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Benchmark share of voice against competitors

This job produces a single share-of-voice percentage and an SOV/SOM ratio for the client against a named competitor set over a fixed period. It feeds the decision on whether to hold, lift, or cut media weight to defend or grow share.

What you need first

  • Category GRP or spend totals for the client and each competitor for the benchmark period, from the ad monitoring service (Nielsen Ad Intel, Kantar Media, or local equivalent)
  • Confirmed competitor set, agreed with the client and matching their brief
  • Client's own booked GRP delivery for the same period, from the media plan or post-buy report
  • Client's market share (SOM) for the same period, from the retail panel (Nielsen/IRI) or client-supplied sales data
  • Client's SOV or SOV/SOM target, from the brand's marketing plan, if one exists

The procedure

  1. Pull GRP or spend totals for the client and every named competitor for the exact benchmark period from the monitoring service, producing the raw weight table
  2. Lock the competitor set and date range against the client brief before running any numbers, producing a defensible comparison scope
  3. Sum every brand's GRPs, client included, to get total category GRPs, producing the denominator
  4. Divide the client's GRPs by total category GRPs to get SOV%, producing the headline figure
  5. Divide the client's SOV% by their SOM% to get the SOV/SOM ratio, producing the over or under-investment signal
  6. Rank the client against the category leader and closest competitor by SOV%, producing relative position
  7. Check for channel concentration, one competitor loading its weight into a single channel, producing a caveat if the comparison is TV-only but a rival is digital-heavy
  8. Write the one-line verdict stating SOV%, the ratio, and the position, producing the deliverable for the client

Worked through with numbers

Czech yogurt category, 4-week TV flight. GRPs: client 850, Competitor B 1200, Competitor C 640, Competitor D 410, remaining brands combined 300. Total category GRPs: 850+1200+640+410+300 = 3400. Client SOV = 850/3400 = 25.0%. Client SOM for the same period is 18%. SOV/SOM ratio = 25/18 = 1.39. Client sits second behind Competitor B (1200/3400 = 35.3% SOV), 10.3 points off the lead. A ratio of 1.39 means the client is outspending its share position by about 39%, consistent with a share-growth objective; if the brief calls for defending share rather than growing it, this level of overinvestment is wasted weight.

Where it goes wrong

  • Match units across brands: use GRPs for everyone or spend for everyone, never GRPs for the client against estimated spend for competitors converted at a different CPP
  • Match the period exactly: compare the client's campaign flight to the same calendar weeks for competitors, not to a competitor's rolling quarter that dilutes their peak weeks
  • Cover every channel the competitor set actually uses: a TV-only comparison understates a digital-heavy rival's true share of voice
  • Read SOV against SOM, never alone: a client's SOV can rise while SOM falls, which signals a defensive spend, not growth

How to know it is right

Recompute total category GRPs from the individual brand figures, confirm client SOV% times that total equals the client's booked GRPs, and check the SOV/SOM ratio's direction matches the client's stated objective (grow, defend, or hold) before sending.

Terms used

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