Engagement Labs' New Proprietary Algorithm Links TotalSocial Solution to Sales Data for Hundreds of Brands

Company acquires third party sales data turning its TotalSocial(TM) data solution into a must-have for brand marketers


MONTREAL, QC--(Marketwired - March 23, 2017) - Engagement Labs Inc. (TSX VENTURE: EL) today announced version 2 of its TotalSocial™ measurement platform, which is predictive of consumer sales by using a new proprietary algorithm that links brands' offline and online social metrics with sales performance. The new version of TotalSocial empowers brand marketers to better drive marketing ROI by understanding the direct link between their TotalSocial scores and sales.

The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand the impact of online and offline conversations that drive business results. TotalSocial reveals to marketers how their online and offline conversations compare and contrast, while helping to identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats.

The firm, which has a unique and proprietary database of online and offline metrics for more than 500 brands in the U.S. and 350 in the U.K., acquired U.S. sales data for a substantial number of these brands from leading sources of syndicated sales data such as Nielsen, NPD Group and others, ranging from 2014 to 2016, with a focus on more recent time periods. The data was used to develop predictive statistical models determining the impact of each of eight core metrics to consumer purchases, which resulted in the most extensive links between word of mouth and social media metrics to sales.

The link between the sales data and the word of mouth data was measured through statistical regression. By observing the correlation between how word of mouth data increases or decreases as compared to sales patterns at the same time or beforehand, Engagement Labs was able to isolate both the impact and significance of TotalSocial scores. The data was controlled for seasonal impacts and trends to ensure the company was measuring true incremental impact.

"Engagement Labs is committed to building the best vehicle for measuring a brand's social performance both on and offline because we know how important this holistic view is to brand performance," said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. "When we released TotalSocial last fall, it provided a unique window for brands to understand the totality of conversation about them, including the important but hard to measure face-to-face conversations as well as the conversations on social media. Our goal has always been to go beyond measurement, to make sure we could answer the all-important question, 'With what impact?' Now, we're able to demonstrate the direct linkage between a brand's TotalSocial scores and sales."

The models developed by Engagement Labs assign near-equal weight in the algorithm for online and offline consumer conversations, demonstrating the critical impact of consumer recommendations and conversations that happen both face-to-face and in social media. This empirically validates the importance of a TotalSocial solution for marketers. Offline volume and sentiment carry the highest weights, compared to all the other metrics, which include the sharing of brand content or the engagement of influencers, as well as online volume and sentiment.

"The empirical data which marries Engagement Labs' TotalSocial scores with third party sales data proves beyond a doubt that a brand's TotalSocial score has a strong correlation to its sales data," added Brad Fay, Engagement Labs' Chief Commercial Officer. "Brand marketers should ask themselves two questions; 'How do I improve my TotalSocial scores?' and 'How do I explain to the c-suite where we should be investing our marketing dollars to drive sales?"

In addition to the outcomes-based weightings, version 2 also includes updates which were designed to increase the timely delivery of data, as well as to make room for a more customized application of the system.

For more information about the company's TotalSocial data solution, visit www.engagementlabs.com/totalsocial.

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL) is the world's first TotalSocial™ company, offering intelligent data, analytics and insights for marketers. We are leaders in tracking, measuring and benchmarking the impact of conversations happening around a brand and industry -- both online and offline. Consumer conversations are a proven driver of critical business outcomes, including sales. The patent pending TotalSocial data solution provides brands with unique insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results. TotalSocial demonstrates to marketers how their online and offline conversation compare and contrast and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. TotalSocial is an "always-on" proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial was built on the pillars of Engagement Labs' patented social media measurement tool and the world's only offline word of mouth tracking system for brands and tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK.

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Contact Information:

For further information please contact:
Ed Keller
Engagement Labs Inc.
ed.keller@engagementlabs.com
732-846-6800

For media inquiries please contact:

Kate Tumino
KCSA Strategic Communications
ktumino@kcsa.com
212-896-1252