Winning the loudest, losing the room

Winning the loudest, losing the room
It was a Tuesday when an energy-drink upstart hit 34% category share of voice, beating two incumbents. The CMO wanted to frame it. The analyst held up a second cut: share of positive voice. There, the brand sat at 19%, dead last, because most of its volume was a refund controversy.

Raw share of voice had crowned them king of a conversation they were losing. The incumbents talked less but were loved more.

They rebuilt the scorecard around positive share of voice. Over the next quarter, total mentions dropped 8%, but positive share climbed from 19% to 31%, and trial signups followed it, up 16%.

The takeaway: share of voice tells you who's loudest, not who's winning. Weight it by sentiment, or you'll optimize for noise and call it dominance.