La couverture de l’élection de Barack Obama a été sans commune mesure avec les élections présidentielles de 2000 et 2004. Jacques Portes explique pourquoi le président des Etats-Unis n’a pas réussi à transformer ce succès planétaire en atout au cours de son mandat. Extraits de “Obama, vers un deuxième mandat ?” (1/2).

Not the Thrilla in Manila, but Certainly Nasty in Nassau

Austin, TEXAS. October 17, 2012. The President Obama of yore (2008, that is) showed up at the debate last night and so was hailed the victor. In fact, the numbers show that it was not that Romney faltered. He did not. Rather it was the President who recovered from his first debate ‘debacle’ (as viewed by his strongest supporters).

The numbers reveal the story. First, keep this number in mind: 7.4. This is the grade level of Obama’s most widely hailed speech, the “Yes, We Can!” Grant Park victory speech. ’Yes, We Can!” is widely perceived as a classic to be enshrined in the American Oratory Hall of Fame along side Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream,” Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address,’ and Ronald Reagan’s “City on a Hill” speeches.

In the first Presidential debate, Obama’s grade level came in at 9.2. For a debate, with all its give-and-take, interruptions, pauses and the like, that was a rather high number. A Town Hall meeting is definitely not the place for the grandiloquent turn of phrase, especially when you are trying to woo the undecided citizens of the land with plain speakin’ — no matter how uncomfortable that might be.

We all told in sixth grade that a newspaper should be written at the sixth-grade level, which from the sixth-grade perspective can be quite a challenge. What this really translates to is short sentences, concise paragraphs, fewer polysyllabic words, and all written in active voice.

As an example, Joe Biden spoke at a sixth grade level (6.1) in the vice presidential debate and there were few who claimed the inability to understand Ol’ Joe. (Unfortunately, these tests do not evaluate facial expressions.) In last night’s debate , Obama scored 7.2 in the grade-level score, about 28% lower (and in this case better) than his first debate — and nearly identical to his Grant Park discourse.

Both Romney and Obama cut their used of passive voice nearly in half from 6% to 4% and 3%, respectively. Active voice, where the subject is the doer of the action, is always preferred over passive voice in political discourse since it can be used to avoid responsibility. (‘Taxes were raised’ rather than ‘I raise raised the taxes.)

Finally, Obama’s reading ease score improved over 8% from 63.1 to 70.1; Romney’s remained a bit higher at 71.0.

In champion fights, the unwritten rule is that you never take the current champ’s crown away on — points unless the victory is overwhelming. Last night the President showed up to fight, and thus is awarded the victory on points. So the Presidential Debate series now stands even at 0ne all, with the rubber (and deciding) match to take place next week.

The Final Narrative of Barack Obama

Austin, Texas. October 9, 2012 — The controversy swirling around Obama’s debate performance completely misses the point. For better or worse, this is it. Stripped of all pretension. Devoid of the catch phrases and the swoons. Minus the Hollywood glam. This is he. Barack Obama. The man, unadorned. No longer do we see Obama through a glass dimly. Now we see him for who he is. This is neither to embellish nor dis-embellish the man. This is to see things for what they are and not what they ought — or ought not — to be.

At the Global Language Monitor we understand that life is not an exit poll; we cannot shape the reality of how we just voted. It is a zero-sum thing, a binary action, a one or a zero, a yes or a no. In the same manner we have tracked the narrative of Barack Obama the preceding five years, stripped of all adornment, searching for the reality that was all too frequently, standing right before us, actually in our midst, if only we had the will to open our eyes to see.

Of course we have unabashedly published our findings along the way but at that time our findings seemed a bit out-of-step, as indeed they were. Out-of-step with the perceived reality, but in step with reality as it was. Unlike most of life, a new president is graced with a honeymoon period, when missteps are overlooked, forgotten, or forgiven. This is not the ‘suspension of disbelief’ that allows us to enjoy a fantastical story in the cinema but rather a ‘suspension of self-interest,’ where we put aside our partisan differences and wait. We wait for the cues and signals, both small and large, that will reveal the intentions, proclivities, and (dare I say it?) the character of the incumbent.

For some presidents this grace period is over nearly before it starts (Gerald Ford and George W. Bush come to mind). For others, it lasts a bit longer (George H.W. Bush), and for others longer still (Ronald Reagan). In the case of Barack Obama, the situation was markedly different. Being a black man, most Americans wanted him to succeed precisely because he was a black man. As a relative outsider, he was a welcome break from the recent past (and impending future) — Bush 41, Clinton 42, Bush 43, Clinton 44?

Being a newcomer, he was the classic tabula rasa, a blank slate upon which we could pour upon all our hopes and dreams. And change? Who on this planet did not want change from the preceding eight years: a divisive and disputed election, global terrorism and 9/11, two wars in the Middle East, a devastating tsunami, the inundation of one of America’s great cities, and to top it off, the global financial meltdown. All this being so, Barack Obama began his presidency with an extraordinarily large reservoir of good will. Let’s call this reservoir the Hope and Change Quotient (HCQ).

During Obama’s first days in office, the nation was engulfed in ’anger and rage’? GLM analyzed the situation back in February 2009 and found that what was being reported as ‘anger’ was actually ‘frustration,’ while what was being reported as ‘rage’ was actually ‘despair’, a sense of foreboding or impending doom. GLM followed this rather odd undercurrent during the earliest, most hopeful, days of the Obama administration. The results were striking, especially, in contrast to the immense outpouring of global goodwill in response to the inauguration of Barack Obama, since the survey included the ten days immediately following Obama’s swearing in. Some of the keywords showing heightened awareness were Abandoned, Despair, Desperation, and Fear — all appearing in the media with double digit increases over the pre-election period. This was perhaps an abberation we thought, but as we moved forward, the pattern continued unabated.

We saw a turning point with the Gulf Oil Spill speech. This was the opportunity to show the world how a US President would properly respond to a major crisis threatening the Gulf Coast, the ecosystem, and the forces of nature and the evil of Man (an arrogant CEO from Central casting, BP, Halliburton, and a 24×7 ‘Spill Cam’ spewing forth colorful filth, worthy of a Dreamworks 3-D treatment. And what did we get? We got what we had been measuring for the preceding two years: Obama 2.0, with an academic-sounding speech detailing a broad plan for an alternative-energy future and few specifics, and little of the hell-and-brimstone his followers had hope for.

By now it was becoming apparent for all to see. This was a changed and changing man, at least how he revealed himself publicly through speech. By time the 2010 Mid-Terms delivered their ‘shellacking’ the transformation was nearly complete. With a few noteworthy exceptions, such as his Tuscon eulogy,which ranked among his best, the President has appeared less-and-less engaged, more-and-more distant.

In July we noted that the top political buzzwords were telling a far different story than either campaign was presenting to the American people. Our analysis found that Bush was clearly assigned responsibility for the so-called Great Recession, while Obama was responsibility for the economy’s current condition, just as concern over Bain Capital and the ‘war against women’ were of less and little concern respectively. In other words, the American people saw the issues as if the virulent political ads of both parties did not exist. In contrast ‘Still believe the American Dream’ was No. 5 and ‘Disappointment in Obama Administration’ was No. 6.

At the same time, the Hope and Change Quotient has nearly been depleted, this being the normal course near the end of every president’s first term in recent memory. The President has finally been vetted. We now know the man, his strengths, weaknesses, and his proclivities. This is not to say that he will not win in his bid for re-election. But this is to say, that for better or worse, this is it.

This is the final narrative of Barack Obama.

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GLM used NarrativeTracker Technology in this study. NarrativeTracker is based on the global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what any audience is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, the top global print and electronic media, as well as new media sources as they emerge.

Paul JJ Payack is the president and Chief Word Analysts of Austin-based Global Language Monitor.

London Edges New York for Top 2012 Global Fashion Capital

WOWSlider.com 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44Mexico CityNo. 47
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Ninth Annual Ranking Now Includes Fifty-five Cities

September 6, 2012, New York and Austin, Texas. London has been crowned the Top Global Fashion Capital, edging out New York for the second year in a row, according to the Global Language Monitor’s annual ranking of the Top Fifty Fashion Capitals. London and New York were followed by Barcelona, Paris and Madrid. Rounding out the Top Ten were Rome, Sao Paulo, Milano, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

“London’s two-year run has been has been propelled by two rather extraordinary circumstances: the emergence of the former Kate Middleton as a top fashion icon and the recent completion of what have been hailed as an extremely successful Summer Olympics,” said Bekka Payack, Manhattan-based Fashion Director of GLM. ”In recognition of the significance and growth of regional capitals with their distinctive styles and contributions to the fashion industry, GLM expanded the list to some fifty-five cities on five continents.”

Top movers on the plus side included Antwerp (+33), Caracas (+27), Johannesburg (+23), and Sao Paulo (+18). Top movers on the down side include Mexico City (-25), Toronto (-19), Moscow (-17), Chicago (-14), and Mumbai (-14), attesting to the heightened global competition. Newcomers to this year’s analysis were Vancouver (31), Seoul (34), Boston (44), Houston (49), and St Petersburg, Russia (51).Prior to London’s two year reign, New York had reclaimed the crown from Milan. Previous to this, New York had been the top fashion capital for five years running, taking the crown from Paris.The 2012 Top Global Fashion Capitals, with Rank, Previous Year’s Rank, and commentary:1. London (1) – Competitors stymied by Kate Middleton and now the hugely successful Summer Olympics.
2. New York (2)– That toddling town is waiting in the wings for London to stumble.
3. Barcelona (7) — Iberia rules with two fashion capitals in the Top Five.
4. Paris (3)– Topped ‘haute couture’ category, of course.
5. Madrid (12)– Making a strong move toward the top.
6. Rome (13)– Edging Milano this time out.
7. Sao Paulo (25) — The Queen of Latin America, again.
8. Milano (4) — Slipping a few spots, but never for long.
9. Los Angeles (5) — The City of Angels strengthening its hold as a true fashion capital.
10. Berlin (10) — Remains among the elite — and deservedly so.Read About the Top US Fashion Economic Powerhouses in AtlanticCities11. Antwerp (44) — A surprising large climb in a very short time (up 33 spots).
12. Hong Kong (6) — Tops in Asia, though down six year over year.
13. Buenos Aires (20) — Moving steadily upward.14. Bali (21) — Steady climb attests to it being more than just swimwear.
15. Sydney (11) — Remains near the top, a few steps ahead of Melbourne, as is its wont.
16. Florence (31) — A big move for Firenza (up 15).
17. Rio de Janeiro (23) — Building toward the 2016 Summer Games.
18. Johannesburg (41) — Jo-burg breaks into the Top Twenty.
19. Singapore (8) — Trailing Hong Kong but leading Tokyo and Shanghai.
20. Tokyo (9) — No longer the No, 5 to the Top Four, competition is aglow in Asia.
21. Melbourne (17) — Still strong, still a few steps behind Sydney.
22. Shanghai (14) — A thriving fashion center in a tough competitive arena.
23. Caracas (50) — Tremendous upward movement for a seminal fashion center.
24. Las Vegas (16) — Follow the money, and the money and the stars flow to Vegas.
25. Monaco (15) — The principality is firmly ensconced in the European fashion firmament.
26. Santiago (30) — A solid No. 5 in Latin America.
27. Amsterdam (19) — Creative, original and a bit outre.
28. Dubai (27) — A steady force in the mid-East ready to bloom further.
29. Bangkok (32) — Struggling to gain ground in the region.
30. Copenhagen (29) — Keeping pace with (and a bit ahead of) Stockholm.
31. Vancouver (Debut) — Solid debut from this newcomer from the Pacific Northwest.
32. Stockholm (28) — The Capital of Scandinavia’s influence is beginning to transcend its regional roots.
33. Krakow (47) — A scrappy player wielding a surprising amount of influence.
34. Seoul (Debut) — Korean fashion has now gained a foothold on the world scene.
35. Moscow (18) — A bold and growing presence despite a stumble in the current analysis.
36. Frankfurt (43) — Carving out its own space in Berlin’s towering shadow.
37. Vienna (35) — Insight into 21st c. fashion emerging from ancient imperial venues.
38. Mumbai (24) — Still leading New Delhi (now by 10 spots) to dominate the Subcontinent.
39. Miami (26) — The fashion world beginning to understand Miami is more than swimwear.
40. Abu Dhabi (42) — A steady climb backed by deep pockets.
41. San Francisco (38) — A rising yet iconoclastic star.
42. Austin (40) — Famous for its ‘Mash Up’ teams, the city propels its unique style forward.
43. Warsaw (33) — Particularly influential in Central Europe.
44. Boston (Debut) — Can New England deliver fashion to the world? Apparently so.
45. Prague (48) — A firm foundation in interpreting the traditional and the classic.
46. Dallas (37) — Outdistances Houston to settle the local score.
47. Mexico City (22) — Slips some twenty-five spots since the last report.
48. New Delhi (39) — Striving for relevance on the global stage.
49. Houston (Debut) — Big, bold and a city to watch.
50. Chicago (36) – City of the Big Shoulders stretching out toward word-class fashion.
51. St. Petersburg (Debut) — The former imperial capital making strides on the global fashion scene.
52. Montreal (49) — Eclipsed by the debut of Vancouver but still a formidable force.
53. Toronto (34) — Nipped by its francophone neighbor to the North.
54. Cape Town (46) — Though Jo-burg won the latest duel, Cape Town surely has plans.
55. Atlanta (45) — Gaining an international reputation for its bold accents. .

This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 250,000 print and electronic news media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter) as they emerge.

The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Top Fashion Capitals by Region:

Europe (14): London, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Milano, Berlin, Antwerp, Florence, Monaco, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Frankfurt.

Middle and Eastern Europe (6): Krakow, Moscow, Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, and St Petersburg.

North America (13): New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Vancouver, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and Atlanta.

Asia (6): Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok, and Seoul.

Subcontinent (2): Mumbai, New Delhi,

Oceania (3): Bali, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Latin America (6): Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Santiago, and Mexico City.

Middle East and Africa (4): Dubai, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, and Cape Town.

The world fashion trade is estimated to be over three trillion USD.

Protected: Final Olympic Brand Affiliation Rankings of the London Games Announced

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Olympic (Ambush) Competition Officially Under Way

Ambushers Leading Sponsors 33-17

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Billions of Dollars in Brand Equity at Stake

AUSTIN, Texas. July 18, 2012 — Of the Top Fifty Brands affiliated with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games only seventeen are official sponsors. This according to the latest Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) analysis by the Global Language Monitor, the Internet media trend tracking company. The longitudinal study began in July 2011 and tracks the top three tiers of official Olympic sponsorship, as designated by the LOGOC and the IOC.

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“Fortunately in the Olympics there is no ‘mercy rule,’ where a winner is declared in a contest to reach twenty-one, when one side scores the first 11 points,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. Of the top official and ‘non-affiliated marketers’ in the current study, the first twelve fall into the non-affiliated category.”

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Some seventy-five brands are studied including the twenty-five premier official sponsors divided into three tiers: The TOP partners, which pay approximately one hundred million pounds for the privilege, the Official Olympic Partners, and the Official Olympic Sponsors. Together these sponsors pay an estimated 30% of the cost of staging the games.

There are a number of other levels and forms of sponsorship including national sponsorships such as the USOC. The real cost of being a TOP partner ranges from a $500 billion to over a trillion dollar investment to companies that sign on for sponsorships spanning several Olympiads.

For these rankings GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship, all perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

Ambushing by ‘Non-affiliated Marketers’ is more than Michael Phelps pitching sandwiches; it is a years-long effort to create a pseudo-sponsorship to leverage the good-well generated by having the Olympics with one’s brand.

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis,ranged from a high of 797.90 (Royal Philips} to a low of 1.50 for VisaCard. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with the event.

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The Top Twelve (all Ambushers), along with their tiers, are Listed below:

1	Royal Philips	TOP-A
2	CVC Capital	OOP-A
3	ExxonMobil	OOP-A
4	Manpower	OOS-A
5	Schroders	OOP-A
6	IBM Global	TOP-A
7	E ON Energy	OOP-A
8	KPMG	OOS-A
9	Deutsche Telekom	OOP-A
10	BASF	TOP-A
11	EI DuPont	TOP-A
12	Cable & Wireless	OOP-A

As you can see for the above rankings, Business-to-Business brands are being subjected to the sames ambush marketing forces as B2C marketers. ’

Royal Philips is crushing GE by over 20:1 margin; ExxonMobil bests BP by a similar margin; and BASF and DuPont are both striding past Dow.

The Top Ten Official Sponsors ranked from No. 13 to No. 39 overall. They are listed below, along with their tiers.

1	BT Group	OOP
2	Cadbury	OOS
3	BMW	OOP
4	Adidas	OOP
5	Panasonic	TOP
6	McDonald;s	TOP
7	Coca-Cola	TOP
8	UPS	OOS
9	P&G	TOP
10	EDF energy	OOP
11	Arcelor Mittal	OOS
12	Samsung	TOP

Though listed at the top official sponsor, the BT group actually ranks behind both Deutsche Telekom and Cable&Wireless.

Cadbury, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola are doing quite well for their investments in spite of the efforts to derail their sponsorships on the grounds of their contributing to a so-called ‘obesogenic’ environment. Adidas is currently doubling Nike’s number. P&G continues to excel with their ‘Moms’ campaign. Arcelor Mittal is a surprise standout for a company previously little known to the public.

GLM has been measuring the effects of Ambush marketing on the Olympic Movement for the last three Olympiads, in the process accumulating perhaps the most extensive database of its kind. For London 2012, GLM began tracking the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games. For more information, call +1.512.815.8836, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or click on www.LanguageMonitor.com

Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate

Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012

Nike over Adidas; BA Trails Three Competitors; Subway and Pizza Hut Top McDonald’s

Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA

Austin, Texas. Weekend May 4-6, 2012. Ambush Marketers continue to dominate the run-up to the London Summer Games. In fact ‘non-affiliated marketers’ took 27 of the top 50 spots measuring effective brand activation by the Global Language Monitor’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI).

This despite the recent tightening of the rules by the IOC, The GLM BAI rankings are not simply a matter of pride or bragging rights but rather a battle for brand equity and the consumer’s mind and the billions of dollars committed to the IOC, which are primarily used to fund the Games.

“The Olympic movement it is not immune to the historic shifts in communications affecting all institutions worldwide,” said Paul JJ Payack, founding president of the Global Language Monitor. “The seemingly all-pervasive media ensure that the flow of information can be stopped neither by national boundaries nor institutional gatekeepers. There is no reason to think that marketing activities are immune from such forces. In fact, marketing has been one of the foremost purveyors of new media technology.”

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

GLM has been tracking ambush marketing at the Olympics since the Beijing Games in 2008. For London 2012, GLM began the three tiers of official sponsors since the third quarter of 2011. These results are based on a study concluded on May 1, 2012.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

The official Olympic sponsors are divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.

To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.815.8836.

For these rankings, encompassing the first quarter of 2012, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor against those of their primary non-affiliated competitors. Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship.

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The top findings include:

McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.

The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games

One interesting side note is that even the Summer Games are encountering the Duchess Effect. The GLM BAI analysis showed that when linked with London 2012, Kate Middleton had a closer brand affiliation than a number of top sponsors including Coke, Adidas, BA and Panasonic, among others.

