Evian

Evian flushes away the competition, achieving both the highest ‘reach’ score and the most positive ‘satisfaction’ score of the five brands we analysed.

The brand’s “Roller babies” campaign won many plaudits and the advert has taken on a life of its own. The original video is on YouTube and has received over 32 million views, spawning imitations and remixes. Also available is a “making of” video - a good example of how to add value and prolong interest.

Evian’s ‘detox’ campaign for 2011 tries to drive home a “New year, new you” theme via the launch of the Evian Live Young Training site: The site encourages users to take an IQ test and give details on their level of fitness in order to calculate their “Live Young Status.” Facebook integration enables users to share this with their friends. The Evian Babies Facebook page has proved popular (it currently has over half a million fans), and includes the ability to “roller baby yourself”

Recommendations: Twitter provides an opportunity yet to be harnessed effectively by Evian. Several Twitter accounts existed around their tennis sponsorships (including @evianinsiders and @evianmasters) but these appear to have been abandoned. To be effective, branded Twitter accounts should be consistently engaging and integrated with other social presences. If the brand has decided to pursue a new Twitter strategy, they should make this clear on their existing pages.

Perrier

Perrier takes second place in our straw poll. Their unusual approach to social has proved refreshing to many, but some users have expressed their distaste at Perrier’s decision to feature burlesque artist Dita Von Teese in their raunchy 18+ microsite.

Following the success of the first chapter of the “Perrier Mansion”, which reportedly received ¾ million views, chapter 2 was launched in mid December via the website http://www.perrierbydita.com and Apple’s iad network. In the interactive video, Dita teases the viewer, licks her lips and takes her top off before dousing herself in a bottle of Perrier.

Recommendations: Perrier’s Facebook strategy is a little confusing. The main brand presence is updated in stilted English, which may lead some users to conclude that it is not an official branded page. Other territories, including Venezuela and Mexico have pages with the “Société Perrier” theme, which aims to associate the brand with the best nightlife in particular cities.

Perrier should consider how to address the needs of different target markets through social media, and to clearly define a local-market and overarching global social strategy, defining content and responsibilities at each level in order to present a coherent image to the consumer.

Highland Spring

Highland Spring takes our bronze medal, albeit with a far lower ‘reach’ than Evian or Perrier. The brand emphasises its organic status but its ‘ace’ is the long-standing sponsorship deal with Andy Murray. The tennis star’s website features a section dedicated to the brand and its products, and Andy Murray’s YouTube channel also showcases his partnership with Highland Spring, but the brand does not appear to have any of official presences of its own on the social media platforms, and conversation around the brand is low.

Somewhat appropriately, Mike Scott of The Waterboys rock band tweeted about opening a bottle of sparkling Highland Spring on New Year’s eve, so the brand may have found its next poster boy.

Recommendations:The brand has been surprising slow to embrace the potential of social channels, even though the link with Andy Murray would seem to provide useful scope. The brand’s organic and local status also provide scope to garner favour with shared interest groups who congregate across social platforms.

San Pellegrino

Nestlé-owned San Pellegrino’s score is far from effervescent. The brand has yet to engage directly through Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, but has achieved a small lift in ‘reach’ recently, with the announcement of the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants.The website incorporates Twitter, a blog, and video content and helps to reinforce the brand’s links with fine dining.

San Pellegrino was also mentioned by several members of the Twitterati this month, most notably Questo from American hip hop band The Roots, who has a staggering 1.4 million followers. TV presenter and wine columnist Olly Smith also professed his love for San Pellegrino Limonata on Twitter this Christmas – http://twitter.com/jollyolly/status/19341299261906945.

Recommendations: An unofficial Facebook page dedicated to the brand has gained over 12k fans, indicating that there is a real thirst for engagement with the brand. Several high-profile Twitter users have positively referenced the brand, and if San Pellegrino was present on Twitter, these mentions could be given more mileage or even become a powerful dialogue about the brand. San Pellegrino should begin reserving usernames on the relevant platforms now in order to avoid disappointment later.

Volvic

Volvic takes our wooden spoon this week. Rugby star Jonny Wilkinson is the face of the brand’s ’14 Day Challenge’ campaign but the opportunity to engage people in social channels has been largely missed.

Some social media users have cited the 14 Day Challenge as one of their New Year resolutions but the only discernable official social media presence is a Facebook page for Volvic’s German customers.

The brand’s ‘reach’ score has been boosted in the past month by a high-profile reference from cult funnyman, Simon Pegg, who tweeted “My health kick has reached such proportions I am making my porridge with Volvic.” This was retweeted by 73 people, causing a spike in brand mentions.

Recommendations: Volvic’s association with Jonny Wilkinson should create lots of interesting multimedia content which should be carefully seeded across social media platforms in order to gain the maximum level of exposure and interest. The 14 Day Challenge is a campaign which would work well through social media, with the potential to create apps and user communities, but the brand seems to have neglected the potential of social channels to boost awareness and drive positive advocacy.