Jon Samsel

I was recently invited to be part of a private beta for a new brand optimization/analytics platform called Heardable. The new service measures how well a brand is doing online, issuing a Heardable Score for every URL you scan into their tool. There is even a comparison scan tool that allows users to scan up to five domain names at once.

The platform examines over 40 unique on-site and off-site brand variables, including a website’s code, inbound links, usability, social brand presence, mobile readiness, and other unique characteristics. The highest possible Heardable Score that can be achieved is 1000. A score between 401-600 is average.

The tools on the site are very cool, with results displayed via an attractive AJAX interface that slides in and out to reveal more detailed information when prompted. My assessment after about one hour of use: Heardable is an extremely functional, insightful, and highly addictive platform that will surely appeal to online marketers. By addictive I refer to the fact that I couldn’t stop scanning URL’s that popped into my head. I wanted to see how each brand scored.

Perhaps the best part of Heardable is The Heardable 100, a ranked list of the top 100 Heardable Scores by brand. You may be surprised by which brand is currently ranked #1. (Hint: It’s a popular celebrity gossip site whose name is a play on socialite, Paris Hilton). According to the company founders, the Heardable platform will soon add hundreds of thousands of pre-ranked lists of brands, by category, which will be a very helpful (and time saving) research tool.

I think brand managers and C-level marketers are really going to like Heardable because it’s an easy way to measure how one brand is performing against a competitor, across multiple variables, plus providing drill-downs into exactly how and why one brand is doing better than the other. Kinda like opening the hood of your competitor’s brand and seeing their online strategy in action. Sweet!

So I decided to examine one category of brands that is near and near to my heart — advertising agencies. After, all, one might assume that the top creative minds in the land would have built websites that truly showcases their talents — both creatively and functionally. After all, they are pitching online marketing strategies and tactics every day to clients (and potential clients). Surely their own sites would have higher than average Heardable Scores, right?

Sadly, my scans revealed just the opposite. Instead of stellar scores, most creative agencies fell into the ‘poor’ or ‘below average’ range. Not what most of us would expect from today’s top-tier marketing agencies. Note to agencies: Don’t let your clients use this tool or you may be in trouble!

To put things into perspective, everyday brands scored better than expected — with higher Heardable Scores than most creative agencies I tested.

• Sears.com (573)
• Weightwatchers.com (531)
• Brides.com (442)
• Airtran.com (438)

Hat’s off to R/GA, an integrated, interactive agency that seems to practice what they preach with a Heardable Score of 537. R/GA had the best score of all agencies I scanned.

Here is a list of the advertising agencies that I scanned, rank ordered by Heardable Score. Any surprises? Be sure to Tweet about it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 am and is filed under Creativity, Marketing, Mobile, SEO, Social Media, User Experience, Websites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.