Wikimedia Foundation/Communications/Research/Brand Health Tracker

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The Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker is a bi-annual tracker setup to monitor key brand metrics of the Wikimedia Movement and the projects maintained and managed by the movement, by surveying the perception of the global online population. The report is completed on a bi-annual basis to ensure traction in the health of the brands are monitored as a means to guide strategy and tactics to support the growth of the movement and the projects.

The Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Over the last decade, Wikimedia project usage, brand and mission awareness have been measured using a variety of methods. Research conducted in 2010, 2014 and 2016, 2020 were either one-off investments, regional, or explored product, brand or mission awareness independently or selectively. Today, we know that among the billions of people who use our projects, some are aware of their functional value but many are not aware of our brand or social good mission.

Our hypothesis is that Wikimedia’s unique brand story and the movement’s social good mission can motivate readers to become more involved with the Wikimedia movement, such as through editing, content contribution, public advocacy, and engaging with our affiliate ecosystem. The following documentation details how we can build upon and improve past awareness studies and create a consolidated, dimensional and tracked brand health dashboard for our movement.

Brand Health Tracker reports

Wave 1 report ( July 2022)
Wave 2 report (January 2023)
Wave 3 report (July 2023)
Wave 4 report (December 2023)
Wave 5 report (July 2024)

The Brand Health model

The Wikimedia Movement Brand Health Tracker [MBHT] allowed us to explore, establish and monitor which aspects of the Movement’s projects, brand and mission resonate most with audiences around the world over time. We took inspiration from The Edelman Relationship Index [1,2] which proposes that the more points of attachment there are between an organization and an audience, the more vital, resilient and valuable that relationship is for both parties. But, unlike the Edelman model, ours will not segment audiences along a linear path from Awareness to Loyalty, nor will it produce a single composite score for each country. Rather, the tracker will present a collection of quantitative and qualitative indicators that will act like vital signs of our brand’s health in each geographic region of study.

The MBHT provides the Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia movement with unprecedented insights about internet users' connectedness to our projects, brand and social good mission. While the bi-annual release of these insights will be shared across the Foundation, the primary audience is the Communications department teams responsible for executing and measuring campaigns that strengthen the worldwide narrative of Wikipedia and increase awareness of our projects, brand and our social good mission, so that people join our movement. The data may also be of use to Wikimedia movement affiliates looking to shape their own strategies for community growth and resonance with readers. In this regard, we will ensure the insights from his tracker will be regularly shared on Meta Wiki to enable access by the movement, as a means to use the insights to shape understanding, focus, and strategy.

Methodology

The first edition of the tracker served as a baseline study by adopting a more intensive approach, covering top-end brand health metrics, including Net Promoter Score, brand funnel metrics, and brand attributes and values. Over the past four additional waves, we have built on the baseline, by monitoring changes in key metrics as well as new metrics that enable us measure awareness and interest in the free knowledge movement. We have also continued the more intensive approach built out in the baseline study, covering top-end brand health metrics, including NPS, brand funnel metrics, and brand attributes and values. We also ensured we compared our brands with other closely related brands, as well as recent development of AI tools avialable to the online audience.

Table 1: Summary of metrics tracked in the brand health tracker

Focus areas / Brands	Metrics tracked
Free Knowledge Movement	Global issues/concerns Free Knowledge Movement awareness Threats to free knowledge
Wikimedia Foundation	Unaided Awareness Aided Awareness Organization Attribute Associations Brand Affinity Brand familiarity Brand Trust
Wikipedia / Wikidata / Wikicommons	Unaided Awareness Aided Awareness Brand Presence Consider Using Usage Frequency of Use Reasons for Use Access Findability Definition of Quality Ever Donated Donation Consideration Ever Edited Editing Consideration Brand Affinity Brand familiarity Brand knowledge Brand Trust NPS Values Associations Website/App Attribute Associations

Sample respondents for the survey were purposely selected to reflect the population demography, particularly for age and educational qualifications for selected countries. Across the last five waves, we have covered 27 countries with 27,000 respondents spread across Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya), East, South East Asia & Pacific (Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand), North America (United States of America), South Asia (India), Middle East and North Africa (UAE, Morocco, Egypt), Western and Northern Europe (Germany, France), Latin America and The Caribbean (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia), and the Central & Eastern Europe & Central Asia (Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Czechia, Turkey).