This again demonstrates the power of the ‘Kate Middleton Brand’. A Tier 1 Olympic sponsor pays about $160 million for the privilege, plus the attendant advertising fees promoting the relationship that can cost upwards of $500 million over the four-year arrangement. This would suggest that the Kate Middleton Brand could be valued at nearly a billion dollars or more, just in relationship to Summer Games.
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The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Thomas Cook	Supporter
5	UPS	Supporter
6	Lloyds TSB	Partner
7	Cadbury	Supporter
8	BP	Partner
9	P&G	IOC
10	ATOS	IOC

The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.

1	Centrica	AMB OP
2	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
3	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
4	Schroders	AMB OP
5	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
6	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
7	Kraft	AMB SUP
8	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
9	Subway	AMB IOC
10	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Centrica	AMB OP
5	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
6	Thomas Cook	Supporter
7	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
8	UPS	Supporter
9	Schroders	AMB OP
10	Lloyds TSB	Partner
11	Cadbury	Supporter
12	BP	Partner
13	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
14	P&G	IOC
15	ATOS	IOC
16	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
17	Kraft	AMB SUP
18	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
19	Subway	AMB IOC
20	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

About Global Language Monitor: ”We Tell You What the Web is Thinking”
Founded in Silicon Valley, Austin, Texas-based GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language.

GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time.

NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 175,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

Top Trending Words of 2012 Mid-year Update

Obesogenic, Derecho (and gender-neutral ‘hen’) take on Apocalypse, Kate and Debt

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Number of Words in the English Language: 1,016,672 (July 6 estimate)

AUSTIN, Texas July 10 – Trending 2012 Update: Obesogenic, Derecho (and the gender neutral ‘hen’) are taking on the Mayan Apocalypse, Kate, and Debt as candidates for the Top Word of the Year according to a mid-year update by the Global Language Monitor. Each year, GLM produces the top trending words for the following year just before the new year begins. In 2011, it announced 12 possible candidates; mid-way through the year the three new terms have been added to the list.

Obesogenic — An environment that tends to encourage obesity. Lately it has been used to describe television advertisement that promote sugary and high-calorie snacks to kids.
Derecho — A ‘land hurricane,’ a sudden storm with extremely strong one-directional winds, such as occurred in the Eastern states earlier this month.
Hen — The Swedish attempt to create a gender-neutral pronoun to replace him or her or combinations therefore: hen.

“The new words are taken from an intensifying debate on obesity as a major societal health crisis, a ‘land Hurricane’ that some link to global warming. and a move sometimes viewed as political correctness to end gender distinction among pronouns,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor. ”At 2012′s mid-point, there has been considerable movement among the top trending words, and that trend will no doubt continue as it has during the entire life of our 1400-year old language.”

To see the Top Words of 2012, go here.

The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers (January 2012 estimate).

The Trending Top Words of 2012 in revised order:

Rank/ Previous Rank/ Word / Comments

1. China (3) — Middle Kingdom – There is little indication that China’s continuing economic surge will fade from the global media spotlight –or abate.

2. Europe (12) — United, breaking apart, saving the Euro, abandoning the Euro, with the UK again as an ‘interested onlooker’. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

3. The Election (6) — No Obama-mania this time around, more of an Obama-ennui for the November 6 elections.

4. Kate (2) — There are seven billion humans on the planet but sometimes it seems that it’s all about Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton in terms of fashion, celebrity, and the royal line. (And most definitely not Katie, the future ex-Mrs. Tom Cruise.)

5. Deficit (7) — Looks like deficit-spending will plague Western democracies for at least the next decade.

6. Global Warming (10)— The earth has been warming since New York was covered under a mountain of ice; what makes 2012 any different?

7. Derecho (New) — A ‘land hurricane,’ a sudden storm with extremely strong one-directional winds, such as occurred in the Eastern states earlier this month.

8. Olympiad (2) — The Greeks measured time by the four-year interval between the Games. Moderns measure it by medal counts, rights fees and billions of eyeballs.

9. CERN (9) — Neutrons traveling faster than light? The ‘God Particle’? The world ending in a mini-black hole? All these somehow revolve around CERN (The European Center for Nuclear Research). One CERN scientist calculated that the chance of a mini-Black Hole swallowing the Earth is less than 1 in 50,000,000. Somewhat comforting until you realize this is about ten times more likely than winning a national lottery.)

10. Rogue nukes (8)— Iran and North Korea will be the focus of attention here.

11. Near-Earth Asteroid (11) — Yet another year, another asteroid, another near-miss. (However, one does strike the Earth every one hundred million years or so.)

12. Arab Spring (13) — the successor term for ‘Arab Spring’, whatever that might be.

13. Bak’tun (4) — A cycle of 144,000 days in the Maya ‘Long Count’ Calendar. This bak’tun ends on December 21, 2012, also being called the Mayan Apocalypse. (Actually Maya ‘long-count’ calendars stretch hundreds of millions of years into the future, December 21st merely marks the beginning of a new cycle.)

14. Solar max (5)— The peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle; in 1854 solar storms melted telegraph wires; what’s in store for our all-pervasive electronic infrastructure?

15. Hen (New) — The Swedish attempt to create a gender-neutral pronoun to replace him or her or combinations thereof: hen.

16. Obesogenic (New) — An environment that tends to encourage obesity. Lately it has been used to describe television advertisement that promote sugary and high-calorie snacks to kids.

The Top Words for 2011: ‘Occupy’ was the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its twelfth annual global survey of the English language.

NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 250,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

We Tell the World What the Web is Thinking …

Narrative Tracking

See how GLM Brand Affiliation Services can help your organization; call 1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

Obama’s “Doing Just Fine” Internet Meme Surpasses ‘Mission Accomplished’

Obama’s ”Private Sector doing just fine” now an Internet Meme

Comparisons to Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” Proliferate

Measures Level II the five level-Internet-Meme Intensity Index (IMII)

Austin, Texas, June 9-11, 2012. The Internet Meme that ignited when President Obama pronounced ”The private sector is doing just fine,” at his Friday news conference is now at Level II on the Global Language Monitor’s five-level InternetMeme Intensity Index (IMII). One proliferating image conflates George W. Bush’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ photo with Obama’s face intruding onto the scene. Though this montage has been in circulation for some time, it was given new life from the president’s remarks in his June 8 news conference.

Bush’s ’Mission Accomplished’ I-meme is one of the earliest political memes ever recorded, though the president, himself, never actually uttered those words on May 1, 2003. GLM receives frequent queries, even from the news media, asking when and where those words were recorded.

Bush delivered his prepared text focusing on ‘end of major combat operations’ from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln some thirty miles off the coast of San Diego. In the background, was the typical banner that is arrayed on ships returning from combat operations: Mission Accomplished.

In the analysis, GLM found that Obama cross-referenced with “mission accomplished” citations, surpass those related to Bush by a 9:7 margin.

“Internet Memes can spread quickly or build slowly. The ‘Doing Just Fine’ meme is in a position to build through the November elections, depending, of course, on the ability of the Obama team to deflate it, and the Romney’s team to encourage its propagation,” said Paul JJ Payack, GLM’s president and chief word analyst.
“However, one thing is certain, once a meme ‘ignites,’ it follows its own rules and it future path is not always easy to predict.”

The life cycle of an I-Meme typically follows four stages: 1) Ignition, 2) Verification, 3) Launch, and 4) Propagation.
The last I-Meme crossing the threshold for measurement was the ‘Jolie Leg’ meme ignited during the Academy Award ceremonies last Spring.

Since its ignition, the ‘Doing Just Fine’ meme climbed to Level 2 (out of 5) on the GLM Internet Meme Intensity Index (IMII). GLM will continue to monitor the I-meme as it propagates and evolves.

GLM used NarrativeTracker 2.0 for this analysis. NT2.0 is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 200,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge.

About Global Language Monitor

Austin-based Global Language Monitor is the pioneer in web-based media analytics. Founded in Silicon Valley, GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends in language usage worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language.

For information on GLM’s Internet Meme Tracking Services and the Internet Meme Intensity Index, call 1.512.815.8836, go to www.LanguageMonitor.com , call 1.512.815.8836 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.

Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012

Nike over Adidas; BA Trails Three Competitors; Subway and Pizza Hut Top McDonald’s

Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.815.8836.

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The top findings include:

McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.

The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games

The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Thomas Cook	Supporter
5	UPS	Supporter
6	Lloyds TSB	Partner
7	Cadbury	Supporter
8	BP	Partner
9	P&G	IOC
10	ATOS	IOC

The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.

1	Centrica	AMB OP
2	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
3	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
4	Schroders	AMB OP
5	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
6	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
7	Kraft	AMB SUP
8	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
9	Subway	AMB IOC
10	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Centrica	AMB OP
5	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
6	Thomas Cook	Supporter
7	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
8	UPS	Supporter
9	Schroders	AMB OP
10	Lloyds TSB	Partner
11	Cadbury	Supporter
12	BP	Partner
13	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
14	P&G	IOC
15	ATOS	IOC
16	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
17	Kraft	AMB SUP
18	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
19	Subway	AMB IOC
20	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

Colleges

Summer/Spring 2012 Rankings

No. 1 MIT first Tech School to top rankings

Game changing OpenCourseWare propels MIT to the highest score ever measured

Volatility evident as educational consumers are presented with more choices

Penn State stumbles but holds onto a top ranking

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Richmond Tops all Colleges

Austin, Texas, April 4, 2012 – MIT topped Harvard for the top ranking of American universities by Internet Media Buzz according to the Global Language Monitor. This was the first time a technical institute topped the rankings; MIT did so by the largest distance ever measured in the history of the TrendTopper Rankings. Also, in the first major rankings since the Penn State scandal, the school stumbled but held onto a top ranking. This is the eighth TrendTopper MediaBuzz ranking over the preceding five years. The rankings are conducted every nine months.

In the University Division, MIT was followed by Harvard, with the highest PQI differential between No. 1 and No, 2 ever recorded. The University of Chicago took its’ usual position in the Top Ten, this year at No. 3, followed by Columbia University and past No. 1, the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Always strong Cornell moved up to No. 6, while UCLA took the top spot in California besting Stanford. Yale and the University of Texas-Austin Rounded out the Top Ten.

MIT gained the top spot apparently from the global buzz surrounding their announcement of their OpenCourseWare program. OpenCourseWare povides the same information available to MIT students to the world-at-large. Not only can anyone, anywhere take M.I.T. courses online free of charge, they can also earn certificates certifying mastery of the subject matter.

“The higher education world is in the midst of a major upheaval that has only begun to sort itself out. You can’t have an institution of MIT’s stature give away its product for free, or millions of students opting for on-line schools or educations provided by for-profit organization, and of course the globalization of higher ed and not record significant change. In fact you need a seismograph to better understand the shifting of the educational plates, once long thought stable,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. This is the fifth year and eighth edition of the TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings.

Penn State’s stumble came in the wake of the child sex-abuse scandal in November that tarnished the legend of one of the most revered, and successful, major college football programs in the nation. Of concern to GLM was whether the scandal would dramatically increase the number of web citations, however the opposite was the case, as happened when Harvard took a massive hit to its endowment a few years ago. Significantly, only 3.42 percent of the global citations were considered of negative sentiment, so Penn State held onto a high ranking.

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity’, using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics. For the first time GLM expanded the Rankings to over 400 schools, 215 in the University Division with another 200 in the College Division to widen the bases of comparison for the education marketplace.The Top Universities with current ranking and change from last ranking follow:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (5)

2. Harvard University (-1)

3. University of Chicago (+4)

4. Columbia University (0)

5. University of Wisconsin—Madison(+9)

6. Cornell University (+4)

7. University of California—Los Angeles (+10)

8. Stanford University(-1)

9. Yale University (+4)

10. University of Texas—Austin(-2)

11. University of Washington (0)

12. University of Pennsylvania (+4)

13. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor(-3)

14. University of California–Berkeley (-12)

15. Princeton University (+1)

16. Ohio State University—Columbus (+13)

17. University of California — Davis (+2)

18. Indiana University—Bloomington (+6)

19. Virginia Tech (+18)

20. New York University (+3)

21. Duke University (+6)

22. University of California—San Diego(+3)

23. Georgia Institute of Technology (-2)

24. Johns Hopkins University (+7)

25. University of Virginia (+11)

For all 210 Universities and Master-degree granting colleges, go here.

University of Richmond tops all colleges

In the college rankings the University of Richmond completed its long climb to the top.

Reflecting the healthy distribution of ‘Little Ivies’ across the nation landscape, Richmond is the sixth different college to take the top spot since these rankings began, which now have been represented by the South (Richmond and Davidson), the West (Colorado College), the East (Williams and Wellesley College) and the Midwest (Carleton College). Wellesley was also the only Women’s College to top a general college ranking. Richmond Williams switched places with Smith, Bucknell and Union coming on strong. Amherst, Colorado College, Oberlin College, The Cooper Union and the Pratt Institute rounded out the Top Ten.

The Top Universities by TrendTopper MediaBuzz with current ranking and change from last ranking follow:

1. University of Richmond (+2)

2.Williams College (+1)

3.Smith College (+18)

4.Bucknell University (+19)

5.Union College (+3)

6.Amherst (+13)

7.Colorado College (+21)

8.Oberlin College (+20)

9.The Cooper Union (+28)

10.Pratt Institute (+12)

11. Colgate University (+37)

12. Wellesley College (+14)

13. Occidental College (+27)

14. Middlebury College (+16)

15. The Juilliard School (+8)

16. Davidson College (+26)

17. School of the Art Institute of Chicago (+22)

18. Pomona College (+6)

19. United States Military Academy (+24)

20. Vassar College (+29)

21. Emerson College (+45)

22. Bowdoin College (+17)

23. Carleton College (+9)

24. United States Naval Academy (+32)

25. Hamilton College (+38)

For a complete list of all 200 colleges, go here.

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity’, using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics. For the first time GLM expanded the Rankings to over 400 schools, 210 in the University Division with another 200 in the College Division to widen the bases of comparison for the education marketplace.

Unlike other college rankings, specialty schools such as Julliard, SAIC, and the Cooper Union, the service academies, business, tech schools are included in the rankings. Also incorporated into the rankings are ‘for profit” (University of Phoenix) and online institutions, such as Capella and Walden. This is to provide true comparisons between and among the various types of post-secondary institutions now available to the discerning educational consumers. The full rankings include positive or negative movement, and MediaBuzz Velocity and Momentum that reveal how a school’s (short-term and long-term) brand equity is increasing or decreasing against its peer group, and the other competitors.

Methodology

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Analysis uses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s classifications as the basis to distinguish between Universities and Colleges. The schools were ranked in the last week of March 2012, with a December snapshot as well as the last day of the previous surveys as the base.

TrendTopper MediaBuzz utilizes a mathematical model that ‘normalizes’ the data collected from the Internet, social media, and blogosphere as well as the top 175,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media as they emerge. The end result is a non-biased analytical tool that provides a gauge of relative values among various institutions, as well as measures of how that value changes over time.

What Others are Saying:

Colleges, Ranked by ‘Media Buzz’

By Eric Hoover

A savvy enrollment manager once told me that a crucial part of his job was getting his college’s name in newspapers and magazines. After all, he said, the more people see an institution’s name, the more familiar it becomes, and the more attractive it seems to prospective students.

He was describing “buzz,” something most colleges crave. In case you didn’t know, the Global Language Monitor will measure it for you.

Fall 2010/Winter 2012 Edition

Top 300 US Colleges by Internet Media Buzz:

Harvard Returns to the top

By: adminPublished: August 30th, 2011

Harvard Returns to the top, beating Northwestern and Berkeley

But Big Ten Beats Ivies: 8-6 in the Top 50

Williams Tops Richmond as No.1 in the College Category

Austin, Texas, September 3 – After four tries, Harvard returned to the top ranking of American universities by Internet Media Buzz, edging out a strong challenge by Northwestern. The University of California, Berkeley, Columbia, Caltech, and MIT – all finishing within 1% of each other – took the No. 3 through No. 6 positions. Stanford returned to the Top Ten at No. 7, followed by the ever-strong Chicago, the University of Texas, and Cornell.

Following were Michigan, the University of Washington, Penn State, Yale, and Wisconsin. Rounding out the Top Twenty were Princeton, Penn, UCLA, Cal Davis, and Georgia Tech.

“The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure an institution’s perceived value using the same methodologies used to compare any other products of value, such as BMW vs. Mercedes,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of the Global Language Monitor. “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.”

In a remarkable demonstration of the growing influence of the Public Ivies, some fourteen of the Top Thirty schools are public institutions, and now include eight Big Ten schools, six from the Ivy League (Brown and Dartmouth were the exceptions), three Technological Institutes – and four from California’s fabled University system.

Overall, the University of California system, as a whole continues to dwarf all other academic associations, leagues and conferences. This is a fine tribute to a system that has had to endure a continued series of budget cuts and cutbacks.

The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter).

The Top 25 Universities by Internet Media Buzz

Rank/University/Last/Comment

1. Harvard University (3) – Dr. Faust sets things aright and Harvard again assumes the No. 1 spot in the survey.

2. Northwestern University (31) – Catapults to No.2 while leading the Big Ten charge up the rankings.

3. University of California, Berkeley (8) – Cal considers itself THE University of California and the rankings back this up.

4. Columbia University (5) – Columbia has never finished out of the Top 10 in the TrendTopper rankings.

5. California Institute of Technology (19) – CalTech nips its East Coast competitor for top tech honors.

6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4) – The former ‘Boston Tech’ rejected Harvard’s repeated entreaties to merge in the late 19^th century.

7. Stanford University (11) – The former ‘Harvard of the West’ has long emerged from Cantabrigia’s fabled shadow.

8. University of Chicago (2) – Dropped out of the Big Ten in the late 1930s; loss of big-time football doesn’t seem to have hurt their rankings.

9. University of Texas, Austin (10) – It new branding, “What starts here, changes the world’ is more than a slogan.

10. Cornell University (7) – Few know that the Ivy titan is also a Land Grant institution.

11. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (6) – Took top honors twice in previous surveys.

12. University of Washington (17) – U Dub, as it is affectionately known, is the emerging powerhouse of the Northwest.

13. Pennsylvania State University (24) — Penn State’s new identity campaign has evidently been quite successful.

14. Yale University (9) – Vassar declined an invitation to merge with Yale in 1966.

15. University of Wisconsin, Madison (1) – Had a very strong global media run during the previous cycle.

16. Princeton University (12) – The First Lady’s Alma Mater was originally known as the College of New Jersey.

17. University of Pennsylvania (22) – The Wharton School greatly strengthens Penn’s brand equity.

18. University of California, Los Angeles (16) – Tops in LaLa Land, though USC is making great strides forward.

19. University of California, Davis (13) – Originally established as the agricultural extension of UC Berkeley known as the University Farm.

20. Georgia Institute of Technology (27) – The Yellow Jackets ramble into the Top 20.

21. Georgetown University (14) – Once again, the Top Catholic University in the land.

22. New York University (18) – Growing global ambitions reflected in the global media.

23. Indiana University, Bloomington (46) – Steadily gaining in prestige and the rankings reflect it.

24. Boston College (39) – A generation ago, the Flutie Effect launched the school on its present stellar trajectory.

25. University of California, San Diego (23) – UCSD receives about a billion dollars a year in research grants.

The Top 25 Colleges by TrendTopper MediaBuzz

The College category also produced a new No. 1, Williams College of Massachusetts as a strong No. 1 in the College Division. (Little Three companion schools Amherst and Wesleyan claimed the No. 7 and thirteen spots, respectively.)

