Anticipating and/or creating the buzz?
Jinfo Blog

By Jan Knight

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The Oscars are taking place tonight. With all the hoopla it’s hard to miss that fact even though I’m not a movie buff. We’re being bombarded by celebrity and movie news or should I say “buzz”? From an information point of view, it’s interesting to see how some of that buzz is created.

A newly launched website by New York Magazine, the “Vulture Anticipation Index” is not only fun, but has applications for business research. The “Vulture Anticipation Index, according to NY Magazine, is a daily scientific social media ranking of the most eagerly awaited pop culture." The Artificial Intelligence tool, powered by Tredndrr, monitors web and Twitter chat and calculates the top 100 upcoming hits in films, music, books, and other cultural events based on what everyday people have been talking or “buzzing” about.

Keep in mind that this is all about anticipation so once the event or series of events has ended the tracking either ends, or tracks things within that event, (i.e. a tv show) on a more granular level. The rating shows what number the event is now as well as where it was 24 hours ago so you can see if the anticipation is increasing or declining.

Right now, at the time of writing, “the Oscars” are number 1 (surprise, surprise) and the “Glastonbury Festival” is number 18. I name those two as they are two of the few on the list I recognise! I find the concept intriguing although I tend to be woefully ignorant of most popular culture happenings.

However, add some science to the celebrity and movie buzz and now I’m interested and I wonder what the applications could be for business and for predicting trends in markets and industries. Businesses in general would benefit greatly from such a tool that would allow them to “listen, measure and respond to a conversation about a product, service or brand." Trendrr’s website provides plenty of examples of what information can be gathered and for what purposes.

When I speak to business groups about the somewhat dry topic of market research,  I occasionally end my discussion on the topic of what people are searching for and I make them aware of the Google Zeitgeist, the tool that aggregates billions of search queries that people type into Google.  As I think about the new Vulture Anticipation Index and the Google Zeitgeist, I acknowledge that one of my favourite categories within the rankings of the latter is the listing of searches in the “fastest falling” category.

At least with these I can gratefully acknowledge that it’s ok I don’t recognise names because at this point they’re falling out of popularity with the Googling public. Phew! I’m saved.

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