Editor's Pick: Tips for Communicating Cross-sector Collaboration Success Stories
Moutai coffee, anyone? Recently, Luckin Coffee joined forces with Kweichow Moutai to roll out an unusual offering - alcoholic lattes. The surprising partnership has taken social media by storm! Images of coffee enthusiasts enjoying the unique new flavor have been circulating and appearing on the feeds of many. Hence, organically boosting consumer recognition for both brands. In fact, unique collaboration stories like this one have been a recurring theme on the wire. Successful cross-industry collaborations offer brands the benefits of increased reach, credibility and enhanced storytelling, which provide valuable opportunities for brand promotion and business growth. We have seen a host of collaborations between brands from different industries covering some hot topics which gained great attention and provided a sense of positive change for readers to take away. Here is our take on what works! #1: Make It Clear: Why Does This News Matter? According to Cision's State of the Media Report 2023, the primary issue that journalists need support with to make their jobs easier is - Understand the target audience and what they find relevant. This was cited by 75% of journalists as a way for communications professionals to make their lives easier. No cash? No problem! Mastercard’s collaboration with Alipay is great news for those traveling to China. Digital payment method is highly popular and widespread in China. This collaboration has allowed users to link any Mastercard to their Alipay digital wallets, thus allowing international visitors to enjoy a seamless and cashless payment process. Someone has clearly done their research! One of the main problems travelers may face, is navigating the scene of local payment methods. By opening with the headline starting with “Pay Like a Local," the release does a superb job of referencing realistic consumer experiences. This is spot on, as international travelers would certainly want to breeze through payment processes while overseas, just like how a local would, and not fumble in this area. The infographic provides an intuitive step-by-step guide for consumers and is paired with a clear call to action – the download link in the text body. This release earned a wealth of media coverage from outlets like CNN and Reuters reporting on the ever-trending topic of benefits for consumers. #2: Integrate Brand Stories from the Audience’s Perspective Collaboration between brands from adjacent industries could bring innovative and unique experiences for customers. All of which would further highlight their individual strengths. The operations of airlines and tourist attractions are intricately linked. Xiamen Airlines did a great job of creating a positive buzz through their collaboration release with Universal Beijing Resort. Xiamen Airlines X Universal Beijing Resort themed aircraft took its first flight, which has IP elements from “Universal Beijing Resort Jurassic World Isla Nublar” reflected on its exterior. For travelers heading to Beijing staying at Universal Resort, stepping aboard an aircraft that integrates IP elements from the theme park would definitely complete the experience! Such a unique end-to-end experience would leave quite an impression on consumers. The release was well-written from the passenger’s perspective. The provision of an immersive experience was highlighted in detail as readers learn about the strategically integrated pre- and in-flight themed activities. #3: Achieve Narrative Transportation Through Storytelling Hisense and Discovery launched a creative cross-sector campaign, "Find Your Mission X", which seeks to evoke emotions in readers by invoking stimulating imagery, and referencing the mindset of a cave diver to the reader as an individual. Hisense's Partnership with Discovery campaign encourages consumers to "Find Their Mission X" by inspiring a spirit of exploration and curiosity. The two companies have produced a content series documenting the adventures of an underwater photographer. Through the engaging narrative of a cave diving exploration to uncover the secrets of the mysterious caverns in Mexico, Hisense puts their new product benefit of offering, what they claim to be "picture perfect quality," on display. They seek to captivate audiences with vivid images and videos that were captured and displayed using their technology in the documentary video. #4: Draw Readers In with Engaging Multimedia Eye-catching photos used in releases allow readers to immerse themselves further into the stories, while building an emotional connection. This was exactly what The Saudi Tourism Authority did! They worked with football icon, Lionel Messi, to showcase the charm of Saudi Arabia as an exciting tourist destination. Messi’s family pictures surely did add a significant pull factor to the press release from fans and general audience alike. After all, he is one of the world’s most famous athletes, so naturally, a spike in engagement rates could be anticipated. Furthermore, Baby Shark teamed up with Sesame Street for an Earth Day-themed YouTube playlist. Characters from the popular kids' TV show appeared in the viral song Baby Shark, which is currently the most viewed YouTube video to date. All of which has created an iconic shared experience that might just possibly transcend generations. There is nothing small or baby-like about Baby Shark, for it made quite the splash with their release on a one-of-a-kind family fun experience at Fairmont Jakarta! This collaboration served as an open invitation to families to book a Baby Shark theme room for an unforgettable time. Conclusion In Cision’s annual media survey, there was an overwhelming response from journalists, who indicated that press releases are still their top choice when it comes to receiving new intel. Besides press releases, quality content that is compelling, easy to digest, with multimedia, and shareable on social media are also valuable to journalists. Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines appreciates high levels of Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). As such, now, more than ever, high quality content is critical to engaging existing and expanding potential audiences. How can we build brand value from a cross-sector collaboration? Aim to tell an interesting, relevant story to engage readers and make some noise in the daily marketing content! Here are some takeaways that we can learn from the above examples: Make it Clear: Why Does This News Matter? Readers need to know why they should care and carry on reading, so make the consumers’ benefits obvious. Hook readers by sharing the heart of the story in your headline and news lead. Integrate Brand Stories from the Audience’s Perspective. Incorporate more owned content into your news from the point of view of consumers. Achieve Narrative Transportation Through Storytelling. Engage readers emotionally, on a personal level. Draw Readers in with Engaging Multimedia. This is a great way to bring each release to life! If the focus of the news centers around people, do include images of them to aid readers in connecting with the mentioned subjects. We hope these tips have provided some ideas and inspiration for when you would need to communicate any cross-sector collaboration success stories!
