In early Jan 2014, the Walker Sands team attended NRF 2014 in New York City which drew in big names such as George W. Bush and IBM CEO, Ginni Rometty. The Walker Sands social media team conducted a social listening report and came up with major conversation themes in addition to some best practices for how brands can use NRF to their advantage.

1. NRF 2014
Social Listening Report
January 2014

2. CONVERSATION OVERVIEW
INSIGHTS:
6511
7000
6000
• From Jan. 10-17 #nrf14 was used
19,307 times by the top brands and
influencers in the retail space. The
show’s official Twitter account,
@RetailsBIGShow, had 1,244 total
interactions (mentions and retweets).
• Jan. 13 saw the highest volume of
conversation with 6,512 tweets using
#nrf14, making up 34% of all NRFrelated chatter on Twitter.
5107
5000
2573
4000
1944
3000
1146
2000
907
251
1000
0
10
Jan
11
Jan
12
Jan
13
Jan
14
Jan
15
Jan
419
16
Jan
17
Jan

3. MOST DISCUSSED SESSIONS
INSIGHTS:
1800
1600
• 9 AM – 10 AM on Jan. 13 had more
NRF-related conversation than any
other time during the conference
due to former President George W.
Bush’s keynote address.
• The 3:15 PM breakout session with
Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren and
IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty was the
most popular of NRF 2014. Breakout
sessions featuring C-Suite executives
of leading retailers saw more
conversation than ones without.
1400
1200
@lizpoteracki: So excited
to hear George W. Bush
speak this morning. #nrf14
#nrfsa #nyc
1576
1700
1298
@DavidAlanKarp:
@GinniRometty speaking
about 3 big trends #BigData as our next big
national resource #nrf14
1000
800
600
658
400
184
200
280
0
162
12 - 6
AM
*All times are in EST
Keynote session with
Terry Lundgren, CEO
of Macy’s and Ginni
Rometty, CEO of
IBM
George W. Bush
Keynote Address
6 -9
AM
9 AM 12 PM
*Conversation trend for Day 1 of NRF 2014
12 - 3
PM
3-6
PM
6-9
PM
9 PM 12 AM

4. MOST INFLUENTIAL BRANDS
2155
IBM
560
IBM Retail
545
Microsoft
272
IBM Smarter Commerce
225
R Ray Wang
510
Intel
203
Smarter Planet
203
NRF News
386
SAP
Magento
749
Retail’s BIG Show
Magento
Microsoft Retail
226
Most mentioned exhibitors
188
184
IBM Social Business
SAP Retail
183
163
Most influential twitter accounts (by Retweets)
INSIGHTS:
• The IBM breakout session
created more conversation
for the brand than all of the
top exhibitors combined.
• Brands that utilized an
influencer in commerce or
retail, such as IBM Retail,
were the most retweeted
accounts at NRF 2014.
• 20% of all Magento
mentions were retweets of
Rebecca Minkoff’s
appearance at the eBay
booth.

5. NRF TOPIC TRENDS
INSIGHTS:
• IBM (including CEO Ginni Rometty) led all
conversation topics while Ogilvy had four of
the top 10 most retweeted posts.
• Conversations surrounding the session,
“Future of Retail,” big data and the
shopping experience saw the most
retweets and received the most Twitter
chatter.

6. “FUTURE OF RETAIL” SESSION TWEETS

7. BIG DATA TWEETS

8. SHOPPING EXPERIENCE TWEETS

9. TOP 10 RETWEETED TWEETS AT NRF 2014
49
60
34
48
32
58
44
29
52
37

10. NRF BEST PRACTICES
Meet Influencers
Speakers
Host meet and greets
with retail and
consumer influencers
at the booth to drive
conversation.
Brands are more likely
to have their thought
leaders talked about
if they speak on Day
1 at NRF 2014.
Breakout
Release Study
Brands should co-host
breakout sessions
with C-Suite retail
execs to generate
more conversation
on social media.
Use NRF 2014 as a
platform to release a
groundbreaking
study on retail to
increase influence
over other brands.

11. THANK YOU!
The NRF 2014 Social Listening Report was conducted by:
Mike Santoro
President
Christine Pietryla
SVP Public Relations
Katie Welge
Account Executive
Adam Miller
Social Media Specialist
If you have questions or would like to have a social listening audit
conducted on your brand, please contact reports@walkersands.com