Williams is the fifth different college to take the top spot since these rankings began, which now have been represented by the South (Davidson), the West (Colorado College), the East (Wellesley College) and the Midwest (Carleton College). Wellesley was also the only Women’s College to top a general college ranking.

In another first, three of the Claremont Colleges finished in the Top Ten: No. 4 Claremont McKenna, No. 5 Harvey Mudd, and No. 6 Pomona. In addition, another Claremont College, Scripps — the Women’s College, finished at No. 18.

Rank / Colleges Fall 2011

1. Williams College – The Ephs (or is it Blue Cows?) set the standard, once again, however a first in Internet MediaBuzz..

2. University of Richmond — Richmond looking stronger and stronger in the classroom, the athletic field and the media.

3. Union College – A sometimes overlooked gem of a school making strides in the Internet age.

4. Claremont McKenna College – CMC marks the beginning of the Claremont Colleges surge.

5. Harvey Mudd College – One of the top technical schools in the nation finally getting it due.

6. Pomona College – Perhaps the most akin to Williams on the list (minus the SoCal climate and beaches).

7. Wesleyan University – Firmly wedged between Williams and Amherst, as is its usual fate.

8. The Juilliard School – A school that truly deserves to be in the nation’s Top Ten, though it is often relegated to ‘Unranked’ or ‘Other’ categories.

9. Carleton College – A past No.1 that continues to gain in global reputation.

10. Bates College – With Colby and Bowdoin, one of the three little Ivies from the state of Maine.

11. Pratt Institute – Pratt’s mission is to educate artists and creative professionals and, indeed, that is what it does.

12. Amherst College – Always lurking near the top of the Liberal Arts College rankings.

13. Wellesley College – The only Woman’s College to achieve No. 1 in any comprehensive national rankings.

14. Bryn Mawr College – Katy Hepburn would be proud of how the little school has come of age (125^thanniversary).

15. Middlebury College – Such a large global footprint for such a small school.

16. Bowdoin College – Used to boast of being the first US college to witness the sunrise.

17. Smith College – The women’s school of the Five Colleges Consortium around Amherst, Massachusetts.

18. Scripps College – Yet another of the Claremont Colleges to emerge into the top ranks.

19. Bucknell University – Bucknell is the largest private Liberal Arts college in the nation and its outsized reputation is beginning to reflect this fact.

20. Oberlin College – From the Arb to the Arch the college holds many firsts in American academic history, such as the first co-ed college to graduate a woman.

21. Colorado College – CC, of Block Plan fame, was the first No. 1 west of the Mississippi.

22. School of the Art Institute of Chicago – SAIC deserves to be in the top reaches of any serious collegiate ranking.

23. Babson College – Specialized in entrepreneurship before entrepreneurship was cool.

24. United States Military Academy – Army and Navy were considered part of the traditional Ivy League a century before the Ivy Group sports conference was formed.

25. United States Air Force Academy – Service Academies are amazingly unranked by US News and others

The Top Specialty Schools.

Top Engineering Schools: CalTech, MIT, Georgia Tech (College: Harvey Mudd)

Top Online/For Profit Schools: the University of Phoenix.

Top Business School: Babson College

Top Christian School: Wheaton College, IL

Top Military Academy: United States Military Academy

Top Multi-disciplinary Art & Design School: Pratt Institute

Top School of Art: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

Top Music School: the Julliard School

Top Catholic University: Georgetown University

Top Catholic College: College of the Holy Cross

About The Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the Blogosphere, Social Media as well as the Top 75,000 print and electronic media sites.

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2011 TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet “Brand Equity” Rankings

Wisconsin Tops Chicago and Harvard in Universities; Davidson over Occidental and Williams in Colleges

Historic Re-alignment of what is considered an ‘elite’ school

AUSTIN, Texas December 30, 2010 – The University of Wisconsin at Madison, one of the nation’s most storied land-grant institutions, leapt over Chicago, Harvard, MIT, Columbia and two-time defending No. 1 (and fellow Big Ten academic powerhouse) Michigan, as the Top University according to the TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet analysis released by the Global Language Monitor.

There have now had three different schools taking the top spot for Universities in the last three years: Harvard, Michigan and now Wisconsin. As for Harvard, it slipped to No. 3, while the University of Chicago moved into the No. 2 spot. Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley broke into the Top Ten, knocking out Stanford and Princeton. UCLA also fell out of the Top Ten. Other big movers included Georgetown, California-Davis and CalTech, each moving up ten or more spots.

“The ‘flight to quality’ continues unabated. The savvy consumer of the education marketplace appears centered on the price-sensitive ‘public ivies’ and technology-centered schools, as well as on-line alternatives. The solidly performing ‘little Ivies’ are now now fairly well distributed across the country– and are holding their own,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor.” One aftermath of the recent recession is that consumers understand that it is smart not to accept ‘retail pricing’ and that colleges are no different in this regard from any other institution.”

For Previous TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Rankings go here

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings are a way of seeing the schools through the eyes of the world at large. It is a democratic, self-generating ratings system, since it captures the brand equity associated with each of these fine institutions. GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings actually removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.

More resources can be found at
OnlineSchooling.net

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Analysis uses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s classifications as the basis to distinguish between Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges. The schools were ranked in the last week of December with a mid-year snapshot, and the last day of 2009 as the base.

TrendTopper MediaBuzz utilizes Narrative Tracking technology that ‘normalizes’ the data collected from the Internet, social media, and blogosphere as well as the top 75,000 print and electronic media. The end result is a non-biased analytical tool that provides a gauge of relative values among various institutions, as well as measures of how that value changes over time.

The Top Twenty Universities by the TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet rankings follow.

1. Univ. of Wisconsin—Madison

2. University of Chicago

3. Harvard University

4. Mass. Institute of Technology

5. Columbia University

6. Univ. of Michigan—Ann Arbor

7. Cornell University

8. University of California–Berkeley

9. Yale University

10. University of Texas—Austin

11. Stanford University

12. Princeton University

13. University of California — Davis

14. Georgetown University

15. Duke University

16. University of California—Los Angeles

17. University of Washington

18. New York University

19. California Institute of Technology

20. Johns Hopkins University

The Top Ten Universities now include four Ivy League schools, four Public Ivy’s (two from the Big Ten), one technological institute and the always formidable University of Chicago.

We have now three different schools taking the top spot for Universities in the last three Years: Harvard, Michigan and now Wisconsin.

As for Harvard, it slipped to No. 3, while the University of Chicago moved into the No. 2 spot. Cornell University and the University of California at Berkeley broke into the Top Ten, knocking out Stanford and Princeton. UCLA also fell out of the Top Ten.

Other big movers included Georgetown, California-Davis and CalTech, all moving up ten or more spots.

The College category also produced a new No. 1, Davidson College of North Carolina. This is the fourth different college to take the top spot since these rankings began which now have been represented by the West (Colorado College), the East (Wellesley College) and the Midwest (Carleton College). Wellesley was also the only Women’s College to top a general college ranking.

Davidson, as well as L.A.’s Occidental College (where President Obama spent his first year in college) both leapt over the Little Three (Amherst, Williams and Wesleyan University) as well as all three previous No. 1’s: Carleton College, Wellesley College, and Colorado College.

The Top Twenty Colleges by the TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet rankings follow.

1. Davidson College

2. Occidental College

3. Williams College

4. Wesleyan University

5. Carleton College

6. Amherst College

7. Bucknell University

8. Oberlin College

9. United States Air Force Academy

10. Pomona College

11. Wellesley College

12. Juilliard School of Music

13. Vassar College

14. Pratt Institute

15. United States Military Academy

16. Smith College

17. Bowdoin College

18. College of the Holy Cross

19. Claremont McKenna College

20. Bryn Mawr College

The Top Ten among colleges included Bucknell, Oberlin, Pomona and the US Air Force Academy. The Top Twenty included the Little Three, four of the former Seven Sisters (though Vassar is now co-ed), two Patriot League schools, two US Service Academies, the top Catholic College in the US (College of the Holy Cross), two of the Claremont Colleges, and two schools that are not included in the traditional college rankings: the Juilliard School and Pratt Institute, both in New York City.

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings are the only to include specialty schools, such as Art, Business, Design, Music, as well as Internet-based (and for-profit) All these were included in the College category with the exception of the online university, which was assigned to the University category.

In addition, the BOC notation signifies Best of Class; it is noted for those schools that are either first in the overall ranking, or first in a specific classification.

Top in the US/Best of Class (BOC) designation was awarded for:

• Top University: University of Wisconsin, Madison

• Top College: Davidson College

• Top Engineering Hybrid School: The Cooper Union

• Top Business: Babson College

• Top Art and Design School: Pratt Institute

• Top Art School: School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

• Top Music School: The Juilliard School

• Top Online University: University of Phoenix

• Top Christian School: Wheaton College, Illinois

• Top Catholic College: College of the Holy Cross

• Top Catholic University: Georgetown University

• Top Service Academy: United States Air Force Academy

• Top Outré College (New Category): Oberlin

The rankings also include the Biggest Movers for both colleges and universities and the Top States for Top Colleges.

The Universities that gained the most ‘media momentum’ since our last analysis were:

1. Worcester Polytechnic Institute

2. Miami University—Oxford

3. Lehigh University

4. Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo

5. University of California—Irvine

6. CUNY-Queens

7. Georgetown University

8. Mills College

9. University of Denver

10. Rice University

The Colleges that have gained the most ‘media momentum’ since our last analysis were:

1. Smith College

2. Trinity College CT

3. St. John’s College MD

4. School of Visual Arts (NY)

5. Fashion Institute of Technology

6. St Lawrence University

7. Swarthmore College

8. Hampshire College

9. Gettysburg College

10. Oberlin College

In addition, each of the forty-two states with top colleges is listed with the combined rankings of colleges and universities within the state.

The top five states for top colleges, along with the number of top colleges within the states include:

1. New York (45)

2. California (30)

3. Massachusetts (25)

4. Pennsylvania (22)

5. Illinois (12)

The 2011 TrendTopper MediaBuzz Internet Rankings contains all of the above information on the Top 300 US Colleges and Universities, with added detail.

About The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings

GLM created the TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings to remove all bias that we saw as inherent in each of the other published rankings, be they peer assessments, the opinion of high school guidance counselors, the ratio of endowment to number of students, number of left-leaning professors, and all the rest.

The 53 page guide includes the following:

Why another college guide; why TrendTopper MediaBuzz?
Introduction – A New Reality
Highlights for Winter/Spring 2011
About TrendTopper MediaBuzz™
Top Universities for Winter/Spring 2011
Top Colleges for Winter/Spring 2011
Universities with Greatest Change
Biggest Movers – Universities
Biggest Movers – Colleges
Top States for Top Schools
TrendTopper MediaBuzz Backgrounder

We found it highly interest that many institutions used our rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions:

Harvard University: “Rankings highlight correlation between university prestige and media coverage … Indeed, the study seems to validate the Harvard Kennedy School’s recent decision to rebrand itself. Known as the Kennedy School of Government until last spring, the public policy and administration changed its shorthand so that it includes the word “Harvard”.

GLM’s College Reputation Management Services are part of our TrendTopper Branding Services.
To learn more, click here.

Boston College: “University Spokesman Jack Dunn said, “Boston College’s ranking in this study serves as an affirmation of what we have long believed. Academic research and accomplishments along with media citations and this recent ranking are all affirmations of the growing steam of this university.” The major factors that contributed to BC’s high ranking were a well-published academic community, a strong public relations office, and a successful sports program in recent years.

Vanderbilt University: “… when prospective students, faculty, friends and neighbors hear ‘Vanderbilt’ they associate it with excellent academic programs, innovative research, world class health care, the best students, a gorgeous campus, a dynamic hometown, rockin’ athletics and more. And, by one measure at least, we’re succeeding.”

Chronicle of Higher Education: “[GLM’s TrendTopper analysis] is at least one measure of wealth, success and prestige,” Hoover said. “Even on campuses where presidents do not put too much stock into rankings themselves, it is something they must think about” because alums and top students pay attention to them. – Eric Hoover, marketing strategies, Chronicle of Higher Education, quoted in Harvard Crimson.

TrendTopper MediaBuzz University Rankings for Spring/Summer 2012

Five Universities were added to the list on April 6th.

Below are the top 215 University and Master-degree granting institutions for Spring/Summer 2012 ranked by their Internet Brand Equity as determined by GLM’s analytical methodologies.

The Top 215 Universities by Internet MediaBuzz for Spring/Summer 2012

Rank / University

1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2	Harvard University
3	University of Chicago
4	Columbia University
5	University of Wisconsin—Madison
6	Cornell University
7	University of California—Los Angeles
8	Stanford University
9	Yale University
10	University of Texas—Austin
11	University of Washington
12	University of Pennsylvania
13	University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
14	University of California–Berkeley
15	Princeton University
16	Ohio State University—Columbus
17	University of California — Davis
18	Indiana University—Bloomington
19	Virginia Tech
20	New York University
21	Duke University
22	University of California—San Diego
23	Georgia Institute of Technology
24	Johns Hopkins University
25	University of Virginia
26	Georgetown University
27	Boston College
28	University of Georgia
29	University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
30	Boston University
31	George Washington University
32	Northwestern University
33	University of Southern California
34	University of Pittsburgh
35	University of Illinois—Urbana – Champaign
36	University of Minnesota
37	Brown University
38	University of Miami
39	University of Phoenix
40	University of California—Santa Barbara
41	Michigan State University
42	California Institute of Technology
43	Purdue University
44	University of California—Irvine
45	University of Iowa
46	Carnegie Mellon University
47	Vanderbilt University
48	Texas A&M University
49	University of Maryland—College Park
50	Syracuse University
51	Pennsylvania State University
52	University of Rochester
53	University of California—Santa Cruz
54	University of Notre Dame
55	University of Missouri—Columbia
56	University of California—Riverside
57	Iowa State University
58	Rutgers, the State University of NJ
59	University of Colorado—Boulder
60	Emory University
61	University of Oregon
62	University of Florida
63	University of Massachusetts—Amherst
64	Brigham Young University—Provo
65	Auburn University
66	University of Delaware
67	Washington University in St. Louis
68	Case Western Reserve University
69	University of Kentucky
70	University of Tennessee
71	University of South Carolina—Columbia
72	Tufts University
73	Rice University
74	Dartmouth College
75	Baylor University
76	Northeastern University
77	University of Connecticut
78	Wake Forest University
79	University of Kansas
80	Missouri U. of Science and Technology
81	University of Arizona
82	North Carolina State University—Raleigh
83	University of Vermont
84	University of Oklahoma
85	Fordham University
86	Arizona State University
87	Tuskegee University
88	Tulane University
89	Southern Methodist University
90	Howard University
91	Villanova University
92	Xavier University
93	Loyola University, Chicago
94	Lehigh University
95	Miami University—Ohio
96	Drexel University
97	University of Denver
98	Marquette University
99	College of William and Mary
100	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
101	Texas Christian University
102	Brandeis University
103	University of Dayton
104	James Madison University
105	DePaul University
106	Washington State University
107	Santa Clara University
108	Colorado State University
109	University of New Hampshire
110	Kansas State University
111	American University
112	Rochester Inst. of Technology
113	Truman State University
114	University of Alabama
115	University of Arkansas
116	St. Mary’s College of California
117	University of San Diego
118	Liberty University
119	Hofstra University
120	Catholic University of America
121	SUNY—Stony Brook
122	St Louis University
123	CUNY-Queens
124	Worcester Polytechnic Institute
125	St. Catherine University
126	Creighton University
127	Illinois Institute of Technology
128	Towson University
129	Californis State U — Long Beach
130	Kaplan University
131	Providence College
132	Pepperdine University
133	Yeshiva University
134	Drake University
135	Butler University
136	St. Joseph’s University
137	Texas State U — San Marcos
138	Loyola University New Orleans
139	CUNY-Brooklyn
140	University of the Pacific
141	Clemson University
142	Gonzaga University
143	CUNY-Hunter College
144	CUNY-Baruch
145	Walden University
146	Seattle University
147	Ithaca College
148	St Johns University NY
149	Montclair State University
150	Binghamton– SUNY
151	Clark University
152	Capella University
153	Stevens Institute of Technology
154	Emerson College
155	Colorado School of Mines
156	Chapman University
157	University of Tulsa
158	Loyola Marymount University
159	Loyola College Maryland
160	Quinnipiac University
161	University of Redlands
162	New Jersey Institute of Technology
163	Manhattan College
164	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
165	Mills College
166	Elon University
167	Bradley University
168	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical U.
169	John Carroll University
170	Stetson University
171	CUNY-City College
172	The Citadel
173	Bentley University
174	University at Buffalo—SUNY
175	Abilene Christian University
176	Valparaiso University
177	Cal Poly—San Luis Obispo
178	Clarkson University
179	Fairfield University
180	University of San Francisco
181	Rider University
182	Morgan State University
183	Iona College
184	University of Scranton
185	Michigan Technological University
186	Xavier University of Louisiana
187	Simmons College
188	Sacred Heart University
189	Western Governors University
190	University of Dallas
191	Springfield College
192	Oral Roberts University
193	St. Mary’s University of San Antonio
194	Ramapo College
195	College of Charleston
196	University of Mary Hardin-Baylor
197	Evergreen State
198	Florida A&M University
199	Wagner College
200	University of Portland
201	Alfred University
202	St Edward’s University
203	Rollins College
204	Baldwin – Wallace College
205	Dillard University (LA)
206	Rowan University
207	University of Mary Washington
208	LaSalle University
209	Manhattanville College
210	University of Northern Iowa
211	St. Bonaventure University
212	Hamline University
213	Hood College
214	Whitworth University
215	Augsburg College

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity’, using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics. For the first time GLM expanded the Rankings to over 400 schools, 210 in the University Division with another 200 in the College Division to widen the bases of comparison for the education marketplace.

Methodology

What Others are Saying:

Colleges, Ranked by ‘Media Buzz’

By Eric Hoover

He was describing “buzz,” something most colleges crave. In case you didn’t know, the Global Language Monitor will measure it for you.

.For the numbers behind the rankings,the why and wherefore, including the numerical analysis of the Top Colleges and Universities, the rankings and numerical analysis for the top gainers and losers, colleges ranked by velocity andmomentum (short-term and longer-term movement), click here..The Top Colleges by Internet MediaBuzz for Spring/Summer 2012

TrendTopper MediaBuzz College Rankings Spring/Summer 2012

Below are the top 200 Liberal Arts and Colleges focusing on baccalaureate instruction for Spring/Summer 2012 ranked by their Internet Brand Equity as determined by GLM’s analytical methodologies.