Cheatsheet To Fully Utilizing Your Media Monitoring Tool
Nothing could be more frustrating than realizing you have been underutilizing a tool. To avoid this and ensure you get the most bang for your buck, this article will guide you on how to make the best use of your current media monitoring tool. (Hint: If you're still deciding which tool to get, our Ultimate Media Monitoring Buyer's Guide is designed to help you make the decision. Read it before you sign that contract!) Tip 1: Strategically Structure Your Onboarding Training Sessions As intuitive as media monitoring tools and platforms can be, it is not realistic to aim to master them in a few sessions, or worse, hop around asking questions haphazardly. Here is some advice from Cision PR Newswire’s Manager of Media Monitoring and Insights, First session: Aim to start navigating the platform independently At the end of this session, you should be able to create a new search, alert, an analytics dashboard and generate reports in the different desired formats. Second session: Get into the details Here, you can start getting a little greedy! Ask yourself the following questions How do I build a better search that covers the key markets that I want? How do I highlight or find results from my key media? How do I remove irrelevant results? How do I make past year comparisons in my dashboards? Typically, each client will have 1-2 onboarding sessions to discuss your issues with your account managers. If you have more questions beyond the onboarding sessions, all clients will have access to Cision PR Newswire's continuous support throughout the lifetime of their subscriptions. Tip 2: Determine Your Key Objectives Feeling a little lost when navigating a new media monitoring tool at the start is completely logical! To avoid going around in circles, you should be clear on what you would like to achieve. One common objective from our clients is to effectively monitor brand reputation. They would like to be notified of both positive and negative news immediately. To effectively identify meaningful mentions, especially the negative ones so appropriate actions could be carried, monitoring meaningful mentions is important. However, the bigger the brand, the larger the number of mentions in different channels. As such, brands usually require help to aid them in sifting out valuable mentions. We utilized Cision’s Boolean capabilities, worked together with the client to have the full list of their top media outlets, and create a separate search that specifically pulls results from that dedicated list of media, for example: "Client's Brand" AND ("nytimes.com" OR "yahoo.com" OR "scmp.com"….) We understand that each business is unique and has its own needs. As such, these exercises are great for your account managers to understand the business better and tweak customizations accordingly. Tip 3: Define Your Monitoring Parameters Clearly While we are on the topic of setting clear goals, defining monitoring paramters is also equally critical. This is not the time for you to be shy! To ensure that you are on track toward your monitoring goals, we recommend the following keyword categories: Insider Tip 1: Cision’s media monitoring tool supports multiple search variations. It can monitor an unlimited number of keywords and searches so that communicators have the freedom to zoom into different aspects of their searches. In this instance, less might not be more! Voice out all requirements down to the specifics to build a monitoring process that would deliver refined results. Examples of specifics are: Entities or names that may share a similar name to your search parameters (E.g., “Apple,” the tech company and "apple" the fruit) Jargons or niche terms that are industry specific should be highlighted Decide if you would like your keywords to be grouped into one singular search or listed individually. (Our tip? We usually recommend the latter to ensure ease of viewing of the results as you can see the performance of each individual keyword) If required, prepare keywords in local languages as this would allow for more accurate results. Insider Tip 2: Filtering results using location and language would allow for more accurate results. The good news is that Cision’s media monitoring tool has just it! Our Thoughts In conclusion, we hope that this starter guide has supplemented you with more confidence in knowing what solutions are available when dealing with a media monitoring tool, how to define monitoring parameters clearly and best structure your onboarding sessions in an efficient manner. Cision’s reliable and extensive media monitoring tool has much to offer, from having access to unlimited searches, easy set-up of automated alerts to account managers that are constantly on the ball! As for analytics reporting, our team will often recommend using Cision's easily accessible interactive report. Click this link to have a look at our intuitive interactive report. Find out more about what Cision’s media monitoring tool has to offer by reaching out to us for a complimentary consultation today.
What Is a Press Release? Definition, Examples and Best Practices
According to our 2023 State of the Media report, press releases are the number-one resource journalists rely on to generate ideas for stories. They’re also among the most useful ways to generate earned media coverage for your brand. This article will cover the meaning of a press release, why they’re so powerful and how you can get started using them. What Is a Press Release? The definition of a press release is a statement that provides information about a significant event to members of the news media. Also called PR releases or news releases, they’re typically written by an organization’s PR or corporate communications team, or by a PR agency representing them. Press releases provide basic information to journalists, who use them as the starting point for a story. The goal of a press release is to get your desired message into the hands of the journalists who are most likely to be interested in it – and gain positive media attention for your organization. Done right, press releases are an essential part of your communication strategy. Reasons to Use Press Releases Even as the media landscape has become more complex and digital marketing channels have grown, press releases are a mainstay for both communications teams and journalists – and for good reason. They can help you: Establishing media relationships: A well-written press release can gain attention from journalists who might be interested in your story and start an ongoing dialogue with them. Reputation management: You control the narrative of press releases, which makes them important to boost your brand reputation, counteract negative publicity and manage crises. Search engine optimization (SEO): Optimizing your press releases by using relevant keywords can help drive organic traffic to your website and boost your SEO rankings. Going viral: It’s difficult to predict when something will go viral, but if your press