GfK claimed that ‘dark’ marketing – highly targeted ad campaigns that are only visible to some people – now accounts for 88% of social media spend.

The new partnership uses BrandTotal’s digital marketing intelligence tools and reporting platform, which uses AI to identify, aggregate and analyse marketing campaigns across the digital and social media ecosystem. GfK brings client segments into the BrandTotal environment with MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer® database, which conducts 24,000 interviews annually and means the BrandTotal data can be weighted to reflect the US population.

The new offering will help marketers: track competitor activities – including dark campaigns – across multiple platforms; optimise digital campaigns in real time for custom consumer segments; benchmark target activities; compare interactions and effectiveness across digital and social channels; and identify sentiment changes to campaigns over the course of weeks or months.

Natasha Stevens, GfK’s executive vice-president of strategy and innovation, said: “By bringing BrandTotal and GfK together, we can answer one of the questions our clients ask most often – are my social campaigns really reaching my target customers?

“BrandTotal has developed a system for shining light into the hidden worlds of social media activity, and GfK’s consumer data can deliver that information for the specific consumers brands care about most. We see this as a breakthrough not just for advertisers, but also for the social media marketplace, which now has a powerful tool to support its continued growth.”