THE WEB LOVES POPE FRANCIS:
THE PONTIFF IS “PERSONALITY OF THE YEAR”, EVEN
ONLINE
3rdPLACE analyses Pope Francis’ online presence: in the period MarchNovember 2013, the Pontiff was the most mentioned person on the internet,
with the largest monthly volume of searches at global level
Milan, 28 January 2014 - 3rdPLACE, a strategic digital consulting firm, presents the results of its
study, “The Web loves Pope Francis”; this External Data Intelligence project examined Pope
Francis’ online presence in the period March-November 2013. It was carried out on behalf of
Aleteia.org, a Catholic multimedia network for information and research into matters of faith, life
and society. The study, which coincided with the Pope’s first message for World Communications
Day, took into account various channels, including blogs, news sites, discussion forums and the
main social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The aim was to demonstrate how
Pope Francis’ popularity has made a strong impact on the digital continent, making him one of the
most popular personalities in 2013, with the most effective communication overall, including on the
web.
The innovative External Data Intelligence activity conducted by 3rdPLACE used a proprietary
method for extracting and analysing web conversations, and identifying qualitative and quantitative
data concerning when, how much, where, how and who talked about Pope Francis. In other words,
3rdPLACE measured the number of searches and mentions of the Pontiff on the internet, and the
“degree of loyalty” of the users who follow him. It also identified the main themes and issues most
frequently associated with Pope Francis at global level, before going on to focus geographically on
Italy and on the USA, UK and IE block. The results of the study demonstrate the sheer weight and
power of Pope Francis’ communication; he is, to all intents and purposes, a global
communication phenomenon, both in terms of distribution across different countries and
segments of the population, as well as for cross-channel distribution.
The study highlights the fact that, at global level, the Pope was the personality with the greatest
volume of monthly searches on Google (1,737,000), and the most mentioned on the internet
(more than 49 million mentions) – when compared with some of the world’s other most influential
and popular leaders of 2013, such as Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel. While the
global data may not be surprising, with regard to Italy it is interesting to note that the Pope is
knocked out of first place by Beppe Grillo for number of monthly Google searches (673,000), and
by Silvio Berlusconi for number of mentions on the web (982,853). In any case, mentions of the
Pope are geographically distributed more globally and more evenly and above all, they are
not concentrated in a specific region, unlike other public figures such as Obama (for whom, for
example, 52% of mentions originated in the USA).
Another surprising fact is the Pope’s success compared to various stars from the world of
entertainment and sports: an analysis of the number of mentions of Pope Francis compared to the
celebrities most popular with very young fans shows that, at global level, the Pope is in third
place, behind One Direction (78 million) and Justin Bieber (53 million), while in Italy he is actually
top of the charts with 750,833 mentions, followed by digital phenomena such as One Direction,
with 596,464 mentions, and Justin Bieber with 171, 330 mentions.
Thanks to his dialogic communication, Pope Francis is not only extremely popular on the web, but
also appears to be more effective than many well-known figures who base their communication on
the web; indeed, he boasts a following that shows a very high level of interaction with his
messages. On Twitter, for example, the Pope has Pontifex accounts in various languages; while
they have an average posting frequency of 0.79 tweets per day, they demonstrate an average
engagement of 6.637. At global level, Barack Obama’s account on the other hand reaches an
average engagement of 2.309, despite a daily posting frequency of 7.76 tweets on average. As for
Italy, the the Pope’s Twitter following is more active even than that of the leader of the M5S
political party, whose strength lies in his web presence: despite posting around 53 tweets a day,
Beppe Grillo’s account reaches an average engagement of 88 (compared to the 1301 of the
@Pontifex_it account). The reason for this level of interaction can most likely be found in the
Pope’s approach to digital media: while Obama and Grillo use Twitter as a means of broadcasting
their content, His Holiness uses it to address and get closer to the faithful, thus achieving better,
more effective results.
Facebook is a different matter entirely: Pope Francis does not have an account on the renowned
social network. Nevertheless, he is the most-discussed topic of 2013, and the unofficial page about
the Pope shows a user base that is more active in percentage terms (average engagement 26%)
than other leaders (Obama: 2%, Grillo: 22%). This is proof of the opportunity and excellent
prospects for a direct presence on the Facebook channel.
The External Data Intelligence on Pope Bergoglio’s online presence will be presented by
3rdPLACE on 28 January, at the Hotel Columbus in Rome, as part of the social conference
entitled Il futuro della comunicazione è responsabile (“The Future of Communication is
Responsible”), organised by Aleteia.org and the advertising network AdEthic. The results will be
presented by Claudio Zamboni, Parner and Co-Founder of 3rdPLACE.
To find out more about the External Data Intelligence “The Web loves Pope Francis”, please visit
the website www.3rdplace.com/aleteia
For further information about 3rdPLACE, visit www.3rdplace.com
For further information about Aleteia.org, visit http://www.aleteia.org/it
About 3rdPLACE
3rdPLACE is a consulting firm specialising in Digital Intelligence. Founded in 2010 with the passion and commitment of
four former Senior Managers from Google Italia, the company boasts a team that is growing steadily, consisting of
specialist professionals with a high level of expertise in the web and digital marketing field. 3rdPLACE is focused on
creating innovative projects with a high added value for its clients, with the aim of ensuring the greatest possible return
on investment, and of reaching their business targets.
The mission of 3rdPLACE is to manage and use data from the web to support companies in defining and implementing
their digital strategies, in line with their individual business models. Through Internal Data Intelligence, an analysis of onsite data drawn from the company’s web properties and social presences, and crossing this with significant external
conversational data obtained using the External Data Intelligence method, 3rdPLACE offers a clear, functional report to
help optimise its clients’ digital channels in relation to their business goals.
Using its proprietary software 3rdEYE – developed in partnership with the research team at Sapienza University in Rome
– the company offers an advanced business analytics tool, and is among the most highly-regarded Italian digital
companies.
The companies has offices in Milan and Rome, and currently has a team of more than thirty professionals. Its major
clients include Nestlé, Euronics, Aleteia, Google, De Agostini, Ferrari and Banca Intesa.
For more information, please visit www.3rdplace.com
For further press information:
Rosaria Fusco / Gabriele Sciuto
LEWIS Communications
Telephone: +39 02 36 53 13 75
E-mail: [email protected] ; [email protected]
Web: www.lewispr.it