The Top Colleges by Internet MediaBuzz for Spring/Summer 2012

Rank / College

2012	Top Colleges
1	University of Richmond
2	Williams College
3	Smith College
4	Bucknell University
5	Union College
6	Amherst College
7	Colorado College
8	Oberlin College
9	The Cooper Union
10	Pratt Institute
11	Colgate University
12	Wellesley College
13	Occidental College
14	Middlebury College
15	The Juilliard School
16	Davidson College
17	School of the Art Institute of Chicago
18	Pomona College
19	United States Military Academy
20	Vassar College
21	Emerson College
22	Bowdoin College
23	Carleton College
24	United States Naval Academy
25	Hamilton College
26	Swarthmore College
27	Babson College
28	Barnard College
29	Trinity College CT
30	Lafayette College
31	Fashion Institute of Technology
32	School of Visual Arts
33	Claremont McKenna College
34	Wesleyan University
35	United States Air Force Academy
36	Virginia Military Institute
37	Rhode Island School of Design
38	St. Mary-of-the-Woods College IN
39	Guilford College
40	Reed College
41	Morehouse College
42	Bryn Mawr College
43	Bard College
44	Connecticut College
45	Concordia University Texas
46	Lawrence University
47	Southwestern University
48	Hampshire College
49	Ohio Wesleyan University
50	College of the Holy Cross
51	Mount Holyoke College
52	Gustavus Adolphus
53	Haverford College
54	Colby College
55	SUNY—Purchase
56	Dickinson College
57	Macalester College
58	Furman University
59	Drew University
60	Calvin College
61	Kenyon College
62	Minneapolis College of Art and Design
63	Washington and Lee University
64	St Lawrence University
65	Bentley College
66	Augustana College IL
67	DePauw University
68	Hobart William Smith College
69	Bates College
70	SUNY College of Technology, Alfred
71	Gettysburg College
72	Siena College
73	Harvey Mudd College
74	Simmons College
75	US Coast Guard Academy
76	Bethune-Cookman University FL
77	Skidmore College
78	St Olaf College
79	Denison University
80	Presbyterian College
81	Willamette University
82	Knox College
83	Spelman College (GA)
84	Milwaukee School of Engineering
85	Scripps College
86	Grinnell College
87	Bethel College IN
88	Augustana College SD
89	Ohio Northern University
90	Messiah College
91	Erskine College
92	Transylvania University KY
93	Sarah Lawrence College
94	Beloit College
95	Roger Williams University
96	Fisk University
97	University of Puget Sound
98	Hillsdale College
99	Alfred University
100	Randolph College (Macon) VA
101	St. Michael’s College
102	University of the Arts PA
103	Wheaton College IL
104	Centre College
105	High Point University
106	Whitman College
107	Cornell College
108	Illinois Wesleyan University
109	Muhlenberg College
110	College of St. Benedict/St John University
111	Trinity Washington University
112	San Francisco Art Institute
113	Allegheny College
114	Goucher College
115	Baldwin – Wallace College
116	Albion College
117	Florida Southern College
118	Flagler College FL
119	California Institution of the Arts
120	Wabash College
121	Rowan University
122	Pitzer College
123	Kalamazoo College
124	Wittenberg University
125	Linfield College
126	Rhodes College
127	Ursinus College
128	Earlham College
129	Wofford College
130	Hampden – Sydney College
131	Stonehill College
132	Marietta College OH
133	Coe College
134	Moravian College
135	Buena Vista University IA
136	Oklahoma Baptist College
137	Lake Forest College
138	St. John’s College MD
139	Corcoran College of Art and Design
140	Bennington College
141	Agnes Scott College
142	Lenoir-Rhyne University SC
143	Sewanee—University of the South
144	Ripon College
145	Birmingham Southern College
146	California College of the Arts
147	Elmira College
148	Loras College IA
149	Carthage College
150	Adrian College
151	Wheaton College MA
152	Susquehanna University
153	Boston Conservatory
154	Berklee College of Music
155	Endicott College
156	Cleveland Institute of Music
157	Lebanon Valley College
158	Hendrix College
159	St Mary’s College IN
160	Hanover College, IN
161	University of the Ozarks AR
162	Olin College
163	Juniata College
164	Hartwick College
165	Elizabethtown College
166	US Merchant Marine Academy
167	University of North Carolina School of the Arts
168	Westminster College PA
169	SUNY—Geneseo
170	Millsaps College
171	Franklin and Marshall College
172	United States Coast Guard Academy
173	South Dakota School of Mines
174	San Francisco Conservatory of Music
175	Lewis and Clark College
176	Berea College
177	Hood College
178	Morningside College IA
179	Sweet Briar College
180	New England Conservatory of Music
181	McMurry University TX
182	Westmont College
183	Curtis Institute of Music
184	College of New Jersey
185	Hollins University VA
186	University of Minnesota Morris
187	St Michael’s College
188	Ouachita Baptist University
189	Elizabeth City State University
190	Simon’s Rock College
191	St. John’s College NM
192	New College of Florida
193	Berry College
194	Howard Payne University TX
195	Eugene Lang College of New School U.
196	Austin College
197	United States Merchant Marine Academy
198	Washington and Jefferson College
199	LeGrange University
200	College of Wooster

The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure near real-time movements of an institution’s reputation or ‘brand equity’, using the same techniques used to measure the appeal of any other branded product, such as luxury automobiles, or consumer electronics. For the first time GLM expanded the Rankings to over 400 schools, 210 in the University Division with another 200 in the College Division to widen the bases of comparison for the education marketplace.

Methodology

What Others are Saying:

Colleges, Ranked by ‘Media Buzz’

By Eric Hoover

He was describing “buzz,” something most colleges crave. In case you didn’t know, the Global Language Monitor will measure it for you.

The Summer / Spring 2012 Edition now includes over 400 schools, including specialty, Art, Design, Music, online, and for-profit institutions. It includes positive or negative movement vs the competition. It also ranks school by MediaBuzz Velocity and Momentum that tells how a school’s (short-term and long-term) brand equity is increasing or decreasing against its peer group, and the other colleges.

Top Tech Buzzwords Everyone Uses but Don’t Quite Understand (2012)

‘Big Data’ and ‘The Cloud’ are the Most Confusing Tech Buzzwords of the Decade (thus far)

SOA continues its reign as most confusing acronym

For the 2013 Update, go here!

Austin, Texas, March 15, 2012 — ’Big Data’ and ‘The Cloud’ are the Most Confusing Tech Buzzwords of the Decade (thus far) according to the The Global Language Monitor. Topping the list for 2012 are: Big Data, the Cloud, The Next Big Thing, Social Discovery, Web 2.0 (3.0, and so on). Solid State, CERN, Solar Max, De-dupe, 3G/4G/5G, and SoLoMo..Continuing as the most confusing acronym now of the century: SOA..GLM releases its Most Confusing Tech Buzzwords list annually in conjunction with Austin’s SXSW Interactive conference, which ends March 20th..

“High tech terms have long spilled into popular culture and this is nowhere more evident that at SXSW where the digital world intersects with those of music and the movies,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor. ”To a large and growing extent, high tech buzzwords are fueling the growth of English, which now serves as the Earth’s means of global communication.”

“SXSW can best be described as a weird mash-up of Cannes, COMDEX, and Woodstock. If creative ideas don’t mix here, it’s just not going to happen.

The Global Language Monitor uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity..The Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the of the Second Decade of the 21st century, thus far (2010, 2011 & 2012) with commentary follow:

Big Data — Big Data is the biggest buzzword. It has been called the key to new waves of productivity growth, essential to the US place in global economics, and more. Now if only we could agree on exactly what this means and how we get there. (By the way, consider yottabytes: a quadrillion gigabytes. Hint: Just think a lotta bytes.)
‘The Cloud — The Cloud, in various manifestations has been ranked No. 1 for 2008, No, 4 overall for the decade, and now as No. 2 for 2012. Still all very nebulous.
The Next Big Thing — A cliche rendered nearly meaningless by the innumerable daily claims made by VCs, entrepreneurs, college drop-outs, etc. Actually, you can count the history of next big things on your fingers, and possibly toes.
Social Discovery — Webster’s 1910 definition. “Consisting in union of mutual converse,” might be an excellent corporate strategy.
Web 2.0 (3.0, and so on) — Ranked as the 1,000,000th English-language word in 2009, it just keeps morphing along.
Solid State — As in Solid State Disks (SSDs). Remember ‘solid-state’ televisions switched from vacuum tubes (Paleozoic)? How about LED watches from the ’80s (Mesozoic)? Today, it’s all-about Solid State Disks.
CERN — You might want to understand the acronym before the Earth is swallowed up the ‘mini’ black hole it just might create . (The European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Solar Max — In the 1850s telegraph wires melted. Best not to shuck off the hype here.
De-dupe — First we dupe, then we de-dupe; Flash forward to 2014: Re-duping! Ah, the next big thing!
3G/4G/5G — One of the benefits of having an open, open standard (AKA, no standard). Anybody can claim to lead as the (Generation) ‘standard’ expands into meaningless.
SoLoMo — This is not an oh-so-trendy neighborhood like Soho or Dumbo, at least not in the sense of brick-and-mortar. This is the convergence of Social, Local, and Mobile. The Talk of the Town at SXSWi this week in Austin.

The Most Confusing Tech Acronym of 2012: SOA (Solutions Oriented Architecture), continuing its Most Confusing Tech Acronym of the Decade reign. Not only is there an highly popular SOA for Dummies edition but Google Books list 47,300 editions that explicate upon the subject..For reference, here is the first decade (2000-2009) of the 21st century..The Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords of the first decade (2000-2009) of the 21st century with Commentary follow:

HTTP — HyperText Transfer Protocol is used for HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files. Not to be confused with text on too much Starbucks.
Flash — As in Flash Memory. “Flash’ is easier to say than “ I brought the report on my EEPROM chip with a thin oxide layer separating a floating gate and control gate utilizing Fowler-Nordheim electron tunneling”.
God Particle – The Higgs boson, thought to account for mass. The God Particle has eluded discovery since its existence was first postulated some thirty years ago.
Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)
Plasma (as in plasma TV) — Refers less often to blood products than to a kind of television screen technology that uses matrix of gas plasma cells, which are charged by differing electrical voltages to create an image.
IPOD – What the Alpha Whale calls his personal pod. Actually, Apple maintains that the idea of the iPod was from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The origin of the word IPAD is a completely different story.
Megapixel – Either a really large picture element (pixel) or a whole mess of pixels. Actually, one million pixels (that’s a lotta pixels) OK, what’s a pixel? Computer-ese for picture element.
Nano – Widely used to describe anything small as in nanotechnology. Like the word ‘mini’ which originally referred to the red hues in Italian miniature paintings, the word nano- is ultimately derived from the ancient Greek word for ‘dwarf’.
Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.
Virtualization – Around since dinosaurs walked the planet (the late ‘70s) virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.
Solution — Ever popular yet still an amorphous description of high tech packages of hardware, software and service
Cookie — Without cookies with their ‘persistent state’ management mechanism the web as we know it, would cease to exist.
Robust — No one quite knows what it means, but it’s good for your product to demonstrate robustness
Emoticon A smiley with an emotional component (from emotional icon). Now, what’s a smiley? :’)
De-duping – Shorthand for de-duplication, that is, removing redundant data from a system.
Green washing – Repositioning your product so that its shortfalls are now positioned as environmental benefits: Not enough power? Just re-position as energy-saving.
Buzzword Compliant — To include the latest buzzwords in literature about a product or service in order to make it ‘resonate’ with the customer.
Petaflop — A thousand trillion (or quadrillion) floating point operations per second Often mistaken as a comment on a failed program by an animal rights’ group.
Hadron – A particle made of quarks bound together by the strong force; they are either mesons (made of one quark and one anti-quark) or baryons (made of three quarks).
Large Hadron Collider – The ‘atom smasher’ located underground outside Geneva. Primarily built to re-create the conditions of creation, 1 trillionth of a second after the Big Bang.

Angelina Jolie Leg Meme Now Largest Ever Measured

Angelina Jolie Meme Measures ‘Super-Colossal’ on GLM Scale
.

Austin, Texas, March 5, 2012. (Update) The Internet Meme ignited when Angelina Jolie took a dramatic stance revealing her famously long (and notoriously thin) right leg at last week’s Oscar ceremony was the largest I-Meme ever recorded as measured by the Global Language Monitor. The ‘Jolie Leg’ meme registered at Level 4 (out of 5) on the GLM Internet Meme Intensity Index (IMII).“Internet Memes can best be conceived as thoughts or ideas rather than words, since they can and often do encompass sounds, photos, and text. They are propagated through every imaginable form of electronic communications, eventually surfacing in the traditional print and electronic media. They are propagated globally in a matter of minutes or hours, or days,” said Paul JJ Payack, GLM’s president and chief word analyst..The ‘Jolie Leg’ meme differs from the ‘Lin-sanity’ frenzy, because Lin-sanity is sustained though the invention of clever neologisms involving his name, and not necessarily the other attributes of a fully formed I-Meme..The life cycle of an I-Meme typically follows four stages:

Ignition
Verification
Launch
Propagation

.The Jolie-Leg meme was ignited with Jolie taking her theatrical stance..It was then verified (did she really do what I think she did?) shortly thereafter when Descendants’ Oscar-winning writer, Jim Rush executed a remarkable facsimile of the Jolie pose..The I-Meme was launched with the appearance of thousands of rapidly evolving images, exemplified by Lady Liberty baring her leg in New York Harbor..It then began its rapid and continuing propagation into popular culture..GLM measured the intensity of the new Internet Meme at Level Four on its five-level Internet-Meme Intensity Index (IMII).…….

We find it Ironic that ‘Silence’ was the Top HollyWord of 2011 according the ninth annual analysis by the Global Language Monitor.Yet Angelina Jolie’s dramatic leg pose generated the massive Internet Meme, was anything but silent..

For information on GLM’s Internet Meme Tracking Services and the Internet Meme Intensity Index, call 1.512.815.8836

The Duchess Effect Top Fashion Buzzword of 2012

The Duchess Effect (Kate Middleton in yet Another Guise) Top Fashion Buzzword of 2012

Pippa’s Bum also makes the list

The Fifth Annual Analysis by the Global Language Monitor

New York, February 9, 2012 – Kate Middleton, now entitled Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, again stands atop the Fashion Buzzword List of 2012, this time as ‘the Duchess Effect’, according to the annual analysis by the Global Language Monitor (GLM). This is the first time someone has topped the list two years running. Previously Lady Gaga held the No. 1 and No. 2 positions during the 2010 and 2011 seasons respectively, Ms. Gaga dropped off the list for 2012.

Following ‘The Duchess effect’ were ‘peplums’, ‘braid bars’, ’pyjamas’, and ‘Pippa’s bum’. Rounding out the Top Ten were ‘paisley,’ Gatsby’, ‘pale colors,’ ‘tangerines,’ and ‘novelty denim’.

“The Duchess Effect appears to extend much further than the economic impact of Kate’s fashion choices; this year the fashion landscape seems to be a brighter, more accessible place with the styles more colorful, feminine and graceful than we’ve observed in many years, said Bekka Payack, GLM’s Manhattan-based Fashion Director. “Fashion is now being influenced from all points on the globe, with the rise of the regional fashion centers driving tribal, sustainable and eco-based trends”.

New York Fashion Week begins February 9^th and kicks off the global calendar, immediately followed by London, Milan, and Paris.

GLM used NarrativeTracker 2.0 for this analysis. NT2.0 is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge.

The Top Fashion Buzzwords for 2012 with commentary follow:

The Duchess Effect – The positive economic impact of Kate Middleton’s fashion choices, derived from her new title, ‘the Duchess of Cambridge’.
Peplums – Kate (Hepburn) and Rosiland sported them in ‘40s flicks; now it’s your turn.
Braids – And a new twist is ‘braid bars:’ ‘I’ll have a G&T and some funky braids, please; make it to go.’
Pyjamas – Though the trend has spread from the campuses to the catwalks, you can’t get a Stella McCartney in the discount bin at Target’s.
Pippa’s Bum – Absurdly large media interest tracks the Duchess’ sister in general and her bum in particular.
Paisleys – No they were not invented during the Summer of Love, and not even in 17^th c. Scotland; they have been in and out of style for more than millennium and a half.
Gatsby – That’s right, not Gangsta’ but Gatsby. Call it ‘20s Luxe.
Pale Colors – Such as glacier blue, minimal whites, lavender, or spindrift.
Tangerines – Such as Tangerine Tango for nails and accessories.
Novelty denim – With prints and dyes, stitched, embroidered, or bejeweled, it almost like a ‘60s’ ‘happening’
Luxe Hides — Super luxurious animal skins, faux and otherwise. (See below.)
African Prints – Fierce, gently, mesmerizing or subtle.
Ankle Boots – Worn with skirts, bare or with stockings, leggings or pants.
Mixed florals – Beaucoup of bouquets, mixed together and sorted printed over all.
Color blocking – Boldly bright and boldly blocked.
Vintage styles of the ‘20s (Flappers).
Vintage styles of the ‘40s (tea dresses).
Vintage styles of the‘50s (Clean, crisp, all-American).
Ethical Fashion – Taking a bolder stand, moving into the mainstream with Stella McCartney and Ally Hewson leading the way.
Sustainable Fashion – Not just from Austin, Berkeley and Portland anymore.

Each summer, the Global Language Monitor ranks the Top Fashion Capitals by Internet presence. London overtook New York City as the Top Global Fashion Capital for 2011. London and New York were followed by Paris, Milano, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong. Barcelona, Singapore, Tokyo and Berlin rounded out the top ten.

Evolving Narrative of Barack Obama

Three Distinct Narratives during Presidency

President Obama’s State of the Union Address earlier this week provided the Global Language Monitor the opportunity to analyze the changing Obama Narrative since he rose to the national prominence some five years ago. GLM found three distinct narratives with the communication styles supporting each narrative forming arcs of their own, characterized by their specific word choices, styles of delivery, rhetoric, and diction.

Obama 1.0 Narrative
We had Obama 1.0 whose narrative was that of soaring rhetoric, of hope and inclusiveness, and meeting ourselves in the future.

Reprinted from The Hill, Washington, D.C.

This was the “Yes, We Can!” presidential hopeful who would lead us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, harness Iran, close down Git-mo, bring peace to the Holy Land and then get elected to the presidency. This was the time of short declarative sentences or finely honed sentences that would never end, but who cared? This was the un-Bush and proud to say it. This was yet another ‘New Order for the Ages’”.

Obama 1.0 Frequent Word Choices: Americans, Change, Hope, Dreams, Unity

Then the Bush Iraq war policies were kept in place (or even expanded), Guantanamo remained (and still remains) open. This transformation occurred as the hopes and dreams that Obama represented collided with a very real political reality, of war and terrorism, of K-Street operatives, and healthcare plans that had to be passed it in order to know what was in them.

This was the era when the top political buzzwords included ‘anger and rage’, the residue remaining from the (still-ongoing both then and now) global economic restructuring. GLM tested out the new meme and found that what had been characterized as ‘anger and rage’ was actually better represented as ‘frustration and disappointment’.

Obama 2.0 Narrative
The Obama 2.0 Narrative that emerged from the bitter and prolonged healthcare battle, where the behind the scenes wheeling-and-dealing seemed to equal (or even surpass) the worst in memory. Obama 2.0 was now viewed as an ‘aloof’ president who presided over the decision to ‘surge’ in Afghanistan, expanded Bush’s drone warfare, culminating in the president’s handling of the Gulf oil spill and the nationwide speech he then delivered.

