TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - August 30, 2016) - Technology and data company Engagement Labs, creator of TotalSocial™, the world's first tool to combine in-depth social listening data with comprehensive offline conversation measurement, today released the TotalSocial rankings of the top performing insurance brands in the U.S.

Whether it be automotive, health or life, every American has invested in some type of insurance, however, these brands have gained a less than stellar reputation. Even in comparison to financial counterparts such as the banking and credit card industries, which have garnered below-average consumer brand perceptions, the insurance industry falls even further behind in consumer sentiment. Based on TotalSocial data, insurance brands not only lag with regards to sentiment, but are also challenged in driving offline conversations in general, when compared to other financial industries. With two-thirds of recommendation-based sales coming from offline word of mouth, the insurance industry must focus on improving how people are discussing their brands, offline and online, to drive sales and improve marketing ROI.

The insurance industry is effectively driving online conversations, indicating a sharper focus on social media strategy. Insurance brands do particularly well in comparison to the other financial industries when it comes to online brand sharing, by creating branded social content that consumers are sharing with their networks. However, similar to their offline conversations, insurance brands are suffering from lower sentiment when compared to other financial industries, once again highlighting the industry's need to focus developing marketing campaigns that will spread positive word of mouth.

Top Ten TotalSocial™ Insurance Brands in the U.S.

Source: TotalSocial™ top ten performing insurance brands in the U.S. for the 12 months ending June 2016.

Top Ten TotalSocial™ Insurance Brands in the U.S. Based on Offline and Online Performance

Source: TotalSocial™ top ten performing offline/online insurance brands in the U.S. for the 12 months ending June 2016.

"Based on our data, it is clear that insurance companies are implementing a narrow, social focused strategy. Although social media is an important channel for brands to leverage, it should not be the only social metric brands develop strategies around and measure. Focusing solely on online performance can be detrimental to a brand, as online social metrics almost never represent the entire social picture. The two types of conversations, those happening online and face-to-face, are often very different," said Ed Keller, CEO at Engagement Labs. "Having a TotalSocial perspective of brand conversations provides brands with a deeper understanding of their online and offline performance, allowing them to make effective marketing decisions to drive business results."

Based on the TotalSocial rankings, Allstate and GEICO ranked the highest for overall TotalSocial score and offline performance, with GEICO edging out Allstate for the latter. Content for both brands, such as out-of-home advertising and commercials, is highly shared and engaged with offline among potential buyers and influencers. Nonetheless, when evaluating the two leading brands' online performances, a different picture is highlighted as Allstate ranks eighth, while GEICO does not even place within the top ten.

Another example of a brand having very different scores online and offline is United Health, which ranked first for online performance and ranked sixth for overall TotalSocial score, but did not place within the top ten for offline performance due to significantly low sentiment and brand sharing scores. Other healthcare insurance brands such as Aetna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Cigna, which ranked high for online performance, also saw lower offline performances in part due to extremely low sentiment scores. The rankings reveal that these insurance brands need to start focusing on marketing initiatives to help drive word of mouth conversation.

"Given the consumer perception towards the insurance industry, TotalSocial measurement identifies areas where insurance brands can improve performance. For instance, despite driving the most offline word of mouth, Allstate and GEICO both must focus on better engaging online influencers and using more 'talkworthy' messaging online, which might be achieved with stronger benefit-focused posts, or by using creativity and humor. In contrast, United Health and similarly high-performing online brands, must focus on marketing programs that will generate positive offline word of mouth amongst consumers to amplify offline scores," stated Keller.

The TotalSocial measurement solution uniquely shows marketers how their online conversations differ from offline conversation and helps identify areas of competitive opportunity or significant emerging threats. The TotalSocial measurement solution is based on a proprietary scoring system 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. The TotalSocial score is based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. As a tracking system that is "always on," momentum is built into each of the metrics. TotalSocial tracks 500 brands within the U.S. across 17 major industry categories, and 350 brands in the UK.

To learn more about the TotalSocial measurement solution visit www.totalsocial.com or contact [email protected]

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 social 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. Engagement Labs' TotalSocial measurement solutions provides brands with unique data fuelled insights and powerful analytics to understand online and offline social impact and drive business results.

Engagement Labs has a suite of proprietary tools including, TotalSocial an industry first conversation mapping system for companies to understand online and offline social data in a single integrated score. eValue™ Analytics is the global benchmarking tool for social media scoring offering real-time analysis to measure a brand's social media performance. TalkTrack® is the only data system to measures the totality of word of mouth. Engagement Labs maintains offices in Canada - Toronto, ON and Montreal, QC, U.S. - New Brunswick, NJ,and UK - London. To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.kellerfay.com / www.totalsocial.com