release gets enough attention on social media, it can bring your organization even more attention. What's in a Press Release? Following a similar template makes it easy for journalists and other readers to scan the content, digest it and quickly get the information they need. Use this press release example template if you’re just starting out. Contact information: Your organization’s name, address, phone number and email should always go at the top. Headline: A headline that summarizes the press release but also grabs attention is essential for any press release. Introduction: This is a quick summary of the who, what, when, where and why. Body: The body provides more detailed information in the classic “inverted pyramid” style, with the most important details first. Boilerplate: At the bottom of the press release, include information about your organization’s goals, mission and vision, like the “About” section on your website. Examples of Press Releases Looking at more specific PR release examples will give you a better idea of when to use them and what to include. Releasing Proprietary Research: Your proprietary research is valuable because it adds something new to the conversation that a journalist may not have heard before – and it has your company branding. Make sure your headline includes the most interesting takeaway from the study, and that the body includes plenty of statistics and a link to download the full study. Example: Study Finds AI and Emerging Technologies Increasing Tension as Journalists Face Growing Challenges to Maintain Accuracy and Truth Changes in Leadership: Company restructuring, creating new departments, and major changes in leadership, such as a new CEO, are all great reasons for a press release. Your headline should be straightforward, while the body should include details about the changes. Be sure to include plenty of direct quotes from company leadership, too. Example: Cision Announces Cali Tran as New CEO Launching a New Service: Your business works hard on new products and services, which is why launches are one of the most common examples of a press release. It should include a description of the product or service, several quotes, statistics and facts about its benefits and a link to where the journalist can learn more. Example: Cision Unveils Guaranteed Paid Placement, Providing Clients with Unmatched Visibility and Control over their Brand's Story Winning an Award: Awards are something to be proud of, and definitely a reason for a press release. Even if it isn’t an award journalists have heard of, you could still expand their knowledge about what’s out there. Explain what the award is and why it’s important, and include quotes from your organization’s relevant, high-ranking employees. Link to the page where the journalist can learn more about the award and the organization that gives it out. Example: Cision Named “Adoption Hero” in ChurnZero's 2022 ChurnHero Awards Press Release Writing Tips The format of a press release is a start, but to really get your message out, it needs to be compelling, yet short and to the point. Here are some tips for getting your press release noticed. There is no “perfect” length for a press release, as it should vary by announcement, but we recommend aiming for about 500 words, and no longer than a page. Journalists receive up to hundreds of press releases a week, so make it detailed enough to provide information, but short enough that it’s a quick read. Grab attention with your headline. Keep it crisp and catchy, and don’t use tactics like “clickbait” headlines. Your headline should tell the reader exactly what the story is about and why they should care.\ Include multimedia like photos, videos and infographics. They can help your press release get attention and engagement because they’re easily digestible and shareable. Include at least two quotes in the body of your press release, one from someone at your organization and one from someone outside your organization. Quotes add credibility. Don’t be salesy. Press releases aren’t advertisements or product placements. Trying to “sell” your business can backfire. Keep it factual and help the journalist understand why reporting on this story is important and could benefit them. Link to relevant stories, websites and articles in your press release to help the journalists and the public find more information. How to Distribute a Press Release The time has come: You’ve looked at PR news release examples and written your own. The headline is catchy, and the details are all there. But how do you get it in front of the right people? There are several ways to distribute press releases, depending on your resources and budget. Self-Managed Press Release Distribution Building your own list of journalists and contacts is the lowest-cost option for distributing your press releases. First, identify the journalists that would be most interested in your stories, like those that cover your industry. Use search engines and free, online media databases to find their email addresses and keep track of them in a spreadsheet. (If it’s within your budget, consider investing in a media database platform that enables you to easily build lists and reach out to journalists directly from the platform.) As you begin to send out press releases, note which journalists are most responsive and build relationships with them. This method for distributing press releases can be time-consuming, but it’s popular with individuals and small businesses who don’t have a lot of PR budget. Online Press Release Distribution Platforms Online platforms for press release distribution are another popular option for businesses of all sizes. These platforms let you send your press release to a database of media contacts, like journalists and influencers. You can typically filter by industry, geographic area and language, and sometimes by more specific criteria like publication or journalist. Most online PR platforms aren’t free, but many offer flexible pricing so you can choose what’s right for you. You’re likely to find that the benefits of time and effort saved with the help of an automated platform outweigh the costs. Cision’s PR Newswire service, for example, sends press releases to hundreds of thousands of newsrooms and journalists, and thousands of websites and other digital media outlets. Plus, agencies often provide other services that go above and beyond distributing press releases. Full-Service PR Agencies For large enterprises and organizations with busy press release schedules, full-service PR agencies could be a viable option. They often have decades of experience, which means they have a vast database of contacts and can share press releases to some of the largest and most-sourced networks. Getting Started Ready to find out how press releases can garner more awareness for your brand or organization? Check out the Ultimate Toolkit for Getting Your Press Release Noticed or speak to a Cision expert today to get started.
What Is Brand Equity and How Do You Measure It?
