Apple Steals Top Spot in Q2 Media Impact Value Ranks, Overtaking Google

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Media measurement technology firm, General Sentiment, has released its quarterly Top-20 report highlighting the brands that made the biggest media impact for the quarter.  Apple topped General Sentiment's Impact Value rankings this quarter on the strength of its groundbreaking product releases, the iPad and iPhone 4.  Google fell to the number three spot despite generating record levels of discussion for the brand.  This marks the fourth quarterly analysis of its kind by General Sentiment, whose premier report was for the third quarter of 2009.  

General Sentiment also announced the launch of a new media value metric called Perception Value, which measures the brand with a greater emphasis on the quality of the content and exposure.  For the first time, General Sentiment has produced a top-10 ranking of winners and losers based on Perception Value.  

Perception Value isolates effects of the public sentiment on brand value by assigning positive value to positive mentions and negative value to negative mentions.

"It is probably no surprise this quarter that BP topped the list of biggest losers following the oil spill disaster in April," notes Greg Artzt, chief executive officer of General Sentiment.  "One surprise, however, is retailer Polo Ralph Lauren taking the winning ranking.

"We introduced Perception Value as a new and important form of media value that better tracks the real-world changes in a brand's overall consumer sentiment," Artzt adds.  "We believe this is the closest metric to 'true value' for brands of a certain size and stature, where the old PR adage of 'any news being good news' doesn't hold true.

"Some of the biggest surprises in the report include Apple taking the top Impact Value spot, and Adobe following BP as one of the biggest Perception Value losers of the quarter.  Clearly the 'flash compatibility' battle has not worked in Adobe's favor."

To see the Q2 Global Brand MVR in its entirety, go to www.generalsentiment.com/Q2GlobalBrand2010.html.

About General Sentiment

General Sentiment is a technology company that produces comprehensive research products to help marketing, sales and communications executives evaluate their brand perception and performance in the media.  The underlying technology platform is built on 'natural language processing' and sentiment analysis software developed over the course of six years of research at Stony Brook University.  On a quarterly basis, General Sentiment offers its industry-wide reports, which break down the brand winners (and losers) for that quarter. The company offers clients custom reporting services as well as an online Media Measurement Dashboard allowing corporate executives the ability to comprehensively understand their brand perception and measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts.  For more information about General Sentiment, go to www.generalsentiment.com.

SOURCE General Sentiment