With Hot New Offers and "Real" Marketing, T-Mobile, MetroPCS, and LG Inspire Consumer Buzz, While Talk Turns Negative for Android and iPhone

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - January 30, 2018) - The telecommunications industry is in a continual state of disruption, with smartphones, wearables and virtual assistants becoming ever more present in consumers' lives. Along with these changes, marketers are working within a highly competitive market and to be heard, they must find new and compelling strategies to get consumers to talk about their brands and thus drive sales. To help telecommunications product and service marketers better understand which brands consumers are talking about with family, friends and peers, both offline (face-to-face) and online (social media), Engagement Labs released its latest TotalSocial^® rankings of social influence among telecom brands in the U.S.

The analysis looks at how each telecommunications brand has performed in consumer conversations over the last six months, compared to the six month period ending May 2017. According to the report, Samsung moved up one spot into first place, but T-Mobile and MetroPCS realized the biggest gains. T-Mobile jumped into second place from tenth, while MetroPCS rose six spots, making its debut in the top 10 at number nine. The biggest loser was Android, which dropped into seventh place from first. The iPhone didn't fare much better, falling five spots to 10^th.

The analysis, which is unique in that it combines offline and online consumer conversations, is based on Engagement Labs' proprietary TotalSocial data and analytics, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance in both face-to-face and social media conversations. The brands in the top 10 have earned the highest TotalSocial scores in the category for the last six months.

According to Engagement Labs' report, T-Mobile's rise was fueled largely by an increase in online sentiment, which is the share of social media conversation that is positive about a brand. Improvements in its online influence score, which measures the extent to which an influential audience is advocating for the brand in social media, was also a factor. The company recently began offering "Netflix on Us," a free Netflix subscription for customers, and reported record financial results for Q3 2017.