Obama’s speech was considered a turning point by many supporters who longed for a leader who would demonstrate how an engaged president would quickly and effectively reach out to those in dire need during such an event (the direct opposite of the Bush response to Katrina). This was to prove not be the case – and the ‘Spill-Cam’ made it all the worse as the oil spouted forth, 24 x 7, for weeks on end.

The voters delivered their verdict on Obama 2.0 in early November 2010, where Obama’s party was pommelled by historic proportions.

Obama 2.0 frequent word choices: surge, Tea Party, deficit, oil spill, healthcare.

The Obama 3.0 Narrative

When President Obama delivered his third and possibly final State of the Union address, he used language that seemed to introduce yet another public persona. This would be his third since his emergence into the spotlight in 2007.

Judging from the language used during his recent State of the Union address, the Obama 3.0 Narrative will be very much like those of George W. Bush, with equal portions of the second term Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and even a sprinkling of JFK. The Obama 3.0 Narrative’s word choices are only remotely attached to those of Ted Kennedy (and even Al Gore). Those of Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter were definitely eschewed.

Obama 3.0’s Narrative, according to his word choices and focus was on “American Values,” even citing “America as the indispensable nation” (Madeline Albright’s phrasing) apparently an updated reference to ‘American exceptionalism’, a phrase normally verboten to the American Left, since it can represent cultural imperialism and American political hegemony.

The president also emphasized phrases and buzzwords that are generally considered to skew right:

Mentioned America and Americans nearly fifty times (vs. 11 times in his Inaugural Address)
Defining issue was reclaiming American values.
Offered unvarnished praise for the military
Praised increased oil and oil production.
Preaching fiscal and individual responsibility
Highlighted “More feet on the border than ever before”

Finally, the use of negative words and phrases nearly surpassing that of positive words phrases in the State of the Union address.

Weakened
Shrinking
Bailouts
Handouts
Cop-outs
Fraud
Dumping
Out-dated
Unnecessary
Phony
Obstruction
Fiasco
Plunged
Unstable
Corrosive
Loopholes

Summary

Obama Narrative 3.0 is strikingly different than that of his campaign and early administration.

In some ways this could be the Left’s worst nightmare: a potentially transformative president, now turning into a Bill Clinton/Ronald Reagan hybrid.

In other ways this could be the Right’s worst nightmare: Obama as the 1996 Bill Clinton, adjusting to his Mid-term ‘thumpin’ and rushing to the center to win a second term.

Paul JJ Payack is the president of Global Language Monitor.

Tebow Tops Global Sports Brand Index

Ten-week rise of the Global ‘Branded Individual’ Phenomenon

The highest rated ‘branded individuals’ across fields include Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and, the former Kate Middleton.

Austin, Texas January 14, 2012 – Tim Tebow, the reverent, knee-bending, soft-spoken quarterback of the Denver Broncos, has now claimed another milestone: Tebow now tops the Global Language Monitor‘s Sports Brand Affiliation Index (SBAI). The GLM SBAI tracks the top athletes in a variety of global athletic endeavors and measures the strength of their ‘brand affiliation’ to their particular sport.

For this analysis, GLM tracked athletes in American football, baseball, basketball, football (soccer), Formula 1, golf, NASCAR, tennis, track and field, skiing, and swimming.

The frenzy has only increased over the last week with Tebow’s dramatic touchdown pass on the first play of overtime to defeat the heavily favored (and defending conference champions) Pittsburgh Steelers.

“In the rankings, Tebow bested this week’s nemesis, Tom Brady, by a score of 100.00 to 38.96, and the defending Super Bowl winning quarterback, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, who scored 28.13 on the Sports BAI,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and Chief Word Analyst of GLM . “Perhaps more surprising, is that Tebow out-ranked fourteen champion athletes in more than a dozen global sports, among them the reigning champions of Formula 1, various Summer and Winter Olympic events, the National Basketball Association , Skiing, and Tennis.”

Click here to see the ‘Tebowing’ enters the English Language Video

Tebow Scores Twice as High as No. 2 in the Sports BAI

The Sports BAI is one of a number of Leading Brand Affiliated Indicators that GLM uses to measure the influence of ‘branded individuals’ in fields as varied as Entertainment, Politics, Celebrity, Royalty, and the retired-yet-still powerful. The highest rated ‘branded individuals’ across fields include Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and, of course, the former Kate Middleton.

GLM has previous noted that the rapid rise of ’tebowing’ as an English language word closely resembling the rate of adoption of the word Obamamania in early 2008. The first mention of ‘tebowing’ can be traced to the dramatic overtime victory of the Denver Broncos football team over the Miami Dolphins on October 23, 2011, when Tebow ‘took a knee’ in a moment of prayerful reflection.

The Sports BAI is one of a number of Brand Affiliated Indexes that GLM uses to measure the influence of ‘branded individuals’ in fields as varied as Entertainment, Politics, Celebrity, Royalty, and the retired-yet-still powerful.

GLM consultants employ its NarrativeTracker technologies for brand-affiliated tracking, forecasting, and analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge.

Top “Ambush Marketers” For London Olympics 196 Days Out

Top “Ambush Marketers” For London Olympics: KFC, IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike among Leaders

Non-sponsors Continue to Rank High on Brand Affiliation Index (BAI)

Austin, Texas, January 12, 2012. KFC, IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike were among the Top “Ambush Marketers” for the London 2012 Olympics as ranked by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company. In the rankings, encompassing Q3 and Q4 of 2011, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary competitors.

“Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games — without the benefit of official sponsorship. However, all perceived Olympic sponsors according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing Index, said Paul JJ Payack; president of the Austin, Texas based Global Language Monitor. “There is more than pride at stake, since the official sponsors generate some 30% of the revenue needed to stage the Games.”

There are twenty-five top official Olympic sponsors divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.

Measuring each tier against their ambushers, GLM has found that for the second half of 2011, each tier of Ambushers beats their legitimate competitors according to the Tier’s Q4 Brand Affiliation Index.

Q4 BAI
Wiorldwide Partner-A 30.09

Worldwide Partner
25.39
Official Sponsor-A
55.66
Official Sponsor
52.67
Official Partner-A
50.42
Official Partner
16.38

Among Worldwide Partners, Coca-Cola, DOW, and P&G scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Omega and Coca-Cola both improved their BAIs by some 350%, over the last half of 2011. Among Worldwide Partner Ambushers, IBM Global Services, Royal Phillips, HP, Barclaycard, and Dell all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, IBM Global Services, Dell, and KFC all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Partners, EDF Energy, Lloyds TSB, and the BT Group scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Lloyds TSB, the BT Group, and BP, all improved their BAI more than 100% over the last half of 2011. Among Official Partner Ambushers, UnitedContinental (BA), the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), and all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), UnitedContinental (BA), and Nike (Adidas) all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Supporters, Arcelor Mittal, UPS, and Cadbury scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Arcelor Mittal, Cadbury, Cisco Systems, and Adecco all improved their BAI more than 200% over the last half of 2011. Among Official Supporter Ambushers, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), Kraft (Cadbury), and PricewaterhouseCoopers (Delloite) all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Official Supporter competitors. In terms of movement, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), DHL (UPS), and Ericsson (Cisco) improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. They can also be individualized for any organization. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.551.3627 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.

Top “Ambush Marketers” For London Olympics, 196 Days Out

IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike among Leaders

Non-sponsors Continue to Rank High on Brand Affiliation Index (BAI)

Austin, Texas, January 12, 2012. IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike were among the Top “Ambush Marketers” for the London 2012 Olympics as ranked by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company. In the rankings, encompassing Q3 and Q4 of 2011, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary non-affiliated competitors.

Ambush Marketing May 15 2012 Update

To schedule your confidential consultation, call +1.512.815.8836.

Comparison of London 2012 Sponsors Vs. Ambushers by Q4 2011 BAI

Among Worldwide Partners

Coca-Cola,
DOW, and
McDonald’s

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011.

In terms of movement, Omega and Coca-Cola both improved their BAIs by some 350%, over the last half of 2011.

Among Worldwide Partner Ambushers

IBM Global Services (Atos),
Royal Phillips (General Electric),
HP (Acer),
Barclaycard (Visa), and
Dell (Acer)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, IBM Global Services, Dell, and KFC all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Partners

EDF Energy,
Lloyds TSB, and
the BT Group

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Lloyds TSB, the BT Group, and BP, all improved their BAI more than 100% over the last half of 2011.

Among Official Partner Ambushers

UnitedContinental (BA),
the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB)
Nike (Adidas)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), UnitedContinental (BA), and Nike (Adidas) all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Supporters,

Arcelor Mittal,
UPS
Cadbury

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011.

In terms of movement, Arcelor Mittal, Cadbury, Cisco Systems, and Adecco all improved their BAI more than 200% over the last half of 2011.

Among Official Supporter Ambushers,

Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal)
Kraft (Cadbury)
PricewaterhouseCoopers (Deloitte)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Official Supporter competitors.

In terms of movement, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), DHL (UPS), and Ericsson (Cisco) improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Trending Top Words of 2012: End-of-World stories, Kate, China, CERN, the Olympics

Global Language Monitor’s Top Words of 2012 projections from current word trends

AUSTIN, Texas December 26, 2011 – Trending 2012: Multiple End-of-World scenarios, Kate, China, CERN, the Olympics, The US Elections will dominate word creation and usage in the English language in 2012.

To see the final list Top Words of 2012, go here.

The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.83 billion speakers (January 2012 estimate).
.
The Projected Top Words of 2012
,
1. Kate — There are seven billion humans on the planet but sometimes it seems that it’s all about Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton in terms of fashion, celebrity, and the royal line.
.
2. Olympiad — The Greeks measured time by the four-year interval between the Games. Moderns measure it by medal counts, rights fees and billions of eyeballs.
..
3. Middle Kingdom – There is little indication that China’s continuing economic surge will fade from the global media spotlight –or abate.
.
4. Bak’tun — A cycle of 144,000 days in the Maya ‘Long Count’ Calendar. This bak’tun ends on December 21, 2012, also being called the Mayan Apocalypse. (Actually Maya ‘long-count’ calendars stretch hundreds of millions of years into the future, December 21st merely marks the beginning of a new cycle.)
.
5. Solar max — The peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle; in 1854 solar storms melted telegraph wires; what’s in store for our all-pervasive electronic infrastructure?
.
6. The Election — No Obama-mania this time around, more of an Obama-ennui for the November 6 elections.
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8. Rogue nukes — Iran and North Korea will be the focus of attention here.
.
9. CERN — Neutrons traveling faster than light? The ‘God Particle’? The world ending in a mini-black hole? All these somehow revolve around CERN (The European Center for Nuclear Research). One CERN scientist calculated that the chance of a mini-Black Hole swallowing the Earth is less than 1 in 50,000,000. Somewhat comforting until you realize this is about ten times more likely than winning a national lottery.)
.
10. Global Warming — The earth has been warming since New York was covered under a mountain of ice; what makes 2012 any different?
.
11. Near-Earth Asteroid — Yet another year, another asteroid, another near-miss. (However, one does strike the Earth every one hundred million years or so.)
.
GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time.
NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources as they emerge.

“The year 2012 looks to be a vibrant year for the English language with word creation again driven by events both scheduled and unanticipated. Typically there is an ‘end-of-the-world’ scenario every few years that impacts the English language. This year we will see no fewer than three, including the Maya Apocalypse and the Solar Max,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM.

”Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, will compete with the London Olympics, the economic surge of China, various activities involving the CERN atom smasher, and the US presidential election for Top Word honors, though we always allow for word creation generated from unexpected events such as Hurricane Katrina in 2005 or the Japanese ‘triple disaster’ of 2011.”

Rank / Word / Comments

7. Deficit — Looks like deficit-spending will plague Western democracies for at least the next decade.

12. Europe — United, breaking apart, saving the Euro, abandoning the Euro, with the UK again as an ‘interested onlooker’. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

Bonus Phrase: The successor term for ‘Arab Spring’, whatever that might be.

Top Words of 2011, ‘Occupy’ is 2011 Word of the Year

Occupy is the Top Word of the Year,

Arab Spring is the Top Phrase of the Year and

Steve Jobs is the Top Name of the Year

Global Language Monitor’s 12th Annual Survey of Global English

AUSTIN, Texas December 6, 2011 (Updated from November 10) — The Global Language Monitor has announced that ‘Occupy’ is the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its annual global survey of the English language. Occupy was followed by deficit, fracking, drone, and non-veg. Kummerspeck, haboob, 3Q, Trustafarians, and (the other) 99 rounded out the Top 10.

“Our selections this year, to a large extent, reflect the ongoing political and economic uncertainty that seems to be affecting much of the developed world – with notable exceptions such as the Royal wedding and the continuing rise of China ,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor.
“Our top words, phrases and names this year come from five continents… confirmation of the ever-expanding influence of the English language.
“The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.58 billion speakers. The Global Language Monitor’s Word of the Year rankings are based upon actual word usage in the English speaking world.
“In global English, words are not bestowed upon, agreed upon, or voted upon by cultural or academic elites but, rather, words are defined from the bottom up, that is, by the people themselves — and this is true whether in the East End of London, or south-central LA, the projects in Brooklyn, the slums of Kingston, the call centers of Mumbai, the streets of Singapore, the text messages out of Shanghai, or the fashion districts of Sydney.”

GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources.

.

See the Photo Essay from the Toronto Star

BBC Magazine:

.2011, l’année Steve Jobs?

(Time Person of the Year?)

Nunberg also selects ‘occupy’ as the 2011 Word of the Year

.

The Top Words of 2011

Rank / Word / Comments

1. Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’. (Also named by NPR and Time.)

2. Deficit – Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world.

3. Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.

4. Drone – The ever increasing number of remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and attack purposes.

5. Non-veg – A meal served with meat, originally from India, now catching on worldwide.

6. Kummerspeck – From the German seeing wider acceptance in the English, excess weight gained from emotional overeating (grief bacon).

See the Photo Essay from The Stylist (UK)

7. Haboob – A name imported from the Arabic for massive sandstorms in the American Southwest.

8. 3Q – Near universal term for ‘thank you’ now earning additional status after being banned from official Chinese dictionaries. Another example of the ever- increasing mixing of numbers and letters to form words.

9. Trustafarians – Well-to-do youth (trust-funders) living a faux-Bohemian life style, now associated with the London Riots.

10. (The Other) 99 – Referring to the majority of those living in Western Democracies who are left out of the dramatic rise in earnings associated with “the Top 1%”.

The Top Phrases of 2011

Rank / Phrase / Comment

1. Arab Spring – The series of uprisings, social protests, and rebellions occurring among many nations of the Arab World beginning this spring.

2. Royal Wedding – The wedding of the former Kate Middleton and heir-to-the-British-Throne, Prince William that captivated millions around the world.

3. Anger and Rage – Characterizations of the global electorate by the pundits, though closer analyses has revealed more frustration than anger and more disappointment than rage.

4. Climate Change – No. 1 phrase for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonates into its second decade.

5. The Great Recession – Though officially over, the media term most frequently used to describe the on-going global economic restructuring.

6. Tahrir Square – The scene of the ‘25th of January’ demonstrations in Cairo against Hosni Mubarak.

7. Linear No Threshold (LNT) – The methodology to calculate risk from exposure to radioactive elements from the Fukushima Daiiachi disaster.

8. Bunga Bunga – Re-emerged in the language through ‘bunga-bunga’ parties hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

9. ‘How’s that working out for you?’ – The New York Times credits Sarah Palin, but it predates her use of the phrase by several decades.

10. “Make no mistake about it!” – President Obama has repeated the phrase thousands of times since his 2008 election.

The Top Names of 2011

Rank / Name / Comments

1. Steve Jobs – The citations for Steve Jobs topped those for No. 2 (Osama bin-Laden and Seal Team 6) by more than 30%.

2. Osama bin-Laden & Seal Team 6 – Who changed the world more? Al-Qaeda or Steve Jobs?

3. Fukushima – The epicenter of the Japanese Triple Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown).

4. Mohamed Bouazizi – the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself afire and became the symbol of Tunisian resistance – and the Arab Spring.

5. Chinese Paramount Leader Hu Jintao – The Rise of the Tiger being a primary cause of the Global Economic Restructuring.

6. Kate Middleton – She captivated the world with her elegance and style and continues to do so as the Duchess of Cambridge.

7. Muammar Gaddafi – Libyan strongman toppled in the recent insurrection.

8. President Obama – Hope and Change retreat further into the history books; the game plan is now for survival.

9. PIIGS – The nations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy Greece and Spain taken together for their untenable deficits possibly affecting the economic health of the Eurozone.

10. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – The ill-fated elite Russian hockey team that was virtually wiped out in the crash of a three-engine Yak-42.

Top Words of the Decade

The Top Words of the Decade Global Warming, 9/11, and Obama outdistanced Bailout, Evacuee, and Derivative; Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami followed. Climate Change was top phrase; Heroes was the top name.

Previous Words of the Year include:

2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama

2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama

2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps

2007:

Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore

2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur

2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God

2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove

2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya

2002:

Top Word: Misunderestimate

Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)

2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros

2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)

About The Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.

For more information, call 1.512.815.8836, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

Princess Kate Strikes Again — ‘Royal Wedding’ Top Television Word of the Year

Eighth Annual Analysis of the Top Words from Television by the Global Language Monitor

Austin, Texas, September 20, 2011. The Global Language Monitor today announced that the ‘Royal Wedding’ of Kate Middleton and Prince William is the Top Television Word (or phrase) of the 2011 season. ‘Royal Wedding’ topped Charlie Sheen’s self-descriptive ‘Winner’ for the Top Spot. ‘Arab Spring’, ‘X-Factor’, and ‘Oprah’ rounded out the Top Five. ‘Fukashima,’ ’9/11′, ‘Obama-vision’, ’Chicago-style pols’ and ‘Zombies’ completed the Top Ten. Surprisingly the drama surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy Seal Team 6 did not break into the No. 10.

“This apparently is shaping up to be the Year of Kate (Middleton). She has come to dominate the small screen through her engagement, her fashion choices and most of all her Royal Wedding,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “Aside from the princess, this is the first time that ‘news’ has dominated the Top TeleWords of any given year. There are those who maintain that the pace of events is accelerating — and it does appear that social media is playing an ever-expanding role in that process.”

The awards are annually announced at the beginning of the fall television season in the US, traditionally opened with the 63rd Annual Emmy Awards. (Sunday, September 18th, 8:00 p.m. ET). This is the eighth annual analysis by the Austin-based Global Language Monitor.

The Top Telewords of the 2011 season with commentary follow:

1. Royal Wedding (Kate) — Kate reigns once more, this time on the small screen.

2. Winner (Charlie Sheen) – Winner, Tiger blood, goddesses … Fukashima was not the only meltdown on the world stage this year.

3. Arab Spring — The rolling unrest in the Middle East to some extent fueled by social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

4. X-factor — In algebra, X is the unknown quantity or variable. In TV lingo it stands for Simon Cowell’s empire of dozens of X-factor shows around the globe.

5. Oprah – A name without precedent (or predecessor) rising to prominence because of Winfrey’s season-long farewell tour.

