Big Buzz for Biden - Online Chatter Spikes as Obama Selects His Running Mate

Blogosphere buzz spiked immediately following Senator Obama’s August 23rd text-message announcement to supporters declaring Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate. As bloggers reacted to the announcement, online consumer discussion soared throughout the night and into Saturday, with conversations up 175% and 1191% for Obama and Biden, respectively, compared to the previous day. As the race to the White House continues, it will be interesting to see how the Obama/Biden duo competes with the Republican ticket in the blogosphere.

The Temperature Keeps on Rising with Michael Phelps Fever

Michael Phelps is dominating the 2008 Summer Olympics both in the pool and on blogs. His flawless Olympic performance to date has earned him six gold medals during the Beijing games with two more races to go. As Phelps continues his quest for the gold, bloggers will continue to have something to talk about.

Consumer discussion on blogs took off after Phelps’ gold medal win in the 400m Individual Medley on August 10th (.31%), grew when he contributed to the U.S. teams win in the 4x100 freestyle relay and continued to climb after he snatched the gold medals on August 12th and August 13th (.50%) in the 200m Freestyle and 200m Butterfly, respectively. Phelps continued to make history after his unblemished performance in the 200m Individual Medley last night, earning his sixth gold medal. Conversations spiked again today for the flawless Phelps with .45% buzz volume. As Phelps continues his journey for a record eight golds, I anticipate more significant spikes in consumer discussion online. We’ll all be watching this weekend!

Got it? Flaunt it. We're partnering with AdWeek media on the 2008 Buzz Awards.

Attention marketers and brands. Did your idea generate major buzz? Nielsen Online is partnering with AdWeek Media (a unit of The Nielsen Company) on this year’s Buzz Awards to celebrate innovative promotions, campaigns that caught fire and concepts that went from video to viral. Don’t let your efforts go unrecognized.

The deadline for submissions is August 18th, so enter your campaigns here. We’ll award prizes across seventeen categories, ranging from viral marketing, radio and print to wireless promotion, public relations and social media. The Grand Prize winner snags a spread 4/c ad in AdWeek, BrandWeek and MediaWeek profiling the winning effort (valued at $64,100). Enter the 2008 Buzz Awards today.