These markets were selected to achieve a global coverage, and also in line with the focus areas for recent campaigns, partnership and strategic focus, as well as markets with identified growth opportunities based on recent market research surveys and system data. The plan is to ensure the Movement Brand Health Tracker will be completed bi-annually (i.e. every 6 months), spanning at least 12 countries (set by organizational priority), completed with web surveys.

Fifth Wave

The Free Knowledge Movement

In the fifth wave of the tracker we see little change in concerns about access to free knowledge, or awareness of the free knowledge movement - these continue to be low across countries. The primary concern people have about information and knowledge continues to be around the prevalence of misinformation and disinformation.

Chart showing the global and/or local concerns, average across the surveyed markets measured in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

The economy still dominates people's concerns, with inflation being the biggest issue they continue to have (as it was in wave 4), with economic recession high on the list too. In addition, climate change, abortion rights, war, concerns about democracy and corruption are all major concerns this wave. Within information and knowledge issues, 21% of respondents expressed concerns about misinformation and disinformation (relatively unchanged from the 18% in wave 4), 12% were apprehensive about major corporations controlling information and knowledge (up slightly from 8% in wave 4), and 8% were concerned about the lack of free access to knowledge.

Brand Awareness

In wave 5 people’s awareness of the Foundation was 23%, essentially flat from previous waves (see Figure 2). This continues to be relatively low compared to other social good organizations. For example, 78% of respondents were aware of the World Health Organization, and 77% were aware of both the International Red Cross and the UN.

Chart showing aided brand awareness (%) for Wikimedia Foundation over five waves of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Conversely, global brand awareness for Wikipedia continues to stand at a strong 77%, unchanged from wave 4. In fact the Wikipedia brand remains strong with consideration at 52% (up from wave 4), and claimed usage at 42%. This suggests that the brand's strength is stable worldwide.

While Wikipedia's brand awareness is lower than major media giants such as Google (93%), YouTube (93%), Facebook (92%), Instagram (91%), and TikTok (86%), it still surpasses other knowledge content platforms. People continue to be more familiar with Wikipedia versus platforms like Yahoo (75%), X/Twitter (70%), ChatGPT (50%), Reddit (47%), Quora (34%), and Encyclopedia Britannica (21%).

Chart showing aided brand awareness (%) for Wikipedia across all regions and in all five editions of the MBHT so far

Chart showing Wikipedia readership split among different demographic groups in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Even though globally the Wikipedia brand is relatively stable, it is experiencing gradual longer-term declines in Sub-Saharan Africa & Eastern Europe (along with other platforms). These declines are being offset by larger increases in NW Europe & MENA. Additionally, it is noteworthy that awareness of Wikipedia remains high across various demographic groups. Among readers of Wikipedia, we observed that those identifying as male were about 43%, while 42% identified as female.

Brand values and attributes associated with Wikimedia Foundation and Wikipedia

Wikimedia Foundation

To understand the factors important for people to support or donate to social organisations, we explored the brand attributes and brand values people associate with these organisations.

Chart showing brand attributes association with Wikimedia Foundation vs competing organizations in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

In terms of brand attributes, the Wikimedia Foundation, in comparison to other organizations, is more strongly linked with concepts such as 'supporting the creation or sharing of free knowledge,' 'being open source and freely distributed,' and 'leading the movement for free access to knowledge'. These findings align with those from previous waves of the survey, highlighting the Foundation's perceived strengths among those familiar with it. However, on the flip side, compared to other organizations, the Wikimedia Foundation still performs less well on attributes like 'spending donations wisely,' 'has a clear mission,' and 'having a positive impact in the world.'

Chart showing brand values association with Wikimedia Foundation vs competing organizations in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Looking at brand values, and echoing the findings from previous MBHT waves, the Wikimedia Foundation continues to be seen as more neutral versus other organizations. However, on the flip side, compared to other entities, the organisation is not perceived as international, does not take strong advocacy positions, and is not widely recognised or known.

Wikipedia

Compared to other platforms, Wikipedia continues to perform well across most measured attributes. As found in previous MBHT waves, Wikipedia's primary relative strength lies in providing well referenced, free access to high-quality information on various subjects.