As a brand owner, PR professional or marketer, you've likely heard the term "brand equity" before. But what exactly does it mean? While you may not be able to define it off the bat, chances are you know more about brand equity than you realize. For example, are there some products where only one name comes to mind? If asked what your favorite soft drink is, what is the first name you think of? The brand that popped into your brain is the one that holds the most brand equity with you. In short, brand equity is the level of sway a brand name has in the minds of its consumers and the value of having a brand that is identifiable and well thought of. Of course, there is more to it than that. This article will walk you through the basics of brand equity, its four key elements, and how to measure it effectively. You will also get tips for improving your brand's equity, so you can establish a strong reputation and boost your business's value in the market. Understanding What is Brand Equity We touched on it briefly before, but brand equity is defined as the added value a brand name gives a product or service over and above its functional attributes. In other words, brand equity is how consumers think and feel about the brand. Brands with high equity have a positive reputation and a loyal customer base, which can lead to increased sales and profitability—especially when there are similar products in the marketplace. The higher your brand equity, the more likely consumers are going to pick your product over the competition. Let's dive into the four key elements of brand equity. Brand Awareness: This is how well-known and recognizable a brand is among consumers. Brands with high awareness are more likely to attract and retain new customers. Brand Loyalty: This refers to the extent to which customers are committed to a particular brand and are willing to make repeat purchases. Brands with high loyalty are likely to have a positive reputation. Perceived Quality: This refers to how much your brand is worth in the minds of consumers. Brands with high perceived quality are more likely to have a positive reputation and customers willing to pay more for your product over similar ones. Brand Associations: These are the feelings or memories that consumers have with a particular brand, such as its values, personality and symbolism. Brands with strong associations tend to have a loyal customer base and positive feelings associated with their products. Why is Brand Equity Important? Brand equity is important for several reasons. First, it helps to differentiate your company from the competition and stand out in a crowded market, leading to increased sales and greater customer loyalty. Second, a strong brand equity can also help protect your company from price competition. Customers are often willing to pay a premium for products or services from well-known brands. Plus, strong equity helps shield you from economic downturns and survive negative press, such as product recalls. According to Harvard Business Review, the stock prices of companies with strong brands, such as Colgate-Palmolive and Johnson & Johnson, have held up better in recessions than those of large consumer product companies with less well-known brands. Finally, brand equity can help increase a company's value and brand performance. Brands with high equity are often considered more valuable to investors, as they have a proven track record of success and a loyal customer base. This can result in a higher valuation for the company and improved access to capital. Brand performance is often defined as the measure of a brand's results against the business and marketing goals. Good brand performance over the long term leads to better brand equity. Brand Equity vs. Brand Value It’s important to understand that brand equity is not the same as brand value. Brand value is the financial significance the brand carries, while brand equity refers to the importance of a brand in the customer's eyes; however, the two are often related. Having a strong brand equity can undoubtedly increase your brand's value. According to a 2023 report by Statista, the most valuable brands (in billions) worldwide are: Amazon: 299.28 Apple: 297.51 Google: 281.53 Microsoft: 191.57 Walmart: 113.78 Samsung Group: 99.66 ICBC: 69.55 Verizon:67.44 Tesla: 66.21 TikTok: 65.67 Chances are that if we asked you to name a computer company, e-commerce site, retailer, electric vehicle and social media app, these brands would have been on the tip of your tongue because they all have such substantial brand equity. How to Measure Brand Equity So, how do you measure brand equity? It's a complex concept, but there are a few methods you can use. Let's explore some of the ways you can measure your brand equity. Brand Awareness: This metric indicates how familiar consumers are with your brand. The higher the brand awareness, the more likely consumers will consider purchasing from your brand. A brand awareness survey can help you measure this metric. Customer Loyalty: Customer loyalty indicates how satisfied customers are with your brand. Measuring customer retention and repeat purchase rates can help you assess customer loyalty. Perceived Quality: As mentioned before, this refers to what consumers think and believe about your brand's quality. This metric can be measured through surveys that ask customers to rate the quality of your brand's products or services. Market Share: You've probably heard that people vote with their wallets, which is what market share refers to. Market share is the percentage of the total market your brand occupies. A higher market share indicates that your brand is more dominant in the market and can help you measure the strength of your brand. Financial Metrics: Metrics, such as revenue and profitability, can help measure brand equity. Brands with high equity often generate higher revenue and profitability than their competitors. Now that you know what brand equity is and how to measure it, let's talk about how you can improve it. How to Improve Brand Equity: 5 Best Practices We know increasing your brand equity can lead to an increase in sales, customer loyalty and the overall success of your brand. Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes to improving your brand equity, but there are some brand management best practices you should follow to make your product or service the first one that comes to people's minds. Let's dive into how you can accomplish this. Focus on quality Providing high-quality products or services can help improve brand equity by creating a positive reputation for your brand. Have you ever bought a pair of jeans and had them fall apart in a couple of months when you thought they would last for years? Chances are you aren't going to buy from that brand again. Build brand awareness Increasing brand awareness can help improve brand equity by making yours more recognizable to consumers. You can do this by utilizing marketing, advertising and public relations efforts, such as social media campaigns, influencer marketing and content marketing, to build brand awareness. The more familiar people are with your brand, the more likely they will grab yours over your competitors. Provide exceptional customer service How many times have you read a product review or scrolled through Yelp and seen people complain about the company's poor return policy or didn't stand by their product? It doesn't take too many negative reviews to tarnish your brand equity, so going above and beyond can pay dividends. Providing excellent customer service can increase customer loyalty and positive word of mouth, which can help improve your brand equity. Build strong relationships You know the old adage, "Birds of a feather flock together." Building strong relationships with customers, suppliers and partners can help improve brand equity by creating a positive reputation and a loyal customer base. If you don't have strong brand equity, partnering up with a company that does can help associate your brand with theirs, leading to an increase in your brand equity. Protect your brand If you've ever taken a trip through New York's Time Square, you've seen dozens of people selling luxury goods at a fraction of the retail price. And chances are they are cheap knockoffs that aren't near the same quality or craftsmanship as the actual brand's products. Protecting your brand through trademarks and intellectual property and monitoring the market can help maintain and improve your brand's equity. If you don't, that can affect your brand's perceived quality. So, what now? Tools to help you raise your brand equity As we've discussed, brand equity is essential to any successful business, and measuring it is crucial to ensure its growth and success. Cision's media monitoring solutions can help companies stay on top of their brand perception and reputation by providing insights and analytics on brand mentions, sentiment and reach across different media channels—all in real-time. Whether you're a marketer, communications or PR professional, or business owner, Cision's industry-leading media monitoring solutions can help you stay on top of your brand equity and take your business to the next level. Contact us today to learn more and speak to an expert today.