6. Fukashima – The epicenter for the Japanese Triple Disaster (tsunami, earthquake and nuclear meltdown).

7. 9/11 – The recent 10th year commemoration reminds that it is one of the handful of historical events whose date will actually ‘live in infamy’.

8. Obama-vision – The president’s appearances have turned increasingly more prosaic in the third year of his presidency.

9. Chicago-style politics (The Good Wife) – Rahm Emanuel vies with the Good Wife for the better rendition of a Chicago Pol’s life.

10. Zombies (The Walking Dead) – Continue to infect the world through dozens of shows on the small screen.

The Top Telewords of previous years:

2010 – SpillCam from the Gulf Oil Spill, followed by Guido (Jersey Shore) and Reality (TV)

2009 – ObamaVision — All Obama, all the time, everywhere, followed by Financial Meltdown and the death of Michael Jackson.

2008: Beijing (from the Olympics), ObamaSpeak, followed by ‘facts are stubborn things’, ‘it is what it is,’ and Phelpsian.

2007: “Surge” from the Iraq War political and military strategy, “That’s Hot®” Paris Hilton’s popular expression that is now a registered trademark, and “D’oh!” from The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie.

2006: ‘Truthiness’ and ‘Wikiality’ from the Colbert Show followed by ‘Katrina’, ‘Katie,’ and ‘Dr. McDreamy’.

2005: ‘Refugee’ from the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, followed by ‘Desperation’ from Desperate Housewives and ‘Camp Cupcake’ from the on-going Martha Stewart follies.

2004: “You’re Fired!” edged “Mess O’ Potamia” followed by “Girlie Men,” “God,” and “Wardrobe Malfunction”.

Who’s Sneaking into the London Games

A handful of clever marketers are ahead of official Olympic sponsors

By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine,

Sometimes perception is better than reality, and so it is for the brands that have managed to associate themselves with the Olympic Games without paying the exorbitant rights fees that come with official sponsorship.

They’re commonly referred to as “ambush marketers”, and though the London Games are still nearly a year away, some ambush marketers are making more of an impression on Olympic fans than the official sponsors.

That’s according to the first ambush marketing rankings for the London 2012 Olympic Games, released by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), which measures the strength of the brand affiliation between each of the worldwide partners, official partners, and official sponsors and the London Games and then compares it to competing companies that are not officially affiliated with the Games

Sony, Subway, DuPont, Barclay Card and Lenovo are the top five companies with the highest unofficial London brand affiliation.

All have a stronger association with the Games than the official sponsors they compete against.

They’ve achieved this by incorporating Olympic imagery into their ads, such as athletes competing in the sports being contested in London.

Though some object to the term “ambush”, it’s clear that their intention is to gain the positive affiliation with the Games without paying the sponsorship fees, which cost in the nine-figure range for top-level sponsorship.

“Few things in top-tier consumer-facing companies occur ‘naturally’ or ‘spontaneously,’ especially when they are engineered to look that way,” says Paul JJ Payack, president of GLM.

“This is why advertisers adept at associating themselves with an event, even though they are not ‘official’ sponsors of that event, can often out-perform official sponsors.”

Subway, for instance, is roughly two times as likely as official Olympics sponsor McDonald’s to be associated with the Games.

That’s mainly because swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Summer Olympian ever, appears in Subway ads.

“Subway is acknowledged as a leader in this regard [ambush marketing] with their close ties to Michael Phelps, who in many minds personifies the Olympic brand and spirit: clean-living, hard-work, pulling himself up by his own bootstraps,” says Payack.

Some sponsors are still reaping the benefits of past sponsorship. Lenovo, for example, ended its sponsorship deal after the 2008 Beijing Games, but the company is three times as likely as the computer vendor that took its place, Acer, to be associated with the Olympics.

The benefit to these ambush marketers is clear.

They get all of the positives of Olympic sponsorship – the feel-good vibes, the legitimacy, the eyeballs – at a much lower expense.

The International Olympic Committee is not happy about this, of course.

During last year’s Vancouver Games, it successfully lobbied the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill restricting the use of certain combinations of words and numbers in advertising, such as snow, winter and games, to prevent non-sponsors from piggybacking on the Games.

Still, clever advertisers always find a way around that.

Red Bull, which consistently ranks near the top of the ambush list, recently bought naming rights to the new velodrome in London that will house the indoor bicycle events, ensuring the brand name will be heard in broadcasts even if its ads will not.

More: Who really won in Vancouver: Ambushers

January 21, 2020January 21, 2020

Narrative Tracker Applied, Part 3

The Internet’s Fury Scorned

Obama Oval Office speech analysis provokes unprecedented response

Austin, Texas, July 2, 2010. The first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a great many terrible, sad and historical events, with a few, unfortunately fleeting moments of great joy sprinkled between the dirges. We have done our best to analyze the impact of these events on the global print and electronic media as well as on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere, and now the emerging social media.

After analyzing political speeches for a decade now, as well as all 55 Presidential Inaugural Addresses and transcripts of historical interest (including Washington’s Farewell Address, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, FDR’s ‘Live in Infamy’ radio address, Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech) you would think that we had seen and heard everything by now.

However, it wasn’t until our analysis of the President’s Gulf Spill Oval Office address, that we experienced the full force of the Internet’s fury scorned.

And this for an analysis that we considered basically non-newsworthy.

President Obama had given yet another address to the nation. GLM used the same standardized, widely available, language tools that we used to name Obama’s Grant Park ”Yes, we can!” victory address as one that ranked with the greatest of presidential orations. Now these same standardized, time-tested tools are being conveniently criticized as of questionable repute.

We were told that our analysis was either ‘bashing Obama’ or ‘excusing Obama’. At the same time, we were either ‘insulting the people’ or ‘insulting the President’. Finally, it was suggested that we were rather transparently calling for the President to ‘dumb down the rhetoric’ so that one and all might understand the superior intelligence of ‘his highness’. Whoa!

Apparently, many readers never got over the headline, missing the actual analysis and what the numbers told us about the speech. Our concern was that our initial headline, Obama Oil Spill Speech Echoes Elite, Aloof Ethos might be considered demeaning to the President. Wrong. It was considered demeaning to everyone on the Left and the Right.

For general information on the readability tests used by GLM, click here.
For scientific literature about readability tests, enter Flesch or readability into the ERIC database.

We were surprised to learn that offense was, apparently, taken in equal proportions by both the Right (Language Expert: If You Didn’t Like Obama’s Oil Spill Speech, It’s Probably Because You’re Stupid) and the Left (Obama Oil Spill Speech Criticized By CNN’s Language Analyst For Not Being Moronic Enough) of the political spectrum. Nevertheless, we were quite amused by The ColbertReport’s send-up of our (and CNN’s) report, which somehow struck a middle chord.

It was also enlightening to see a significant proportion of this criticism to be ad hominem attacks, focusing on ourselves rather than our analysis. (Read FAQ about GLM and Paul JJ Payack here.)

This past December, we encountered fierce criticism from the Chinese government dailies because we named ‘The Rise of China” as the No. 1 news story of the decade. (You can follow the narrative arc of this controversy here. ) But the criticism that accompanied the Obama Gulf Spill speech, was a good bit nastier, indeed.

Our analyses of the three preceding US Presidential elections were praised from many quarters from the New York Times to Nicholas Kristof to NPR to the worldwide media. During the preceding ten years, few alleged political motivation, or denounced the standard language-measurement tools as inherently flawed. In fact, as long as readers basically agreed with the more predictable outcomes, there were few complaints. Here were some of those results: Ross Perot scored the lowest we’ve ever recorded, John F, Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were stars, both Bushes settled in the middle of the middle school years, and Obama’s ‘Yes, we can!’ speech had nearly equivalent numbers to Martin Luther King’s “I have a Dream’ speech and Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address’. So far, so good. We did have a few outliers, such as Sarah Palin achieving quite a high score during her debate with Joe Biden, which was duly noted by New York Magazine and quite easy to explain.

Here’s what we attempted to communicate:

1. Obama’s speech, though deserving a ‘solid B’ did not live up to his past efforts.

2. Obama’s most well-regarded speech came in a at 7.4 grade level. This is not talking down to the American people. This is communicating clear and concisely to his audience. This is Obama at his best, communicating with a deft combination of vision, passion and rhetoric.

In fact, our headline for that effort read: Obama’s “Yes, We Can” Speech Ranked with “I have a Dream,” “Tear Down this Wall,” and JFK Inaugural. Rather high praise, indeed.

Our commentary read:

Obama’s “Yes, We Can” speech delivered Tuesday night in Chicago’s Grant Park ranked favorably in tone, tenor and rhetorical flourishes with memorable political addresses of the recent past including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a Dream” speech, “Tear Down this Wall,” by Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address.
“As is appropriate for a forward-looking message of hope and reconciliation, words of change and hope, as well as future-related constructions dominated the address,” said Paul JJ Payack President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “Evidently, Obama is at his best at connecting with people at the 7th to 8th grade range, communicating directly to his audience using simple yet powerful rhetorical devices, such as the repetition of the cadenced phrase ‘Yes, we can’, which built to a powerful conclusion.”

Well-regarded, indeed (and well-deserved).

3. GLM and our predecessor site, yourDictionary.com have analyzed every presidential inaugural since that of George Washington. The idea was, and continues to be, to look at the presidents’ words in the total historical context of the American presidency.

In 2001, we were quoted as saying,

Our goal was to spot trends that are all to easily overlooked in the political (and all too partisan) passions of the moment” [and continued that our] analysis included patterns of word usage choices, the use of such grammatical constructions as passive voice, the length of words and sentences, the number of paragraphs, and other parameters of language to gauge the content [including] the well-regarded Flesch-Kincaid Reading Scale.

4. The use of Industry-standard language analytics. The Fogg Index, the Flesch Test, the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Scale, and many others, are used in all forms of publishing from technical manuals to ensuring proper comprehension levels for textbooks used for various ages and classes. This has been true for more than fifty years.

The reason we choose to use the standard tests and analytical tools was a simple one: to enable the same set of measurements over any period of time. And also that these analyses could be replicated by scholars and historians and journalists the world over.

5. We use our proprietary tool, the Predictive Quantities Indicator or PQI to measure media analytics, narrative tracking, and TrendTopper Media Buzz, as such we do not use the PQI for this task.

By the Way, here are a few historical precedents;

Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796 — 12.0.
Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858 — Stephen Douglas’ seven speeches averaged a 12th-grade level 11.9; Lincoln’s averaged 11.2.
President Franklin Roosevelt’s declaration of war in December 1941 — 11.5.
Nixon-Kennedy Debates, 1960 — The first nationally televised debates: Kennedy, 9.6 ; Nixon, 9.1.
Carter-Ford Debates, 1976 — Carter, 10.4; Ford, 11.0.
Carter-Reagan debate – Carter, 12.0; Reagan, 10.7.
Reagan-Mondale debates — Reagan, 9.8; Mondale, 8.7.
Dukakis-Bush debates of 1988 — Dukakis, 8.9; Bush, 6.7 grade.
Bush-Clinton-Perot debates of 1992 — Carter, 8.5, Bush, 6.5, Perot, 6.3.
Bush-Gore debate of 2000 — Bush, 7.1, Gore, 8.4.
Cheney-Lieberman, V.P. Debate — Lieberman, 9.9; Dick Cheney, 9.1.

And for good measure, Hamlet’s ‘To Be or Not to Be Soliloquy’, Shakespeare, c. 1600, comes in at 10.6.

Now Kathleen Parker has considerably upped the ante when applied readability statistics in her premise about Barack Obama as the first ‘feminine president’ ….

How Obama lost control of the oil-spill narrative

WORD OF MOUTH: Colleen Ross

Colleen Ross

The usual key to staying on top in the murky world of politics is to control the narrative. And, by all linguistic accounts, Barack Obama’s control of the oil spill narrative has slipped away.

Lonely warrior. Barack Obama counting tar balls on a Louisiana beach in May 2010. (Larry Downing/Reuters)

In his first prime-time address from the Oval Office recently, Obama attempted to take back the reins by employing warrior-like language.

In his best Churchill impression, he spoke about “the battle we’re waging against an oil spill that is assaulting our shores and our citizens,” going on to vow that “we will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes.”

The president then talked about creating a battle plan as well as the need to develop energy independence and to “fight for the America we want for our children.”

Click Here to Listen to Colleen Ross’ Podcasts

The president then talked about creating a battle plan as well as the need to develop energy independence and to “fight for the America we want for our children.”

In fact, Obama’s rhetoric around America’s biggest environmental disaster has intensified in recent weeks.

Accused of not being angry enough at the company that has still not managed to fully plug a gushing oil well, “No Drama” Obama, as he was once known, is using tougher language and framing the oil spill as an environmental 9/11.

He also uttered the now oft-quoted explanation of why he’s spending so much time talking to experts: So he can “know whose ass to kick.”

Oil-spill enabler

But in this unfolding drama, with a wavering protagonist, a motley crew of characters and a slick, unrelenting enemy, one is compelled to shout in frustration: “Words, words, words!”

Duelling narratives
(An unscientific, comparison)
BP: Use remotely operated underwater vehicles to try to reactivate blowout preventer.
Political narrative: Remotely control response, i.e. let Coast Guard handle it.
BP: Introduce small tube into burst pipe to slow flow.
Political narrative: Introduce oil spill commission and temporarily stop offshore drilling
BP: Drill relief wells, this is going to take awhile.
Political narrative: Drill home the need for relief/compensation (this is going to take awhile)

Therein lies the problem, says language analyst Paul Payack. Words alone mean nothing if they are not backed up by action and, as a result, Obama has lost control of what he wants to say.

“He who wins control of the narrative controls the story in terms of political capital,” says Payack. And at the moment, Obama isn’t doing so well, which could hurt his party in the November mid-term elections.

According to Payack, the most important storyline currently defining the president is “Obama as oil spill enabler.”

Keep Presidential Speeches Smart

Medialand

Trevor Butterworth, 06.22.10

Trevor Butterworth is the editor of stats.org, an affiliate of George Mason University that looks at how numbers are used in public policy and the media. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.

If the Gulf oil spill is a national tragedy, the arguments over President Obama’s response to it have descended into a national farce. When former law professors go looking for “ass to kick,” they end up looking like the eponymous hero of Kickass, a nerdy kid copying moves he’s seen in comic books. The difference is that the fictional Kickass was ennobled by failure, which, sadly, is not the kind of outcome open to the President of the United States in matters of national importance.

Obama’s mistake was to respond to the Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots of punditry. The country didn’t want Spock at the helm during environmental armageddon, they protested; the situation demanded a theatrically-appropriate response–as if the presidency was the background music to the movie of our lives, rousing in adversity, compassionate in suffering, a boom box of linguistic effects.

If style is the image of character, you cannot go from the calmest, most judicious intellectual in the room to a Schwarzenegger character in leather trousers and expect to be perceived as authentic. This is why responding to his critics was the wrong thing to do. By following their lame advice, by trying to be someone he isn’t, Obama sounded bathetic.

All of this is an object lesson in how democracy isn’t helped by the media. Just as an analysis of the Katrina response shows that it was a complex systematic failure of government and not a simple fumble by George W. Bush and “heck of a job” Brownie, the Gulf oil spill is not really in the league of a car wreck caused by distracted texting. The very intractability of the problem demands openness, an admission of complexity and a detailed description of solutions that are being pursued. And yet, according to one manufacturer of conventional wisdom, the problem was not that Obama’s White House address on the spill was too simple or vague, it was that it wasn’t simple enough. As CNN reported:

“Obama’s speech may have gone over the heads of many in his audience, according to an analysis of the 18-minute talk released Wednesday by Paul J.J. Payack, president of Global Language Monitor. Tuesday night’s speech from the Oval Office of the White House was written to a 9.8 grade level, said Payack, who gave Obama a ‘solid B.’ His Austin, Texas-based company analyzes and catalogues trends in word usage and word choice and their impact on culture.”

The president’s 19.8 words per sentence apparently “added some difficulty for his target audience.” But 19.8 words is well within the breath of television’s cutthroat culture of political sound bites, which now stands at seven seconds. Indeed, as Elvin T. Lim notes in his brilliant historical and linguistic analysis of presidential rhetoric, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency, the average presidential sentence in recent years (as defined by speeches) has ranged from 15 to 20 words, well within the assumed attention span of the presumptive television viewer.

But now, even this is apparently too difficult for most Americans to follow. It gets worse. Take the following sentence from the President’s speech, “That is why just after the rig sank, I assembled a team of our nation’s best scientists and engineers to tackle this challenge–a team led by Dr. Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist and our nation’s Secretary of Energy.” According to Payack, this is the kind of phrasing that makes the President seem “aloof and out of touch.” It’s too professorial, too academic and not “ordinary enough.” Perhaps the President should just have tweeted “I got smart folks fixin’ to fix the oil spill” and let everyone go back to their regular broadcast fare or communicating with each other in grunts and clicks.

New York Magazine: Textbook Obama

Flash from the Past ( September 21, 2009) by Paul Bonanos

Which predecessor does his rhetoric most nearly echo? The data don’t lie: It’s Ronald Reagan.

On Tuesday, President Obama spoke to schoolchildren; on Wednesday, to Congress. The easy punch line (same grade level, guys?) raises a real question: How does this president, whose comments on health care in particular had been criticized for lacking a clear take-home message, pitch his language? Does he strategically streamline his explanations for different audiences? To find out, we called upon science, in the form of Paul J. J. Payack, “president and chief word analyst” at an Austin, Texas, trend-watching outfit called the Global Language Monitor.

What Payack found when Obama’s speeches bubbled through his software was that the president didn’t treat Congress like a bunch of kids. His health-care speech clocks in at 9.0, indicating a ninth-grade reading level; the classroom speech, at 6.6. Those two figures more or less bookend the range for contemporary oration. Both Presidents Bush tended to fall around grade 7, as did Obama’s “Yes, We Can” speech. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” comes in at 8.8.

There’s plenty of room for sophisticated ideas at that level. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is sixth-grade material. So is The Hobbit. The Gettysburg Address rates a 9.1. That’s low for the nineteenth century, when florid oratory was in vogue—the Lincoln-Douglas debates took place at an eleventh-grade level, rarely heard today. “You can imagine how they’d talk—three, four hours long,” Payack says. “It really changed with the advent of radio.”

Nor is ninth-grade language too tough for a mainstream audience. Payack says that Ronald Reagan, the master of folksy explanation, is Obama’s closest match among recent presidents, with speeches that usually come in around 9 or 10. “The word was that he spoke in sound bites, but they’re very well-crafted sound bites.” The two presidents may differ in affect, content, and approach—Obama sometimes seems to develop his ideas through the very process of turning them into oratory, whereas Reagan more or less only had one idea—but not in linguistic complexity. Indeed, Obama has often expressed admiration for the Gipper’s ability to frame issues.

Payack explains that his proprietary algorithm is a variant of the standard Flesch Reading Ease Test, which is performed on many textbooks and educational materials: “It analyzes words per sentence, syllables per word, things of that nature. The theory is that the more complex the structure, the more syllables per word, the more difficult it is to understand.” Polysyllabicism and subclauses add complexity, and skew the score toward older readers. “To reach the greatest number of people, to communicate most crisply, to make sure your idea moves from your mind to someone else’s, you should speak in short sentences.” (Representative Joe Wilson’s “You lie!” achieves a prekindergarten rating.) For comparison, a Maureen Dowd column from last week was a 10.8, a Paul Krugman piece was a 12.5, and the story you’re reading now has a Flesch score of ninth grade.

