The third webinar of the ‘Technologies and digital tools for Post-Covid Tourism’ NEST series was held on 3 July 2020, and focused on “Brand Intelligence” and the use of big data. 

Held by Assistant Professor Andrea Fronzetti Colladon, from the University of Perugia, the webinar focused on how to manage business brands and create value through smart tools such as the Semantic Brand Score (SBS). 

The SBS is an innovative novel metric to assess the importance of brands by analysing textual data captured from social media (such as Twitter and Facebook) or intranet social networks, newspapers, blogs as opposed to surveys. The technology is based on the so-called “text mining” and allows companies to collect information about both consumers as well as businesses and stakeholders. 

Leveraging the power of big data represents an opportunity for brand managers to reveal patterns and trends in consumer perceptions without relying on surveys, which are usually subject to different biases, mainly linked to the fact that interviewees know that they are being observed.

Also, the tool is actually a comprehensive measurement system, taking into account textual data deriving from competitors, thus allowing managers to measure the brand image and equity of their firms by using other brands as benchmarks, based on similarity of their positioning strategies.

With this analytics tool, tourism forecasting is going to become viable for any company willing to enhance its competitiveness and build their online reputation.

To re-watch the webinar and learn more on the SBS, visit the NEST Facebook page.