Measurement of online mentions related to the Mercury Music Prize nominees correlated with sales, but also revealed some interesting surprises.

In a comparison between mentions of each of the artists by monitoring firm Brandwatch, and the sales for the day immediately after the event from HMV, The XX was a clear winner on both counts.

Sales for The XX’s self-titled album grew by 448% following the event, while online buzz during the show and in the run-up increased by 2642%. Other acts including Laura Marling, Foals, Wild Beasts all followed a very similar pattern.

The measurement of online buzz is useful for determining the popularity of an act, show or event and, for the most part, can form a benchmark to predict how well something might sell. However, the figures also show that human context needs to be added as the data shows how some of the artists did not follow the same pattern.

Both Paul Weller and Dizzee Rascal picked up huge amounts of mentions online in the lead up to the event, coming second and third to The XX according to Brandwatch’s data. However, both took the bottom two places in terms of sales increase.

Ahead of the event, conversation about Paul Weller increased dramatically after a gambling controversy saw his odds slashed. More than 100 bets of £100 or over were placed in the Birmingham area on the Friday before the Mercury Music Prize was given out, this saw him plummet from his spot as bookies’ favourite, and the chatter online reflected this.

However, the fact that both Paul Weller and Dizzee Rascal were arguably already the best-known acts means that they would have already been selling larger volumes of records before the event – meaning the percentage increase theoretically would be lower. Similarly, the lesser known artists such as Villagers, who was nominated for the album Becoming a Jackal, was the band with the second highest increase in sales (333%) but was the eighth most talked about band.

Giles Palmer, founder and CEO of Brandwatch, said that though buzz does lead to sales increase, it can also work the other way round. “There is a bit of both – chat leading to sales or sales leading to chat – happening. There is a virtual circle going on in which the more is sold, the more talk will occur and vice versa. The good comments wont last long though, unless it is good, which shows the importance of a good product to elongate conversation.”

Image via Bolsteryourholster.

Tags: brandwatch, charlotte mceleny, giles palmer, mercury music prize, social media monitoring, the xx