Facebook’s Power Studied

First, a refresher: we’ve covered the comeback of the Wispa candy bar.  There was also the way in which HSBC decided not to charge interest on overdrafts, and although they were interested, most onlookers (your humble author included) thought both occurrences were pretty much lucky shots.

Data from Hitwise’s Robin Goad suggests otherwise, however; it seems that Facebook users constitute a force that every intelligent company should try to please.  “Facebook currently ranks 20th in terms of delivering traffic to retail websites,” reports Goad.  “Four percent of people leaving Facebook go to a retailer – and this number has doubled during 2007.  As [the] graph below illustrates, the major UK banks are also receiving more traffic from Facebook.”

And sure enough, four lines representing four banks are all angled sharply upwards.  HSBC’s red line is particularly steep.

“[T]he banks’ customers are also increasingly visiting social networks after doing their online banking,” Goad continues.  “The challenge for banks, retailers and others is to ensure that this traffic is benefiting their brand, rather than harming it.”

Well, as long as banks, retailers, and “others” continue to bring back candy bars and lower interest rates, I think we’ll all get along just fine.

“There are 93 Bring Back Wispa groups on Facebook with approaching 14,000 members and the rival directories MySpace and Bebo are catching up,” according to The Guardian’s Martin Wainwright.  And the Wispa, which was produced between 1981 and 2003, will return to shelves in Britain in October.

This is no coincidence – Cadbury’s spokesman, Tony Bilsborough, told The Guardian, “We had noticed the web interest for some time.  It reveals a consumer passion which swayed our opinion about relaunching Wispa.”

Bilsborough’s observations seem to be backed by media coverage; from the Chocablog to the BBC, British sources are taking note of social networking’s win.  Granted, “more chocolate” might not be quite as desirable as “world peace,” but it’s something.  And that’s assuming, of course, that this wasn’t a planned marketing campaign, as Branwell Johnson suspects. 

In any case, Cadbury has hinted that the permanence of the Wispa’s comeback will depend on sales.  Hat tip to Andy Beal.