In Their Own Words: Journalists on the PR Pitches That Really Got Their Attention (For Better or Worse)
For PR, media relations and brand communications professionals trying to get earned media will always remain a priority. Yet according to the recent Global Comms Report, 52% of comms leaders strongly agree that their jobs are becoming increasingly challenging. That’s despite positivity among 58% of these leaders, who say they are optimistic about their position in relation to the C-Suite. With PR professionals outnumbering journalists five to one by some estimates, there is a lot of competition for journalists’ attention. And as journalists struggle to keep up with the demands of their jobs amid declining resources, according to the 2023 State of the Media Report, they have even less time to review pitches or engage with PR professionals. So what can PR and communications professionals do to not only get the attention of journalists, but make that crucial first step to building a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship? For the answers, we went straight to the source: For the 2023 State of the Media Report, now in its 14th year, we asked reporters to tell us about communications professionals who made an impression on them – good or bad – to give PR and comms professionals insight into what to do (and what to avoid) when working with journalists. The Value of Human Connection If there’s one thing that resonated with journalists the most, it was comms professionals who have taken the time to understand them, what they cover and the content they find most relevant. What became immediately evident is that well-honed personal outreach can be much more valuable than a mass press release send-out. A selection of journalist responses illustrating that notion: “A recent communications professional reached out with a pitch but showed in her email that she had done her homework by clearly bring up past guests/topics we covered that had matched her client." “It’s great when relevant PR people reach out with ‘I don’t have a pitch, but I wanted to check in to make sure our team is getting you what you need, when you need it.’” “A communications professional recently anticipated our needs via our editorial calendar and proposed an article topic from one of her customer companies." "... an unexpected pitch triggered a related idea for a story I was about to publish, and the publicist quickly went to get the info and quote needed so I could add them to my existing story last minute.” Understanding a Journalist’s Audience Beyond the personal touch, the State of the Media survey showed that comms professionals with a firm grasp of a journalist’s audience made a positive impact. Here’s what was said around this topic: “I’m impressed when someone seems to really understand what I cover and pitch accordingly." “The PR person just knew my audience. That's why I keep reaching out to her and her firm." “They understood my brand and my audience. They were a former broadcaster so understand what was needed and didn't pitch irrelevant content. [We] built a good relationship." “It was my first useful pitch from someone I didn't already know or had heard of... I had to ask, ‘you seriously did your homework? And you found me, with actual news? That is so awesome!’ It was surprising because it was the first time I received a pitch from someone I didn't know, who had put in that kind of effort to actually understand whether their item is really news to my audience...” Timely Delivery of Experts, Data and Mulitmedia A pitch or press release on its own might get the initial points of a story across, but journalists will often want to probe a story further. They’re time poor with deadlines to hit and space to fill, so any PR professional who can provide them that little bit extra will find favor. As demonstrated by this selection of responses from State of the Media respondents: “The PR person pitched and scheduled a call for me with an expert and then allowed the two of us to connect independently instead of insisting on joining and moderating the meeting. I appreciated the opportunity to have a candid one-on-one discussion with the source.” “I had a PR professional reply within 10 minutes with comments and all the info needed for a piece. Left me feeling like they were a trustworthy contact to come back to.” “I reached out directly to [the PR professional] and developed a strong relationship because we both needed something - I needed a consistent stream of business experts for day-of stories, and they needed a consistent outlet to showcase their information and talent.” “They provided me with all assets I requested (photos, quotes) quickly and efficiently.” The PR Outreach That Left a Bad Impression A PR faux pas can range from relentless emailing (3 in 4 journalists will block a media relations professional who spams them with irrelevant pitches) to being sent “obvious clickbait" or “marketing jargon.” When asked to provide specific examples of tactics that made a poor impression, some of the most telling responses include: “Two different PR people recently called and emailed me multiple times despite us saying during the first follow up that we would get back to them if I needed anything else. I have so many past stories along the same lines that are so incredulous you would not believe them! “[They pitched] me stories that had absolutely no relevance to my market/audience, and then peppered me with inquiries." “A big negative is when we agree they'll get back to me within the hour or by EOD and I don't hear from them until the next day or later when I'm the one that calls them to see what's going on and why they're late with the info.” “A communications professional pitched me a piece I accepted sight unseen. When I received it, it was not what I had been expecting – not enough detail on the technical application, and a lot of extra big-picture commentary. It gave me a negative impression because it didn't seem like what I had been promised." 5 Key Takeaways In the world of media relations, relationships are critical to success – and it’s that first impression that can make or break a relationship before it even starts. The above statements underscore the importance of making a positive first impression. Use these tactical takeaways to guide your media outreach strategy moving forward:: Do your due diligence: Get to know your contact and how they operate on a day-to-day basis, the beats they cover and the challenges they face. Managing that relationship will help you secure better coverage. Respect their deadlines: Many journalists are short on both time and resources, so understanding their deadlines and delivering the information they need will go a long way to building trust. Make good on promises: Delivering that promised expert for interviews, quotes or data – and on time, as mentioned above – will ensure you are laying solid future foundations with a journalist. Think proactively: Both proactive and reactive strategies are essential to PR pros, but being active with your outreach and helping journalists develop their stories will be beneficial in getting the word out to the right reporters, publications and audiences. Transparency trumps clickbait: Getting coverage is the goal, but don’t oversell or “spin” your story in hopes that a journalist will click on it. Be straightforward about why you are reaching out (in fact, “pitches that sound like marketing brochures” are among the top reasons journalists block PR professionals, according to the report). Leading with honesty and transparency is what will ultimately build trust with journalists. Even if they are unable to cover your story this time, you’ve established credibility that will prove key in future outreach. Want to learn more from our 2023 Global State of the Media Report? Download it here or speak to one of our experts about the tools Cision offers to help connect comms professionals with journalists.
