Online Listening Post For Brand Effectiveness Developed

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, Inc’s new Narrative Network could give advertisers and public relations professionals a listening post in the online community.

by Kristina Knight

The Narrative Network is set up as text mining and mapping software which will measure the effectiveness of both online and offline brand marketing messages. As so many marketers know, by the time actual numbers showing a slump can show up on profit and loss statements, the damage is done. Narrative Network hopes to help strategic communications programs distill information quickly, potentially turning around a campaign destined for disaster before disaster strikes.

"Narrative Network software helps our clients distill vast amounts of information, monitor their overarching corporate communications efforts, and inform strategic decisions in a way never before possible,” said Daniel Gallagher, vice president for research at Waggener Edstrom Worldwide.

The program uses text-mining software to create visual dialogue maps. These illustrate large quantities of text, giving marketers insights on trends and behaviors as related to different brands and topics faster than traditional methods.

"Waggener Edstrom Worldwide's Narrative Network software opens a very large window into how our corporate image is perceived by customers, partners and the news media," said Mark Stouse, director, worldwide corporate communications, at BMC Software Inc., an enterprise management solution provider and Waggener Edstrom Worldwide client.

The software is available now for English, Chinese, French, German, Russian and Spanish text. This eliminates the need for expensive translation software.