Crant’s Ink Lantern Boosts Engagement for Brands

Crant, an AI training and consulting platform, has launched Ink Lantern, an AI platform that enables tracking and understanding of “brand Love.”

“We see ‘brand love’ as that deep, emotional bond people form with brands, kind of like how you feel about your favorite band or sports team,” said Alvaro Meléndez, Co-Founder & CEO of Crant.ai. “It’s more than just knowing about a brand. It’s about really caring for it.”

CVS Health, Brooks Running, Ogilvy, Shift, MullenLowe, ABInbev, More Than Equal, F1 in Schools, Burger King, AVL Racetech, and Interamericana University are all Crant clients.

Its work using Ink Lantern for the Museo de Arte Puerto Rico resulted in a 240% increase in average engagement per post within six months by helping the museum to refine its brand strategy.

“When we started with Ink Lantern, our social media presence was passive and unfocused on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” said Larissa Vazquez, Communications Manager of Museo de Arte Puerto Rico in San Juan. “We began with a comprehensive Brand Audit. Ink Lantern gave us clear insights into our engagement levels, audience sentiment, and our ‘brand love’ score. It was like finally having a clear mirror to see ourselves in the competitive space.”

Ink Lantern also helped the museum identify themes that resonated most with its target audience. For example, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), sustainability, and education were all areas of interest that helped drive engagement.

Ink Lantern uses the following metrics to measure brand love:

• Data Collection: It tracks data from social media—likes, shares, comments, and all kinds of interactions. This data provides a snapshot into how people engage with a brand.
• Text Analysis: Its AI analyzes the context in which people interact with a brand. Context gives clues into a customer’s mood state.
• Engagement Metrics: It looks at how often and how deeply people engage with a brand’s content. More positive interaction means stronger emotional ties.
• Proprietary Brand Love Metric: This metric grows as engagement with a brand grows over time.
• Comparative Analysis: A brand’s love score is benchmarked against that of its competitors.

Once all of these data points are analyzed, Crant and Ink Lantern can determine a brand’s market position, develop a brand strategy based on that position, and track performance to drive growth and engagement.

Meléndez cited an example in which a political client, which he declined to identify, used Ink Lantern to identify gaps in their campaign’s social media engagement compared to that their competitors. After implementing Ink Lantern’s targeted recommendations, the campaign saw a 122% boost in “brand love” and won major elections.

Vazquez called the Ink Lantern process “transformative” for the museum’s marketing. “Our social-media presence was passive and unfocused on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube,” she said. “It was like finally having a clear mirror to see ourselves in the competitive space.”

Ink Lantern started them off with a comprehensive brand audit versus local arts organizations and global museum brands like The Met, MoMA, and the Museum of Natural History, all in New York, as well as the Louvre in Paris.

“Ultimately, we aimed to serve our audience better by being more relevant while staying true to our purpose as a cultural institution celebrating Puerto Rican culture,” Vazquez said about promoting the Museo de Arte Puerto Rico and engaging with prospective visitors.

 “There has been an increase of 50% in our annual attendance which is 200,000 additional visitors,” she said. “We know that there is more than one factor that comes into fruition to achieve this amazing result.”

CRANT operates on a subscription-based revenue model. Clients can subscribe to the Ink Lantern platform and AI adoption programs.