensure their messaging is as consistent as possible with the voices and emotions of their audience, making their communications more authentic and hence more powerful and effective.

Step one: Powerful automated search

A series of spiders were deployed to search the web and identify the occurrence of key words and phrases. When the spiders identified a search result, Trufflenet’s system provided a time and date stamp to the search result and captured the headline of the article, post, video or forum thread. The spiders also captured the hyperlink to the source for future reference.

Step two: Intelligent human analysis

Analysts use an iterative approach in order to extract sentiment, topics and additional demographic information.

An analyst reviews the search results each day for each search term in order to aggregate the data. This data analysis is then reviewed by a senior analyst to ensure that each category, theme or meaning is identified and the process iterated until every search result has been scrutinised.

Step three: Developing insights

Trufflenet develop insights form the data, which then form the basis of a project’s conclusions and recommendations.

Step four: Conclusions and recommendations

Conclusions and recommendations are mapped out during the final stage of work. A collaborative brainstorm identifies best practice and opportunities from other sectors that can be utilised to address the challenges identified in the research.

Step five: Peer review

Before the production of the final analysis the work is peer reviewed by a member of the team who did not play a part in the research. It is assessed to ensure that it meets the standards of quality, clarity and authority that are essential to all analytical work.

TrufflenetThird FloorGrant House56-60 St. John StreetLondonEC1M 4HGT: +44 (0) 20 7812 6565E: [email protected]

Documents

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