Read More

Obama Oil Spill Speech Echoes Elite, Aloof Ethos

When Obama is at his best (such as the Grant Park ‘Yes, We Can speech), the President has a direct and emotional connection with the American people. This speech, simply, did not live up to that high standard — and the numbers reflect it.

Comparisons with previous addresses and those of other presidents

Passive Voice highest for any major presidential address this century

Surprisingly high tenth-grade reading (and hearing) level

Austin, TX, June 17, 2010 – According to an exclusive analysis by The Global Language Monitor, President Obama’s Oil Spill speech echoed his elite ethos, with a broad plan for an alternative-energy future and few specifics. The only specifics of the address were the continuation of the off-shore drilling ban, effectively putting tens of thousands of Gulf Coast jobs in jeopardy. The President’s first Oval Office address came in at a surprising high tenth-grade reading level, with some 13% passive constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address in this century. In political speaking, the passive voice is generally used to either deflect responsibility, or to have no particular ‘doer’ of an action

GLM on Obama’s ‘Yes, We Can!’ victory speech: Ranked Among the Greatest

See “The Colbert Report’s” Send-up of GLM’s Oval Office Analysis

A previous analysis using GLM’s NarrativeTracker™, found the president’s primary narrative arc to be that of ‘Obama as an Oil Spill Enabler’. Nothing in the address would appear to change that narrative, though formal analysis will be forthcoming in the next week.

Kathleen Parker’s ‘Empiracally Vacuous Meme-replication’
Alternet’s Dumbing Down of Obama’s speech to the seventh-grade level.

The Readability Analysis of the Oval Office address appears below:

Passive Voice — With some 13% passive constructions, the highest level measured in any major presidential address this century. In political speaking, the passive voice is generally used to either deflect responsibility, or to have no particular ‘doer’ of an action, at least when speaking about himself or his Administration. Otherwise, BP was the clear ‘doer’.
Sentence Length — Obama’s spoke in long, though well-crafted, sentences about 20 words in length.
Sentences per Paragraphs – Just below four sentences per paragraph. Usually four sentences in a paragraph would be quite easy to understand, but the 19.8 words per sentence, added some difficulty for his target audience.
Characters per words – Obama’s words had an average of 4.5 letters in them, a bit longer than typical for him.
Flesch Reading Ease – Reading Ease came in at 59.1. The Closer to 100, the easier to read. This is well within the normal range for Oval Office Addresses.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade-Level – 9.8 Grade Level. This is the highest of any major Obama speech. Obama’s closest match among recent presidents is Ronald Reagan, whose speeches generally ranged from the 9^th to 10^th grade levels. (President George W. Bush usually spoke at a seventh grade level.)

Grade-Level comparisons with other speeches of note include:

Kennedy Inaugural Address 10.8

Reagan ‘Tear Down This Wall” 9.8

Lincoln “Gettysburg Address” 9.1

Martin Luther King: ”I have a dream” 8.8

Obama 2004 Democrat Convention 8.3

Obama Victory Speech “Yes, we can” 7.4

“The scores indicate that this was not Obama at his best, especially when attempting make an emotional connection to the American people,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of GLM. “For example, the numbers are significantly different than the ‘Yes, I can” speech, which many consider his best effort.”

How Obama lost control of the oil-spill narrative (Colleen Ross, CBC)

Keep Presidential Speeches Smart (Trevor Butterworth, Forbes)

Textbook Obama (New York Magazine by Chris Bonanos)

Obama Narrative 2.0 (GLM)

The President, the Spill and the Narrative that got away (Simon Mann, The Age)

FAQs about GLM, Paul JJ Payack, and the Million Word March

Obama Narrative 2.0

Five Narratives Compete for the Title Tuesday Night

Austin, TX, June 15, 2010 – There are now five main narrative ‘arcs’ competing for the Obama Narrative 2.0 title, the underlying storyline that will largely define the president in the run-up to the Mid-term elections and, possibly, for time remaining in his term.

The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet, as well as the leading print and electronic databases.

The Global Language Monitor’s NarrativeTracker™, found the primary narrative arcs in descending order of importance to be:

1. Obama as Oil Spill Enabler – OK, he didn’t cause it, but in today’s parlance, he appears to be enabling the perpetrators (BP or British Petroleum). It’s score was some fifteen times higher than that of No. 5, Healthcare Reform.

2. Obama as the Big Spender – This is a good story line if your goal is to play to the left. Independents and the right see it as far less favorable. Spending is have ten times the impact as that of Healthcare Reform.

3. Obama as the Chicago-style pol – Since the beginning of the year, this narrative is up 640%. Good for Chicagoland, not so favorable for the rest of the nation.

4. Obama as out-of-touch or aloof – Taking time to ascertain whose ‘ass to kick’ and calling in an ever growing number of academics to resolve problems usually left to Red Adair (or Bruce Willis) has resulted in a thirteen hundred percent rise in this narrative arc.

5. Obama as HealthCare Reformer – The bloom is off this rose far more quickly than such a triumph would typically entail. It has fallen from the No. 1 position just a few months ago.

“As of this moment, Obama Narrative 2.0 will emerge far less favorable than that of 1.0: the Washington outsider, who will stare-down both Beltway denizens and Politics as usual,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of GLM. “The Narratives emerging from this inexorably slowly unfolding ecological disaster are running roughshod over those earlier, far-more positive narratives the president is attempting to revive.

The rise of the narrative can render positions on the issues almost meaningless, since positions now matter less than how they fit into a particular narrative. The NarrativeTracker is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters.

The NarrativeTracker is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

About the Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English. For more information, call 1.925.367.7557, send email to pjjp@post@harvard.edu, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

The President, the Spill and the Narrative that got away

SIMON MANN, The Age, Sydney Australia

The White House lost control of the story, and now Obama is painted as the bad guy.

These days, if you hadn’t already noticed, everyone and everything is ascribed a ”narrative”, something that is to be owned and shaped, that tells a particular story in a particular fashion.

Narratives aren’t necessarily truthful accounts, but they are often powerful and persuasive. They can also be hijacked. If you neglect to write your own narrative, somebody else will write it for you. Which is why US President Barack Obama is no longer travelling to Australia and Indonesia this month. Essentially, his administration lost control of the narrative of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Others have been its lead authors, constructing a story that reads like this: the White House allowed BP too much licence in running the operation to fix the crippled Deepwater Horizon well, too readily trusting the oil giant’s version of events; it left the US Coast Guard alone to marshal the federal response; and it was slow to pick up on the exasperated cries of Gulf communities readying for environmental and economic catastrophe. The authors dared even to suggest that the spill looms as Obama’s “Katrina”.

The President’s response to contentious issues has often been characterised as more cerebral than heartfelt. This is the guy, after all, who makes Cool Hand Luke look jumpy and uptight. And the media has long invited him to “get angry” and “get even”.

It’s not that the administration hasn’t put the hours into combating America’s worst-ever environmental mishap.

Read and See More including ‘Kick ass’ Obama slams critics video where US President Barack Obama rebuts claims that he has been slow to react to the oil spill catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tracking the Gulf Oil Spill Narrative

Obama vs. BP, Exxon Valdez vs. Katrina, Biblical Prophesies, etc.

The development of the Gulf Oil Spill narrative is important since he who wins control of the narrative, controls the story in terms of political capital – for good or ill.

Austin, TX, June 02, 2010 — In an exclusive analysis by The Global Language Monitor’s NarrativeTracker™, there are now several differing story lines emerging from the Gulf Oil Spill.

The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and othersocial media outlets on the Internet, as well as the leading print and electronic databases.

The Narratives emerging from this on-going (and slow-moving) disaster include:

· Obama was Slow to Respond – 95% of the social media conversations characterize the President Obama as ‘slow to respond’.

· Obama vs. BP: who’s in charge? — 52% see BP in charge of the spill. This may or may not be a political liability. Democrats need the blame assigned to BP; at the same time, Obama needs to be seen as in overall control of the disaster.

· Worst environmental disaster ever – 42% see the current spill the worst environmental disaster ever.

· Federal Response — 57% see the Federal response using ‘poor’ or related keywords. Not a good month for the Feds; come to think of it, not a good year for the Feds.

· Katrina vs. Exxon Valdez – 61% make the comparison to the Exxon Valdez; about 39% compare the ongoing spill to the inundation of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

· Biblical Prophecies Abound Once More — About 61% of all references involve the Bible. (Even Ted Turner has a theory how the oil spill might be a warning from God.) These are markedly different in tone than those used with Katrina where the references focused on apocalyptic imagery, End-of-the-World scenarios and doom.

· The Obama Style of Leadership – This is a close one 52% see Obama as ‘hand’s on’ leadership, 48% see ‘hand’s off’. Again, this is either positive or negative depending on your political bias. Ronald Reagan was seen as a ‘hand’s off’ president and that was considered good. Jimmy Carter was a ‘hand’s on’ type president and that was considered bad.

“The development of the Gulf Oil Spill narrative is important to track since he who wins control of the narrative, controls the story in terms of political capital – for good or ill,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of GLM. “With the mid-term elections just five months away, and the prospect of the Gulf Oil Spill continuing unabated for months, control of the narrative is more important than ever.”

The term ‘narrative’ in this sense is now appearing thousands of times in the global media on the Internet and blogosphere as well as throughout the world of social media, meaning the main streams of public opinion running in the media that needs to be fed, encouraged, diverted or influenced by any means possible.

GLM recently announced The Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™), in partnership with OpenConnect Systems of Dallas. The Healthcare NTI is the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time.

Healthcare

Click Here for the NarrativeTracker Overview

Healthcare NTI™ (NarrativeTracker Index™) is the first social media tracking tool designed to monitor public opinions on healthcare. Because the Healthcare NTI is based on the national (or regional or, even local) discourse – in real time, it provides a more accurate picture of what the public is actually thinking, on any topic, at any point in time.

Click here to go to the OpenConnect NarrativeTracker site.

Press Release:

NarrativeTracker: the First Social Media-based Tracking Tool Announced

NarrativeTracker Index™ to provide policy-makers unbiased public opinion on Healthcare Reform or any other topic.

(Media-Newswire.com) – Dallas and Austin, Texas, May 12, 2010 – Today, OpenConnect, an innovator in defining and improving process efficiency,and The Global Language Monitor ( GLM ), the media analytics company, announced the joint launch of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ ( NTI™ ), the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform.Because the Healthcare NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet. The rise of the narrative actually renders positions on the issues almost meaningless, since positions now matter less than how they fit into a particular narrative.“Just as the OpenConnect Comprehend solution provides an unprecedented view into a company’s workflows looking for process variations that drive inefficiency and waste, NTI tracks the ‘narrative’ of a subject, as well as projecting future trajectories for the narrative,” said Edward ML Peters, CEO of OpenConnect.The result has several advantages over traditional polls:1 ) Immediacy2 ) The lack of any bias that tends to creep into traditional polling, e.g., when individuals answer questions with what they think are the ‘correct’ answers rather than their true opinions.3 ) NTI lets policy and decision makers focus on the true issues driving perceptions and concerns rather than being driven by false and phantom concepts.In addition, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative.“The goal of influencers, whether it’s the media, advertisers or politicians, is to spin news so that it resonates best with their target audience,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. NTI is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters.”The NTI is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ ( PQI™ ). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.The Healthcare NTI will be released on a monthly basis beginning Thursday, May 13, 2010. The first analysis details the various narratives surrounding Massachusetts Healthcare reform, a healthcare model which has been adopted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the national healthcare reform bill.About Open ConnectOpenConnect business process discovery and analytics deliver event-driven intelligence to automatically discover workforce, process and customer variations that hinder operational efficiency. Armed with this information, executives can make the quick and incremental improvements that will increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, reduce cost, and raise profitability. With a rich history of developing innovative technology, OpenConnect products are distributed in more than 60 countries and used by more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information on OpenConnect, visit www.oc.com.About The Global Language Monitor
Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the Blogosphere, Social Media as well as the Top 25,000 print and electronic media sites.For more information on NarrativeTracker, call 1.925.367.7557, or send email to PaulJJPayack@gmail.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.News ReleasesMay 13, 2010NarrativeTracker Provides Unbiased Public Opinion on HealthcareMay 12, 2010OpenConnect announces first social media tracking tool to monitor public opinions on healthcareRead What the Media is SayingMay 12,2010CNBC.comOpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index(TM) to Provide Policy-Makers Unbiased Public Opinion on Aspects Related to Healthcare Austin company gauging health care opinion through Web word tracking OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare OpenConnect Announces First Social Media Tracking Tool to Monitor Public Opinions on Healthcare Austin company gauging health care opinion through Web word trackingFor More Information Contact:
Paul JJ Payack
pjjp@post.Harvard.edu
925-367-7557

NarrativeTracker Analysis Reveals Top Buzzwords in Healthcare Narrative

Top Buzzwords: Rationing, Out-of-control Spending, Price Controls, Non-sustainable, and Mandate Failure

Dallas and Austin, Texas, May 13, 2010 — In what could presage mounting difficulties for the national healthcare reform roll-out, the top buzzwords associated with the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform ‘narrative’ have been found to be Rationing, Out-of-control-spending, Price Controls, Non-sustainable, and Mandate Failure. In addition, Gaming the System was the key underlying trend that was discovered. The results of the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™) were reported earlier today by The Global Language Monitor, the media analytics company, and OpenConnect, an innovator in defining and improving process efficiency.

The NTI focused on the unfolding narrative about the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Law since it is frequently cited as a model for the national legislation. The analysis was performed to better understand and help clarify the national healthcare reform discourse.

“There is a very good possibility that what we are learning from the Massachusetts Healthcare Reform can be applied directly to the national healthcare reform act,” said Edward ML Peters, CEO of OpenConnect, “And what we are seeing there is a perfect storm of ‘rationing’, out-of-control ‘spending’, ‘price controls’ and ‘unsustainability’ — that have now moved to the forefront of the Massachusetts discussion.”

The top concerns from the on-going narrative concerning Massachusetts Healthcare Reform Law in the immediate aftermath of “The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” being signed into law include:

1. Rationing – Along with related keywords (allocation, etc.) was a strong No.1

2. Spending Increase – References involving increased spending up 400% for the year

3. Price Controls — A growing concern; up 1400% for the year

4. Non-sustainable – Scored 40% higher than ‘sustainable’

5. Mandate Failure – Experiencing a sustained rise

The NarrativeTracker also found these key underlying trends (nTracker Arc) that are foundational to the main narrative.

1. The question of quality is supplanted by the issue of ‘fairness’ with fairness being driven by the ‘gaming the system’ arc.

2. Gaming has come to the fore with stories of individuals abusing (or outsmarting) the system by signing up for healthcare only when a medical procedure is looming. (In this scenario, the average cost of a month of coverage is $600 while the procedures average about $10,000.)

3. The mentions of ‘failure’ with the keyword ‘reform’ have been rising steeply, some 240% in the last 60 days.

The analysis was completed in early May 2010.

The NarrativeTracker Index is the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform. Because the Healthcare NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the nTracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.

The ‘narrative’ refers to the stream of public opinion captured by blogs and other social media outlets on the Internet. The rise of the narrative actually renders positions on the issues almost meaningless, since positions now matter less than how they fit into a particular narrative.

The NTI is based on the GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator™ (PQI™). The PQI tracks the frequency of words and phrases in global print and electronic media on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere and other social media outlets as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted index that factors in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.

The Healthcare NTI will be released on a monthly basis beginning Thursday, May 13, 2010. The first analysis details the various narratives surrounding Massachusetts Healthcare reform, a healthcare model which has been adopted in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as the national healthcare reform bill.

For more information, call 1.925.367.7557, send email to pauljjpayack@gmail.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

NarrativeTracker: the First Social Media-based Tracking Tool Announced

Click here for a NarrativeTracker Overview

NarrativeTracker Index™ to provide policy-makers unbiased public opinion on Healthcare Reform

Dallas and Austin, Texas, May 12, 2010 — Today OpenConnect Systems and The Global Language Monitor have announced the joint launchof the Healthcare NarrativeTracker Index™ (NTI™), the first product specifically designed to use social media-based monitoring to better understand the issues driving healthcare reform. Because the Healthcare NTI is based on the national discourse, it provides a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic related to healthcare, at any point in time. In addition to the NTI, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative to provide a comprehensive overview of the opinions surrounding a single issue.

“Just as the OpenConnect Comprehend solution provides an unprecedented view into a company’s workflows looking for process variations that drive inefficiency and waste, NTI tracks the ‘narrative’ of a subject, as well as projecting future trajectories for the narrative,” said Edward ML Peters, CEO of OpenConnect.

The result has several advantages over traditional polls:

1) Immediacy

2) The lack of any bias that tends to creep into traditional polling, e.g., when individuals answer questions with what they think are the ‘correct’ answers rather than their true opinions.

3) NTI lets policy and decision makers focus on the true issues driving perceptions and concerns rather than being driven by false and phantom concepts.

In addition, the Narrative Tracker Arc™ follows the rise and fall of sub-stories within the main narrative.

“The goal of influencers, whether it’s the media, advertisers or politicians, is to spin news so that it resonates best with their target audience,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. NTI is more effective in capturing the true opinion of the public because it tracks unfiltered keywords in Social Media and other sources, rather than how that opinion is interpreted by the news media or by pollsters.”

About Open Connect

OpenConnect business process discovery and analytics deliver event-driven intelligence to automatically discover workforce, process and customer variations that hinder operational efficiency. Armed with this information, executives can make the quick and incremental improvements that will increase process efficiency, improve employee productivity, reduce cost, and raise profitability. With a rich history of developing innovative technology, OpenConnect products are distributed in more than 60 countries and used by more than 60 percent of Fortune 100 companies. For more information on OpenConnect, visit www.oc.com.

About The Global Language Monitor

Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the Blogosphere, Social Media as well as the Top 25,000 print and electronic media sites.

Go to NarrativeTracker Page

For more information on NarrativeTracker, call 1.925.367.7557, or send email to PaulJJPayack@gmail.com , or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

NarrativeTracker..

The Narrative: Top Political Buzzword for Midterm Elections

Austin, Texas, April 5, 2010 — “The Narrative’ is the Top Political Buzzword for the upcoming election cycle, according to a global Internet and media analysis by Austin-based Global Language Monitor. GLM has been monitoring political buzzwords since 2003.

Read about The Narrative in Congressional Quarterly’s Political Wire.

“The Narrative” is now appearing thousands of times in the global media on the Internet and blogosphere as well as throughout the world of social media. The current ‘sense’ of the ancient phrase is being used as the main stream of public opinion running in the media that needs to be fed, encouraged, diverted or influenced by any means possible.

Current examples include:

“Barack Obama, US president, has lost control of the political narrative …” Financial Times, Feb 15.
“The Start of a New Obama Narrative” (Huffington Post, March 26)
“The Obama White House has lost the narrative in the way that the Obama campaign never did” (New York Times, March 6)
“Ok. Has the narrative changed because of the health care success? (Washington Post, March 26)
“The only thing that changes is the narrative.” (CNN, March 23)

“The rise of the ‘The Narrative’ actually renders actual positions on the issues almost meaningless, since the positions now matter less than what they seem to mean.” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. “The goal of political campaigns now is to spin a storyline that most ‘resonates’ with the electorate, or segments thereof”.

