Copyright Adweek
There’s big news to come out of Monday’s edition of ADWEEK’s Brandweek in Atlanta: Viral Nation is announcing the launch of its new proprietary measurement framework, The Culture Quotient, CQ. The framework is a first-of-its-kind offering for measuring cultural relevance and business impact, according to Viral Nation. CQ utilizes advanced AI and social intelligence to measure how a brand is represented in culture, translating social signals—such as engagement growth, conversation volume, and sentiment—to tangible results. “The Culture Quotient is the next evolution of measurement. It’s benchmarkable, trackable, and tied directly to business outcomes,” said Joe Gagliese, Viral Nation CEO. “It’s a framework that tells brands not just how loud they are, but how deeply they resonate in culture.” CQ is looking to replace traditional social metrics like earned media value (EMV) and impressions, which only measure visibility, not value. According to Viral Nation, these measurement methods show reach rather than resonance. “Culture drives business,” said Richelle Batuigas, Viral Nation’s executive vice president, business intelligence and data strategy. “When brands connect authentically to what people care about, we see it in the data—consideration, loyalty, sales. The Culture Quotient finally gives marketers a way to see and scale that connection.” With social media as the main playground for relevance, Viral Nation notes that its data consistently shows that when people perceive a brand as culturally relevant, it drives everything from consideration to purchase intent and loyalty. According to the company, cultural connection is the new currency of trust. “We realize [EMV] is a metric that doesn’t actually give us true insight into performance or cultural relevance,” Batuigas told ADWEEK. “That’s why we want to do away with it and introduce this new score that actually gives you true insight.” For Batuigas, the value comes down to measuring the impact of all communication and going beyond quantity. “It’s about thinking more deeply about the quantity and the quality, and also about how you arrived at those outcomes so you can drive better results and better connections,” Batuigas said.