Journalists’ Advice to Future Journalists (And What PR Can Learn, Too)
Cision’s Global State of The Media Report is now in its 14th year, and for 2023, we wanted to make a few changes to our survey to learn more about what’s on the mind of today’s journalists. Alongside queries designed to collect quantitative data, we posed qualitative questions to shed light on trends reporters are seeing. In one such request: We asked journalists to finish the following statement: “The next generation of journalists need to be…” In addition to providing a window into growing concerns about the future of the industry, their answers shed light on opportunities for comms professionals to own their roles with media partners and make themselves invaluable resources to today’s resource-stretched and time-poor journalists. Truthful, Accurate, and Unbiased One of the most common themes to emerge across the global survey is the need for journalists to adhere to the truth, and bring accuracy and unbiased thinking to their work. Though this will always be a staple of journalism, it’s become more vital than ever in the wake of fake news and misinformation being disseminated rapidly across social media. Many of those surveyed also emphasised the importance of training, particularly as it related to the classic rules of journalism and objective reporting. Below is a snapshot of some of the responses we received to our open-ended question on the next generation of journalists: “[They need to be] proficient and accurate in their storytelling by gathering true information and facts.” “…less biased. We routinely see/hear journalists who don't report the facts without reporting them from a very specific angle. Others won't cover a story at all if the subject matter doesn't support their beliefs.” “…focused on truth, accuracy, seeking fairness and balance and on promoting understanding of issues.” “…trained in the basics of journalism and reporting practices, and well versed in journalistic ethics.” “…properly trained in the basics of gathering information, checking its accuracy and presenting it in an easy to read and informative way. Like journalists used to be.” Why It Matters for PR: It’s clear we’re at a critical moment when it comes to truth and accuracy in the media. This matters for communications professionals as well as journalists. PR and comms pros who send out pitches and press releases to journalists are ultimately handing over their story (and editorial control) to the reporter and publication. They must ensure any pitch or press release has been fact-checked and referenced, with clear data to back up your story and, if necessary, an expert available for comment. Artificial Intelligence Leads the Tech Discussion Many of our respondents used the words “technology,” “digital” or “data” in relation to being prepared for an increasingly tech- and data-reliant industry. “Social media” was also mentioned several times in a similar context. However, artificial intelligence (AI) and the emergence of ChatGPT was clearly on the mind of journalists who took the State of the Media survey in early 2023. Sentiment was mixed between being cautious of the technology and making sure it isn’t ignored. A selection of responses that exemplify these feelings: “[The next generation of journalists needs to be] savvy technology users. Innovations like ChatGPT won't stop, but the journalists who hide from them are at a disadvantage.” “…focused on finding original data and original perspectives. As AI does more of the actual writing, the journalists who succeed will be the ones who can do the human kinds of things like telling personal stories and finding original conclusions in data sets and data trends well.” “… able to use Generative AI to enhance their work and remain relevant.” “… aware of the opportunities and pitfalls of AI” “... intelligent and specific. The phase of reproducing information already online is over (with the likes of ChatGPT). Investigatory journalism will be required which will put further pressure on PRs.” Why It Matters for PR: As the last comment suggests, a post-ChatGPT world could see journalism move away from recycling existing content and into more original reporting. This is where PR pros will need to step in to help reporters uncover information that isn’t readily available, helping to shape new stories with fresh angles. Authenticity will be crucial here, as audiences look for trustworthy content they know hasn't been created by AI. On a more practical level, comms teams must level up their AI knowledge fast, and use it to support the skills that make humans unique. AI will be able to execute mundane, entry-level tasks at speed, but it won’t ever replace true creative thought or interrogate and exceed a brief. Agility and Adaptability As advertising revenues fall and job roles are reduced, it’s becoming harder and harder to establish a career in journalism, as demonstrated by one respondent from the UK: “I am an early career journalist and just completed my [Masters degree]. Me and my classmates have all struggled to find permanent contracted work – the majority of us are balancing multiple freelance gigs or precarious temporary or freelance contracts.” With that in mind, a journalist that increases their skillset and is alert to change within their industry will become increasingly valuable to potential employers. Many of our State of the Media respondents noted that the next generation of journalists should be... “... entrepreneurial, technologically savvy, and creative.” “... tech savvy with a side hustle..." ... agile and multi-channel. Willing to pivot on a moment's notice to new content distribution methods.” "... storytellers at heart, curious, passionate about digital media, willing to document and find the truth, good investigator skills, ethics and professionalism, creative and open to learning every day.” “... aggressive and innovative, with consideration for the business needs of the publisher that would not have been necessary in the old days of journalism.” Why It Matters for PR: At this pivotal time, comms professionals need to be laser-focused on the ‘Relationship’ aspect of PR. Getting to know the journalists you work with on an individual level will help you understand the challenges they face professionally and how you can best help them get the stories they need. Are they full-time or freelance? Do they have their own podcast or Substack? Knowing the platforms they operate on – and the audiences they serve – will give you a better chance of getting the right story to the right place at the right time. Above all, they’ll value speed and accuracy. Next Steps for PR and Comms Teams These concerns are just scratching the surface of this year’s Global State of the Media Report. Journalists and PR professionals both operate in an urgent, near-real time landscape where news unfolds quickly. They rely on each other to do their jobs effectively, and it’s clear that there’s common ground in the challenges both face as they look to the future. Understanding what those challenges are is the first step to understanding how to overcome them and create new opportunities. The insights from the State of the Media Report aim to shed light on those opportunities for both PR professionals and the journalists with whom they aim to partner. For more findings and takeaways that will enhance your relationships with journalists, check out the full Global State of The Media Report 2023.