Read the discussion generated by MinnPost’s Eric Black

The word ‘narrative’ comes to us from the 16th century and traditionally means something told in the form of a story. It is ultimately from the Latin, narrativus, meaning something told, related or revealed (as in a story). One of the best-known examples is The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas.

The Global Language Monitor has been tracking political buzzwords since the turn of the century.

Top Political Buzzword of the 2000 Presidential Election was ‘Chad’.
Top Political Buzzword of the 2004 Presidential Election was ‘Incivil’ as in the InCivil War, alluding to the vicious war of words between the Kerry and Bush (43) camps.
Top Political Buzzword of the 2008 Presidential Election was ‘Change’.

More recently, GLM has tracked the following about political buzzwords in the media:

To track political buzzwords, Global Language Monitor uses the Predictive Quantities Index, a proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in print and electronic media, on the Internet and throughout the blogosphere, now including social media. The words and phrases are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Political Buzzwords Track Trajectory of Obama Presidency

Bailout, Climate Change, Birther, Healthcare Reform & Liberal at top

Obamamania and Politics of Change tumble as does Bush (as a Bogeyman)

Austin, Texas September 11, 2009 (Updated) – ‘Bailout’, ‘Climate Change’, ‘Birther’, ‘Health Care Reform’ and ‘Liberal’ were named the top political buzzwords since the Obama Inaugural. Rounding out the top ten were ‘recession’ (up some 1000% when linked to Obama), ‘Sarah Palin,’ the phrase ‘change you can believe in’ (down some 600% since the Inauguration), ‘AIG bonuses,’ and ‘Sotomayor,’ the new Supreme Court justice. Perhaps, even more striking is the manner in which signature buzzwords such as ‘Politics of change’ (No. 37) and ’Obamanania’ (No. 38) have tumbled. Another finding: the tactic of painting ‘Bush’ (No. 23) and, even, Cheney (No.28) as bogeymen is rapidly losing it effectiveness.

For the study, GLM used it proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere and social media as well as accessing proprietary databases. The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity. The final list contains 40 words and phrases (see below).

“The top political buzzwords used since the Obama Inaugural show the sharp trajectory of his presidency,’ said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of The Global Language Monitor. “Our analysis differs from polls in that it is not what people say they think about various topics, but rather is a measurement of what words are actually being used and in which context.”

The Top Political Buzzwords since the Inaugural listes with rank and commentary follow.

Top Political Buzzwords September 1, 2009 CommentRank1. Wall Street Bailout: Still resonates at very high score, no shrinkage2. Climate Change Remains: One of the Top 3 — for several years3. Birther: Whatever it means, the issue looms large4. Health Care Reform: Health Care Reform comes in at a strong No. 45. Liberal: This is not always a positive statement6. Recession (linked to Obama): Obama’s link to recession up 1000% since inauguration7. Sarah Palin: Fierce opposition to her, apparently adds to her allure8. Change you can believe in: Down almost 60% from January peak9. AIG (Post-bailout Bonuses): Bonuses after the Bailout still loom large in public mind10. Sotomayor: Wise Latina gets more news than Iraq War11. Iraq War: Fading from the public mind as Afghanistan advances12. Socialism (linked with Obama): Painting Obama as a Socialist apparently working13. Outrage (Linked with Obama & AIG: Outrage at AIG now linked to Obama administration14. Public Option in HealthCare: Public Option still center of debate15. Stimulus Package: Stimulus package still object of controversy16. MObama (the Fashion Icon): Michelle Obama image as global fashion icon rising rapidly17. Beer Summit with Gates & Cambridge Police: Beer Summit resonates with all things ‘racial’18. Middle-class taxes: Concern is up about 170% since Inaugural19. Current crisis as Depression: Citations down some 50% since January20. Transparency: Idea of Transparency shrinking from view (down 30%)21. Obama as a compromiser: Continues to gain traction22. Rush Limbaugh: Rush bests the former president by only 5%23. George Bush: Warning to Dems: Bush as Bogey man fading from view24. Single Payer: Healthcare solution view as government intervention; Up over 800% since Obama took office25. Death Panel: Up some 1500%, ranking only slightly ahead of Al Qaeda26. Al qaeda: Still lurking in the public mind27. Town Hall Meetings: Not to be easily dismissed28. Dick Cheney: Former No. 2, now No. 2829. Shovel Ready: Where are all the ‘shovel-ready’ jobs?30. Global Financial Restructuring: This may take years to run its course31. Iran election: On the periphery of American consciousness32. Wise Latina: Short-term news bite, no lasting value33. Financial meltdown: Down 85% since January as he the new reality sets in34. Worst Recession: Not depression, but something different than a recession35. Afghanistan: Troop build-up mostly a Beltway discussion36. Wee weeing: According to Obama, Washington in late summer37. Politics of change: Biz as usual sends this plummeting 60% from Inaugural38. Obamamania: Yesterday’s news; down over 80% from Inaugural39. Politics of fear: Within 1/2 of 1% of Obamamania40. Nuclear Iran Drifting in and out of public consciousness

What’s the advantage of the PQI over the Polls?

The PQI is, perhaps, the ultimate ‘It is what it is’ measurement of consumer (and in this case Political) sentiment.

The PQI simply measures the occurrence of certain words or phrases in the print and electronic media (traditional or otherwise), on the Internet, and across the Blogosphere and social media, as well as accessing proprietary databases. It is by its very nature non-biased. When we take a statistical snapshot for the PQI there is no adjustment for ‘underrepresented’ groups, there are no assumptions about probability of turnout, the proportions of newly registered voters, traditional models, or expanded modularities. Rather, we take our measurements, check for the rate of positive or negative change in the appearance of a searched word or phrase (what we call velocity and momentum) and publish our results.

Most Confusing High Tech Buzzwords (2008)

Cloud Computing, Green Washing & Buzzword Compliant

Austin Texas November 21, 2008 — In its third annual Internet and media analysis, The Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) has found the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech buzzwords of 2008 to be cloud computing, green washing, and buzzword compliant followed by resonate, de-duping, and virtualization. Rounding out the Top Ten were Web 2.0, versioning, word clouds, and petaflop. The most confusing Acronym for 2008 was SaaS (software as a service).

Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, said “The words we use in high technology continue to become even more obtuse even as they move out of the realm of jargon and into the language at large.”

The Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited High Tech Words of 2008 with Commentary follow:

· Cloud Computing – Distributing or accessing programs and services across the Internet. (The Internet is represented as a cloud.)

· Green washing – Repositioning your product so that its shortfalls are now positioned as environmental benefits: Not enough power? Just re-position as energy-saving.

· Buzzword Compliant — Including the latest buzzwords in literature about a product or service in order to make it ‘resonate’ with the customer.

· Resonate – Not the tendency of a system to oscillate at maximum amplitude, but the ability to relate to (or resonate with) a customer’s desires.

· De-duping – shorthand for de-duplication, that is, removing redundant data from a system.

· Virtualization – Around since dinosaurs walked the planet (the late ‘70s) virtualization now applies to everything from infrastructures to I/O.

· Web 2.0 – Now there’s talk of Web 3.0, just when we were finally getting used to Web 2.0.

· Versioning – Creating new revisions (or versions) with fewer bugs and more features.

· Word Clouds – Graphic representations of the words used in a text, the more frequently used, the larger the representation.

· Petaflop – A thousand trillion (or quadrillion) floating point operations per second Often mistaken as a comment on the environmental group.

The Most Confusing Yet Frequently Cited Acronym for 2008: SaaS — software-as-as-service to be differentiated, of course, from PaaS (platforms as a service) and IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service).

Others words under consideration include the ever popular yet amorphous ‘solution’, 3G and SEO.

In 2007 IPOD, Flash, Cookie, Nano and Cookie lead the list with SOA as the most confusing acronym

In 2005, HTTP, VoIP, Megapixel, Plasma, & WORM were the leading buzzwords.

The analysis was completed using GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets. This analysis was performed earlier this month.

About The Global Language Monitor

For more information, call 1.737.215.7750, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

30-30-30

January 21, 2020January 21, 2020

Narrative Tracker Applied, Part One

Not the Thrilla in Manila, but Certainly Nasty in Nassau

Finally, Obama’s reading ease score improved over 8% from 63.1 to 70.1; Romney’s remained a bit higher at 71.0.

The Final Narrative of Barack Obama

This is the final narrative of Barack Obama.

***

Paul JJ Payack is the president and Chief Word Analysts of Austin-based Global Language Monitor.

London Edges New York for Top 2012 Global Fashion Capital

WOWSlider.com 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44BaliNo. 14
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Ninth Annual Ranking Now Includes Fifty-five Cities

Top movers on the plus side included Antwerp (+33), Caracas (+27), Johannesburg (+23), and Sao Paulo (+18). Top movers on the down side include Mexico City (-25), Toronto (-19), Moscow (-17), Chicago (-14), and Mumbai (-14), attesting to the heightened global competition. Newcomers to this year’s analysis were Vancouver (31), Seoul (34), Boston (44), Houston (49), and St Petersburg, Russia (51).Prior to London’s two year reign, New York had reclaimed the crown from Milan. Previous to this, New York had been the top fashion capital for five years running, taking the crown from Paris.The 2012 Top Global Fashion Capitals, with Rank, Previous Year’s Rank, and commentary:1. London (1) – Competitors stymied by Kate Middleton and now the hugely successful Summer Olympics.
2. New York (2)– That toddling town is waiting in the wings for London to stumble.
3. Barcelona (7) — Iberia rules with two fashion capitals in the Top Five.
4. Paris (3)– Topped ‘haute couture’ category, of course.
5. Madrid (12)– Making a strong move toward the top.
6. Rome (13)– Edging Milano this time out.
7. Sao Paulo (25) — The Queen of Latin America, again.
8. Milano (4) — Slipping a few spots, but never for long.
9. Los Angeles (5) — The City of Angels strengthening its hold as a true fashion capital.
10. Berlin (10) — Remains among the elite — and deservedly so.
11. Antwerp (44) — A surprising large climb in a very short time (up 33 spots).
12. Hong Kong (6) — Tops in Asia, though down six year over year.
13. Buenos Aires (20) — Moving steadily upward.14. Bali (21) — Steady climb attests to it being more than just swimwear.
15. Sydney (11) — Remains near the top, a few steps ahead of Melbourne, as is its wont.
16. Florence (31) — A big move for Firenza (up 15).
17. Rio de Janeiro (23) — Building toward the 2016 Summer Games.
18. Johannesburg (41) — Jo-burg breaks into the Top Twenty.
19. Singapore (8) — Trailing Hong Kong but leading Tokyo and Shanghai.
20. Tokyo (9) — No longer the No, 5 to the Top Four, competition is aglow in Asia.
21. Melbourne (17) — Still strong, still a few steps behind Sydney.
22. Shanghai (14) — A thriving fashion center in a tough competitive arena.
23. Caracas (50) — Tremendous upward movement for a seminal fashion center.
24. Las Vegas (16) — Follow the money, and the money and the stars flow to Vegas.
25. Monaco (15) — The principality is firmly ensconced in the European fashion firmament.
26. Santiago (30) — A solid No. 5 in Latin America.
27. Amsterdam (19) — Creative, original and a bit outre.
28. Dubai (27) — A steady force in the mid-East ready to bloom further.
29. Bangkok (32) — Struggling to gain ground in the region.
30. Copenhagen (29) — Keeping pace with (and a bit ahead of) Stockholm.
31. Vancouver (Debut) — Solid debut from this newcomer from the Pacific Northwest.
32. Stockholm (28) — The Capital of Scandinavia’s influence is beginning to transcend its regional roots.
33. Krakow (47) — A scrappy player wielding a surprising amount of influence.
34. Seoul (Debut) — Korean fashion has now gained a foothold on the world scene.
35. Moscow (18) — A bold and growing presence despite a stumble in the current analysis.
36. Frankfurt (43) — Carving out its own space in Berlin’s towering shadow.
37. Vienna (35) — Insight into 21st c. fashion emerging from ancient imperial venues.
38. Mumbai (24) — Still leading New Delhi (now by 10 spots) to dominate the Subcontinent.
39. Miami (26) — The fashion world beginning to understand Miami is more than swimwear.
40. Abu Dhabi (42) — A steady climb backed by deep pockets.
41. San Francisco (38) — A rising yet iconoclastic star.
42. Austin (40) — Famous for its ‘Mash Up’ teams, the city propels its unique style forward.
43. Warsaw (33) — Particularly influential in Central Europe.
44. Boston (Debut) — Can New England deliver fashion to the world? Apparently so.
45. Prague (48) — A firm foundation in interpreting the traditional and the classic.
46. Dallas (37) — Outdistances Houston to settle the local score.
47. Mexico City (22) — Slips some twenty-five spots since the last report.
48. New Delhi (39) — Striving for relevance on the global stage.
49. Houston (Debut) — Big, bold and a city to watch.
50. Chicago (36) – City of the Big Shoulders stretching out toward word-class fashion.
51. St. Petersburg (Debut) — The former imperial capital making strides on the global fashion scene.
52. Montreal (49) — Eclipsed by the debut of Vancouver but still a formidable force.
53. Toronto (34) — Nipped by its francophone neighbor to the North.
54. Cape Town (46) — Though Jo-burg won the latest duel, Cape Town surely has plans.
55. Atlanta (45) — Gaining an international reputation for its bold accents. .

The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

Top Fashion Capitals by Region:

Europe (14): London, Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Milano, Berlin, Antwerp, Florence, Monaco, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Frankfurt.

Middle and Eastern Europe (6): Krakow, Moscow, Vienna, Warsaw, Prague, and St Petersburg.

North America (13): New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Vancouver, San Francisco, Austin, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, and Atlanta.

Asia (6): Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok, and Seoul.

Subcontinent (2): Mumbai, New Delhi,

Oceania (3): Bali, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Latin America (6): Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas, Santiago, and Mexico City.

Middle East and Africa (4): Dubai, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, and Cape Town.

The world fashion trade is estimated to be over three trillion USD.

Protected: Final Olympic Brand Affiliation Rankings of the London Games Announced

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Obama: du candidat super star au président mal aimé

Olympic (Ambush) Competition Officially Under Way

Ambushers Leading Sponsors 33-17

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Billions of Dollars in Brand Equity at Stake

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“Fortunately in the Olympics there is no ‘mercy rule,’ where a winner is declared in a contest to reach twenty-one, when one side scores the first 11 points,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of GLM. Of the top official and ‘non-affiliated marketers’ in the current study, the first twelve fall into the non-affiliated category.”

Ambushing by ‘Non-affiliated Marketers’ is more than Michael Phelps pitching sandwiches; it is a years-long effort to create a pseudo-sponsorship to leverage the good-well generated by having the Olympics with one’s brand.

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis,ranged from a high of 797.90 (Royal Philips} to a low of 1.50 for VisaCard. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with the event.

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The Top Twelve (all Ambushers), along with their tiers, are Listed below:

1	Royal Philips	TOP-A
2	CVC Capital	OOP-A
3	ExxonMobil	OOP-A
4	Manpower	OOS-A
5	Schroders	OOP-A
6	IBM Global	TOP-A
7	E ON Energy	OOP-A
8	KPMG	OOS-A
9	Deutsche Telekom	OOP-A
10	BASF	TOP-A
11	EI DuPont	TOP-A
12	Cable & Wireless	OOP-A

As you can see for the above rankings, Business-to-Business brands are being subjected to the sames ambush marketing forces as B2C marketers. ’

Royal Philips is crushing GE by over 20:1 margin; ExxonMobil bests BP by a similar margin; and BASF and DuPont are both striding past Dow.

The Top Ten Official Sponsors ranked from No. 13 to No. 39 overall. They are listed below, along with their tiers.

1	BT Group	OOP
2	Cadbury	OOS
3	BMW	OOP
4	Adidas	OOP
5	Panasonic	TOP
6	McDonald;s	TOP
7	Coca-Cola	TOP
8	UPS	OOS
9	P&G	TOP
10	EDF energy	OOP
11	Arcelor Mittal	OOS
12	Samsung	TOP

Though listed at the top official sponsor, the BT group actually ranks behind both Deutsche Telekom and Cable&Wireless.

Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate

Olympic Ambush Marketers Continue to Dominate London 2012

Nike over Adidas; BA Trails Three Competitors; Subway and Pizza Hut Top McDonald’s

Kate Middleton ‘Brand’ Tops Coke, Adidas, and BA

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

To schedule a confidential consultation, call +1.512.815.8836.

All perceived Olympic affiliations according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing rankings.

The top findings include:

McDonald’s is in a tough fight, ranking behind Subway and Pizza Hut, but beating KFC.
Ambusher Nike leads Partner Adidas by a wide margin.
British Airways trails ambushers Lufthansa, United and Air France in the rankings.
Royal Philip outpaced ever-strong GE.
P&G continues to crush ambush competitors as it did in Vancouver.
Ambusher Ericsson Over Supporter Cisco by a 3:1 margin.

The Duchess Effect Meets the Summer Games

The Top Ten Official Olympic Sponsors by BAI are listed below.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Thomas Cook	Supporter
5	UPS	Supporter
6	Lloyds TSB	Partner
7	Cadbury	Supporter
8	BP	Partner
9	P&G	IOC
10	ATOS	IOC

The Top Ten non-Olympic Affiliated Marketers by BAI are listed below.

1	Centrica	AMB OP
2	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
3	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
4	Schroders	AMB OP
5	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
6	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
7	Kraft	AMB SUP
8	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
9	Subway	AMB IOC
10	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The Top Twenty Combined Olympic Sponsors and Non-Affiliated Marketers Ranked by BAI.

1	Arcelor Mittal	Supporter
2	EDF energy	Partner
3	BT Group	Partner
4	Centrica	AMB OP
5	Eon Energy UK	AMB OP
6	Thomas Cook	Supporter
7	Barclaycard	AMB IOC
8	UPS	Supporter
9	Schroders	AMB OP
10	Lloyds TSB	Partner
11	Cadbury	Supporter
12	BP	Partner
13	Royal Philips	AMB IOC
14	P&G	IOC
15	ATOS	IOC
16	EI DuPont	AMB IOC
17	Kraft	AMB SUP
18	Ericsson Comm	AMB SUP
19	Subway	AMB IOC
20	Lufthansa	AMB OP

The GLM Brand Affiliation Index for this analysis, ranged from a high of 524.45 to a low of 1.49. The higher the score, the closer the brand affiliation with an event.

With its Branded Individual Index (BII) GLM also tracks the brand equity of the athletes before and during the Games.

Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

Top Trending Words of 2012 Mid-year Update

Obesogenic, Derecho (and gender-neutral ‘hen’) take on Apocalypse, Kate and Debt

‘

Number of Words in the English Language: 1,016,672 (July 6 estimate)

Obesogenic — An environment that tends to encourage obesity. Lately it has been used to describe television advertisement that promote sugary and high-calorie snacks to kids.
Derecho — A ‘land hurricane,’ a sudden storm with extremely strong one-directional winds, such as occurred in the Eastern states earlier this month.
Hen — The Swedish attempt to create a gender-neutral pronoun to replace him or her or combinations therefore: hen.