The most influential FORTUNE 500 brands are also the most engaged brands that best leverage the power of influencers to amplify the brand message.

1. Engaged Brands
And the Rise of Trust-Based Marketing

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Introduction: Engaged Brands
In pre-internet days, the buyer’s process was fairly straightforward: stimulus, shelf, experience. A stimulus sparked a buyer’s
interest in a product leading the individual to a store or to call a salesperson to make the purchase. The journey ended with
the individual experiencing the product. There were very few places where a brand could intersect with the buyer.
Today’s purchasing journey, whether for a consumer product or complex business purchase, has infinitely more touchpoints
where a brand and buyer might intersect. The most trusted touchpoints are socially-driven: recommendations and other
consumers’ opinions are more highly trusted than any brand, or even editorial, content. A company increases the likelihood
that a buyer will find and develop trust within a touchpoint by converting them to trust points™, which is achieved through
engagement with influencers.
The following brief study illustrates how today’s most influential brands in the FORTUNE 500 are also the most engaged
brands that best leverage the power of credible third-party influencers rather than relying heavily on more traditional news
sources to amplify the brand message. Their success is aided by inserting trust into the purchasing journey.
Therein lies the power of influence marketing.
Data for this study were obtained on May 1, 2013 and are based on data 60 days prior to that date.

3. FORTUNE 500 Top 15 Most Influential Brands
3
122
97
113
51
83
104
87
221
106
210
282
353
378
387
368
266
307
301
415
384
375
417
597
788
1035
1010
1866
1843
2455
2508
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
News Engagement Net Influence Score
For the more influential brands, blogs & social
make up a larger share of the sources driving
the brand’s influence.

4. News is a constant source of influence:
Social and blogs are the differentiator
4
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Engagement News Net Influence Score
Most brands have a comparable
percentage of news driving the
Net Influence Score

5. 5
56%
66%
44%
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Blog News
% of source Net Influence Score: 232 Net Influence Score: 818
For more influential brands, blogs make
up the largest share of the sources
1 9
No. of bloggers
within the
Top 20 influencers

6. Bloggers are more subjective than
the more “formal” influencers
“His Ford dealer was unable to find an abnormal diagnostic code
that had been logged, and Richard claims he was told to come
back if the light came back.”
– Sebastian Blanco, via Autoblog
“For starters, the base Ford coupe is expected to carry on with
V6 power, likely from the same 3.7-liter unit found in today's car.”
– Steven Ewing, via Autoblog
“And judging by the once-overs and questions locals and visitors
asked us about the Ford Fusion Energi, latent interest already
exists.”
– Leon Kaye, via Triple Pundit
“What is likely to be even better news for Ford Fiesta buyers is
the likelihood the little car will stretch even further – without much
performance sacrifice – when the maker adds the new 1.0-liter
EcoBoost engine to the Fiesta line-up later this year.”
– Paul Eisenstein, via TheDetroitBureau
“The third step is particularly important because if Ford can ensure
that its production matches with the demand, most of the losses
will be cut.”
– Jacob Steinberg, SeekingAlpha.com
“Ford Mustang is a symbol of freedom and optimism that allows
you to be the person you dream of being, making it the perfect fit
for this story.”
– Jim Farley, EVP, Marketing and Sales, Ford via Variety
“Prime Minister Julia Gillard has blamed the high Australian dollar
for many of the sector's problems, which manifested themselves
recently in the announcement by Ford that it would withdraw
from local automobile production.”
– Julia Gillard, PM of Australia via TradingCharts.com
“It costs the company four times as much to make a car in
Australia as it does in its Asian divisions.”
– Bob Graziano, President of Ford Australia, via Mining Weekly
“(Ford) had full faith in the Indian growth story and was confident
that its contribution to the company’s business in the Asia Pacific
business region in the coming decades would create enough
disposable income in India and China to fuel demands for vehicles.”
– Alan Mulally, CEO, Ford, via Financial Chronicle
“Ford's retail market share year-to-date vehicles sold to
consumers rather than commercial customers and car rental
companies is approaching 8.5% in California, an increase of two
percentage points over the last year…”
– Ken Czubay, VP of sales and marketing, via LA Times
Sample Blogger Opinions
Bloggers are more likely to become brand advocates, but also more likely to be brand detractors.
Sample Non-Blogger Opinions
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7. How Appinions Analyzes Influence
About Appinions
Appinions is an opinion-based influence marketing platform designed to give companies the unmatched ability to identify,
analyze, engage, monitor and measure influencers. Built on more than a decade of Cornell University research, Appinions
extracts and aggregates opinions from more than 6 million sources including blogs, social networks, forums, and newspaper
and magazine articles, thus providing a more complete picture of influence. By analyzing opinions, Appinions can focus on the
thought-leaders most capable of impacting a conversation.
Who is an Influencer?
Appinions defines an influencer as a person, brand or company who expresses a contextually relevant opinion that is
meaningful enough to elicit action from others.
How is Influence calculated?
Appinions calculates individual influence scores based on an influencer’s opinions for a given topic. Scores are determined by
the following criteria:
• Frequency of actions the opinions generate;
• Credibility of the publications in which the opinions appear; and
• Diversity of publications carrying the opinions.
Appinions calculates influence at the topic level to understand the relative influence of different topics.
About Net Influence Score (NIS)
Appinions calculates topic influence scores, or the Net Influence Scores, based on the following criteria:
• Influence scores of each individual within the topic; and
• Number of trust impressions created by each influencer on that topic.
Trust impressions are driven and derived by what influencers are saying and the subsequent actions taken by the audience.
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Contact Us!
To learn more about Appinions and our modular approach to
produce trust points™ that optimize your marketing efforts,
contact us at info@appinions.com or +1 646-532-3062.
Web: www.appinions.com
Twitter: @appinions
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/appinions
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