How to Start Using AI for PR and Communications Today
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been with us for many years, but the arrival of generative tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL·E 2 have kickstarted growth and seen the technology quickly filter into how we work. For those in the PR and communications industry, the messages you create through the images and words you choose are critical. So when it comes to AI, you're probably asking yourself questions like "How should I be using it?" and "Can it help me to work smarter, faster and more effectively?" Chances are you're probably more aware of AI than you realize (it's the foundation of sentiment analysis, for example), and its capability will only grow over time. If you’re ready and eager to start using ChatGPT and generative AI right now, here’s a six-part, step-by-step guide on how to start. 1. Get to Know Generative AI Tools Before you begin, get familiar with the types of tools out there and which tasks each are designed for. Generative AI can now help you create text, images, video and audio, all from scratch. AI text generation: These are built on Large Language Models (LLMs) and include ChatGPT, Google Bard, Bing Chat, Jasper and Poe by Quora. AI image generation: These tools use natural language prompts to create images and include DALL·E 2, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion and Adobe Firefly. AI video and audio generation: Synthesia, Pictory and Kaiber can generate videos without the need for cameras, animation software or actors. For the purposes of this article, we’ll predominantly use ChatGPT to illustrate our points, however many of these tips still apply across different applications. If you’re just beginning your journey with AI, then ChatGPT and similar text applications like Bard and Bing are the best places to start experimenting. 2. Identify What You Need From AI It’s important to ask yourself exactly what you’re looking to achieve with AI. Analyze your workload and identify tasks that are repetitive or time-consuming. Can AI help when it comes to drafting press releases, writing social media posts, responding to common media inquiries or crafting messages for specific scenarios (e.g. crisis management)? For example, if you’re expecting adverse public reactions to issues or events, providing ChatGPT with some context as well as your audiences will allow it to provide you with some key messages for each stakeholder group. From here, prioritize using these applications based on potential impact, ease of integration and urgency. This might mean focusing on high-volume tasks like social media content creation. For example, providing a press release as context and asking for a series of social media posts to accompany the release. "Providing ChatGPT with some context as well as your audiences will allow it to provide you with some key messages for each stakeholder group." 3. Test and Train the AI Prompts are fundamental to generative AI. These are the instructions or questions you give ChatGPT to get a response. The quality of the answers you receive will depend on how well you frame your question. Composing a press release is a good place to start. Ask the AI to draft a release based on a set of bullet points summarizing a new product launch, a corporate announcement or business initiative. Make sure you provide the information the AI will not know, for example what the product might be called or the launch date. If the first response isn’t quite right, provide feedback to improve the AI’s understanding of what’s required. You can give extra context, or provide guidance around tone and length, even ask it to generate a quote from a specific person to include in the release. Another potential use case is in composing social media posts. Ask ChatGPT to look at your caption and shorten it to fit a specific character count for Twitter. Or request an adjustment in tone to suit a more formal LinkedIn audience. In all cases, being clear on the business and communication outcomes that you’re trying to achieve will lead to a better result for any specific task. For example, you could try telling ChatGPT you want to increase clicks or shares of a certain post to drive more traffic to a specific website. This is an iterative learning process for the AI, so there will likely be some trial and error. As you refine your request, the AI will better understand your specific needs. For this reason, try to keep your requests in line with the current “conversation” with the AI. If you want to give it a new and unrelated task, start a fresh conversation. "Being clear on the business and communication outcomes that you're trying to achieve will lead to a better result for any specific task." 4. Review and Edit the Output ChatGPT can produce content for you quickly, but it’s still vital to review and edit the output with the human eye. Check for regional nuance in language, cross-check data and facts, as accuracy is paramount – particularly if the work is being sent out to journalists or made publicly available on social media. AI still tends to “hallucinate” facts, including research reports and authors that don’t exist. So be extra vigilant if you’re asking an AI to create text from simple prompts as opposed to re-formatting or summarizing text you’ve provided. It’s also important to keep tone of voice in mind. AI can help you create engaging content, but it's vital to ensure that it’s also consistent with your brand. This is an area where you can apply your own PR and comms expertise. Does it “sound” right? Are key messages being prioritized? Is it tailored to the right audience? Remember, you can ask the AI to provide you feedback on any text, including text the AI itself created, from a certain audience perspective but you will have emotional and intuitive experience that ChatGPT won’t be able to emulate. 5. Bring AI Into Your Workflow As you get comfortable with AI, start to integrate it more directly into your workflow for specific tasks. That could be composing press releases, writing social media captions or outlining blog posts. You’ll need to measure its effectiveness, so look to track how much time you're saving or if the quality of your initial drafts has improved. Do you have a benchmark for how long it takes to get a press release from a blank page to distribution? Measure this start-to-finish process with AI, and if you’re reaching the end faster that’s a good indicator of its effectiveness. If you’re finding AI is having a greater positive impact on certain tasks, focus its usage there to see if you can make it even more beneficial. Once you’re getting the most out of ChatGPT, you’ll be able to free up time to work on more creative or strategic PR and comms work. It’s important to remember, however, that tools like ChatGPT aren’t just text generators. They also have an understanding of communications principles and best practice. ChatGPT is as aware of Grunig and Hunt’s four models framework, as it is the Barcelona Principles of measurement and evaluation. So it’s capable of drafting strategies and plans if you ask it to follow these principles, or even to evaluate your own strategies against these frameworks with scores and suggestions for improvement. This works even if you have your own internal framework – simply provide that as context in the prompt. All you have to do is ask. "AI is a fast-moving technology and generative tools like ChatGPT are still in their infancy." 6. Stay Updated on All Things AI AI is a fast-moving technology and generative tools like ChatGPT are still in their infancy. Follow the latest updates from OpenAI, Google (for Bard) and Microsoft (Bing Chat) to see what new features are being implemented and how these might benefit your PR work or provide enhanced privacy and security options. For example, ChatGPT allows you to turn off chat history and training, which we recommend if you’re working with sensitive data. (Of course, we also recommend that you never upload confidential customer or personal data unless you have consent.) There are also plenty of webinars, forums and online resources out there to give you a fresh perspective on the technology and spark ideas about how it can work for you. One of the challenges with AI is the sheer volume of applications available to choose from. If you’re overwhelmed by the options, we recommend this Future Tools list of the most popular ones. Additional AI Resources for PR and Communications Teams These are just a few initial guidelines on how PR and comms professionals can get started with AI. Your relationship with it will develop as the technology continues to evolve, so expect to see even more ways to use it to your advantage in the coming months and years. Stay tuned for more AI-related content. In the meantime, here are some informational articles about the use and impact of artificial intelligence in the communications industry. AI and the Future of Comms Teams | On-Demand Webinar You Know More About AI in Comms Than You May Think The Rise of Generative AI and What It Means for the Communications Industry Generative AI: Where Will It Take Us 10 Years From Now? Harnessing the Power of AI for PR and Strategic Communications