Chart showing brand attributes association with Wikipedia and competing brands in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Other positive associations include appearing as a top search result, offering content in different languages, and being seen as reliable, trustworthy, and consistently up-to-date. The only relative weakness of Wikipedia compared to other platforms is the perceived lack of video content.

Brand exposure for the Wikipedia brand

To assess how visible Wikipedia is within media and culture - a factor that can influence brand salience, awareness, and overall strength, we used a measure called 'Brand Exposure.' This metric captures where and how often people are coming across the brand - such as in Google Search results, on social media, and in recommendations from friends or family. Essentially, it measures the brand's presence in people's lives.

Chart showing the percentage brand exposure for Wikipedia across regions

In general, Wikipedia's brand exposure is high, with 67% of respondents in wave 5 indicating they have seen or heard about the brand recently. Wikipedia also falls behind brands such as Google (86%), YouTube (85%) and Facebook (85%) in terms of visibility, and in fact Wikipedia's brand exposure has been decreasing over the past few waves (70% in wave 4, 76% in wave 3), perhaps as the news environment has been changing and with more communications around brands like TikTok and ChatGPT. The regions in which Wikipedia is seeing the largest declines in presence are North America, Eastern Europe, and LatAm & Caribbean.

Chart showing sources of brand exposure for Wikipedia by regions over five waves of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Wikipedia’s presence continues to come mainly from search results - a consistent finding across waves - with the web and social media being the other main places people are seeing the brand.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) for the Wikipedia brand

In this MBHT wave, we once again assessed the Net Promoter Score (NPS), a widely recognized metric that captures the likelihood of advocacy among users, reflecting the overall strength of the user experience.

How NPS is calculated and used in the tracker

NPS is determined by asking respondents to rate, on an 11-point scale, how likely they would be to recommend the brand to others, with 0 indicating low likelihood and 10 indicating high likelihood. NPS is then derived by subtracting the percentage of "detractors" (those rating between 0 and 6) from the percentage of "promoters" (those selecting 9 and 10).

Chart showing NPS score for Wikipedia and competing brands measured in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Consistent with the findings of previous tracker waves, Wikipedia maintains a high Net Promoter Score (NPS) of +25. When benchmarked against other platforms, Google and YouTube continue to stand out as the only brands with higher NPS values compared to Wikipedia, registering at +58 and +47, respectively. This underscores the robustness of Wikipedia's brand.

Depiction of the trend of Promoters, Passives, and Detractors over the five waves of the tracker

In this MBHT wave, Wikipedia has its strongest NPS yet, driven by an increase of 'Promoters' and a decrease of 'Detractors'. This means that those who know Wikipedia feel more affinity to the brand than at any point since we started the MBHT.

Purposes for using Wikipedia and emotional feelings users get when using the platform

Building on insights from past MBHT waves, in the fifth wave, Wikipedia is still predominantly used across various countries for fact-checking and as a way of staying informed.

Chart showing Purposes for using Wikipedia over five waves of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Notably, no other platform is used as much for fact-checking. This represents a crucial data point, offering a user-centric perspective that illuminates usage motivations and sheds light on the current brand benefits.

This is a data point measured in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker aimed at tracking and measuring health of the Wikimedia and Wikipedia brands in the global space of the internet.

Similar to the previous waves, we sought to additionally understand the perceived value of Wikipedia by asking respondents about their emotional experiences while using the platform. Three prominent emotions that remain significant are feeling Smart, Empowered, and Inspired. This insight establishes the emotional benefits we deliver, suggesting potential directions for our brand positioning, especially in interactions with younger audiences.

Chart showing the dimensions on perceptions of Trust in Wikipedia measured in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

Beyond emotions, we assessed the extent to which the aware audience trusts Wikipedia, using various trust dimensions. Wikipedia is trusted most to provide up-to-date information, and to ensure content on the website is accurate.

Motivating factors for users to contribute to content on the internet

When it comes to editing Wikipedia, we continue to monitor the internet users' barriers to contributing content to the platform, to understand how we can bring more community members in.

Chart showing the barriers to contributing and-or editing content on Wikipedia in the fifth wave of the Wikimedia Brand Health Tracker

The top two editing barriers remain the same as in previous waves: don’t know how; don’t feel I have the skills. Compared to previous waves however we see an increase in people who feel 'I don't have free time'. There continues to be an opportunity for the Foundation to address this knowledge gap that people have in what it takes to edit Wikipedia.