Bud Light, Budweiser and Corona Extra Are Brewing Consumer Conversations Offline, While Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, Jagermeister and Jack Daniel's Are Top Shelf on Social Media

TORONTO, ON --(Marketwired - May 12, 2016) - Technology and data company Engagement Labs, released rankings on the top U.S. beer and liquor brands on social media and through word of mouth (WOM) conversations.

The data consists of Engagement Labs' proprietary eValue social media measurement tool and TalkTrack®, the leading measurement source of word of mouth conversations from the Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company.

Top U.S. Beer Brands on Social Media and for Word of Mouth Conversations

Source: Engagement Labs eValue™  2016 rankings of U.S beer brands on social media and Keller Fay's TalkTrack®  2015 to 2016 rankings of U.S. beers brands.

"Beer and liquor brands understand the power social media channels have to reach their audiences. To stay ahead of competitors, these brands are creating social media strategies that focus on engagement, which can lead to retention. Creating engagement strategies that encourage consumers to consistently interact with their channels, allows brands to remain top of mind at purchasing time," stated Bryan Segal, CEO at Engagement Labs.

On Facebook, Corona Extra secured a first place ranking for beer brands with the highest overall eValue score. The brand posted a combination of professional photography and user-generated content that highlighted the product in various summer-related scenarios. Second place brand, Modelo Especial, boasted the highest Engagement score and most active user base by posting cocktail recipes incorporating the beer. As a result, the brand generated the most likes, comments and shares per 1,000 fans.

On Twitter, Bud Light ranked first for beer brands with the highest eValue score and Impact. Budweiser, which placed second, scored the highest for Responsiveness and also had the highest likes and retweets per 1,000 fans of the top ten. Labatt, which ranked ninth, scored the highest for Engagement. However, the brand's low Responsiveness score prevented it from scoring higher overall on the channel.

On Instagram, Pabst Blue Ribbon placed first for beer brands, with the highest eValue score and Impact. The brand effectively leveraged user-generated content and humorous pop-cultural references that enabled them to score the highest Engagement as well. D.G. Yuengling & Son, placed second through utilizing the platform to post relevant hashtags with their user-generated content, garnering the most likes per 1,000 fans.

"Our research found that while beer brands have large social media followings, the most successful brands were the ones posting content that created engagement with their audiences and had an effective response strategy," noted Segal. "User-generated content played a big role in some of the brands' social media strategies by highlighting real customers in real situations."

Top U.S. Liquor Brands on Social Media and for Word of Mouth Conversations

Source: Engagement Labs eValue ^TM  2016 rankings of U.S liquor brands on social media and Keller Fay's TalkTrack®  2015 to 2016 rankings of U.S. liquor brands.

Among liquor brands on Facebook, Fireball Cinnamon Whisky ranked first with the highest eValue score and Engagement, as a result of a strategy that consisted of creative and unique memes and product imagery. Patrón Tequila scored the highest Impact score, while Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whisky generated the highest Responsiveness score of the group.

On Twitter, Fireball Cinnamon Whisky had the highest Responsiveness of the group and ranked first for overall eValue score. Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whisky earned the highest Engagement score by engaging with its audiences through captivating professional photography of its product. Additionally, the brand had an extremely low Responsiveness score.

On Instagram, Jägermeister ranked first among liquor brands with the highest eValue score and Engagement. The brand consistently posted images of its product and merchandise and utilized popular hashtags, resulting in the most likes per 1,000 fans. Additionally, Jägermeister also scored the highest Impact of the top ten, tying with Hennessy and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whisky.

In an analysis of the TalkTrack data for beer brands, there was significant overlap between the successful online beer brands and those leading the offline WOM conversation. According to the rankings based on WOM TalkShare -- the percentage of conversations an individual brand has relative to WOM for all brands measured -- beer brands Bud Light, Budweiser and Corona Extra experienced offline success as well. In contrast when studying the offline conversations around liquor brands, stark differences were identified, as the top ten list consisted of such brands as Smirnoff, Grey Goose and Captain Morgan Rum, which did not rank in the top ten for any social media channel.

"Brands within competitive industries such as alcoholic beverages cannot rely solely on online or offline conversations to attract customer attention," Segal continued. "Online and offline conversations work simultaneously with one another, thus it's necessary to develop a brand experience which creates a positive cohesive buzz, blending both the physical and digital elements. This will get consumers talking and lead to brand loyalty and ultimately drive sales."

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs offers intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers and organizations to track, measure and benchmark the conversations happening around their brand or industry, both online and offline. These conversations are proven to drive critical business outcomes, including sales, while Engagement Labs' tools provide the data and actionable insight to help guide business decisions and power marketing effectiveness.

eValue™ Analytics is the global benchmarking tool for social media scoring. eValue's proprietary data technology offers real-time analysis to measure a brand's social media performance. TalkTrack®, from the Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company, is the only data system to measures the totality of word of mouth -- both online and offline. Engagement Labs maintains offices in Toronto, New Brunswick, NJ, Montreal, and London, UK.

To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.kellerfay.com.

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