Data-Driven Strategies and Inspiring Stories for a Successful Campaign – Key takeaways from the Comms Connect Event in Vietnam
Vietnam, an emerging country with a fast-developing economy, thrives on its youthful and dynamic labor force. As its economy expands, the demand for effective PR and communications strategies to help businesses and organizations connect with their target audiences has also grown. Much to our delight, Comms Connect Vietnam on 26th July 2023 was a sold-out event and rightfully so! Discover highlights from the event that attracted a full house below. Framework for Measuring PR’s Impact on the Bottom-line To kick things off, Ms. Giang Nguyen, Senior Business Development Manager at PR Newswire, shared several revealing takeaways from Cision’s 2023 Global Comms Report. In previous years, tremendous progress has allowed communicators to have more direct reporting lines to the C-suite executives. With more reporting in place, measuring PR’s impact on the bottom line would be even more critical. Mr. Ronald Khay, Manager of Media Monitoring and Insights at Cision, shared how one can do so by using the framework for measuring PR’s impact on the bottom-line using The Communicator’s Funnel approach, while discussing the impacts of media monitoring. Digital Transformation [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2090"] Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nhat, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at VietnamPlus[/caption] Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nhat, Deputy Editor-in-Chief at VietnamPlus, gave the audience a glimpse into the latest trends in digital transformation within the news media. It was revealed that there is now a greater emphasis on top-notch journalism and multimedia products. Various content strategies have been implemented, such as the publication of long-form articles, and the shift towards presenting content in digital formats, such as podcasts, videos and e-magazines. He also addressed the ever-burning question of, “What elements should be included in an attention-grabbing press release?” One should incorporate these three key ingredients: Useful and tailored information to the audience Incorporate relevant data derived from credible sources Multimedia components Timo's award-winning campaign - “Defying the Odds, Fuel your Passion, Love the Game you Play”. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Mrs. Tran Ngoc Thu, Head of Brand & Communications at Timo Digital Bank[/caption] Mrs. Tran Ngoc Thu, Timo's Head of Brand and Communications, excitedly revealed the incredible outcomes of the brand's award-winning campaign “Defying the odds, fuel your passion, love the game you play” campaign's triumph can be attributed to several factors: Crafted inspirational stories to inspire their audience Timo Digital Bank recruited the talented Truong Twins as their Inspirational Ambassadors. They are Vietnamese American twin sisters, who are among the minority of Asian American players to receive sports scholarships from Gonzaga University and now play for the team at NCAA Women. Created unique emotional experiences – a first in the banking industry Timo Digital Bank helps their consumers feel connected through many activities and resources such as, bringing people together to learn more about managing their finances and live responsibly. This is all aligned to their commitment to a prosperous and sustainable community in the near future. Aims to foster a tight-knit community with target groups by being relatable Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Timo Digital Bank repositioned themselves as social banking that focuses on connecting community and sustainable growth and have lived up to their promise by committing to every community that they associate with. In this instance, sports in particular is a great way to bring people together. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1974"] Timo Digital Bank’s award-winning campaign[/caption] Sharing inspirational stories with their audience allowed them to captivate their audience and leave quite a lasting impact!With the support and strategic guidance of PR Newswire,the brand's message was amplified internationally , resulting in over 300 PR articles covering multiple industries, with an estimated value of up to $130,000. Indeed, this campaign, which mission is to spread the message of "Breaking Limits" and fuel young athletes to pursue their dreams and passions received serveralawards, gained recognition, and garnered smiles all around Vietnam. Timo Digital Bank’s Iefforts and strategies had certainly paid off in this smashing hit! Embracing Tech Advancements to Maximize PR value for Competitive Advantage During the panel discussion, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, Chairman at MVV Group, highlighted the importance of embracing technological advancements to stay ahead in today's competitive landscape. With a wealth of experience, , these are his tips on the primary focuses of maximizing ROI when it comes to PR efforts: Learn how to make the most of complimentary and readily available software to achieve optimal results Ensure that PR efforts and business objectives are always aligned Balance core values while adapting to new trends for effective audience engagement [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2280"] Our guest speakers and PR Newswire’s Vietnam team[/caption] Final Words It was heartening to see that most of our attendees stayed till the very end. We would like to extend our most heartfelt gratitude to all who played a part in making Comms Connect 2023 Vietnam a success! Stay tuned to our next stops of Comms Connect event series in Australia and South Korea. For more updates, follow CISION PR Newswire @CisionPRNewswire on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube social media for tips and the latest tools so that you can navigate the world of communications efficiently.
The Complete Guide to Brand Mentions
In today's hyper-connected world, brand mentions — the modern age’s version of word-of-mouth — have emerged as a compelling barometer of your company's brand reputation and visibility. They’re more than just customers name-dropping your product. They’re powerful indicators of your brand equity, status, and health. The meaning of brand mentions is also evolving along with digital transformation. So, let’s talk about what brand mentions are, why they’re important, and why you need to take a deeper dive into what they really mean in order to stand out in the overcrowded digital landscape. What Are Brand Mentions? Brand mentions are any instances where a business or its products and services are referenced on a digital platform, including social media, blogs, review websites, news articles and online forums. So, what are some examples of brand mentions? Let’s break down the definition of brand mentions into two categories with examples: Direct brand mentions involve explicit references to your brand name. This could be a Twitter post about your excellent (or poor) customer service, a positive (or negative) review of your product, or a news article covering your latest product launch. Indirect brand mentions are references to your brand without mentioning it by name. This includes misspellings of your brand name, references to your products only (e.g. “iPhone” with no mention of “Apple”) or use of your tagline or advertising slogans without your brand name (e.g. “Think Different”). To get a full picture of where you stand, brand mention monitoring should include both categories. Why Are Brand Mentions Important? Brand mentions provide important information about who is aware of your brand and how they feel about it. They can help you predict who might convert, become a loyal customer or refer others to your brand. They can even impact sales directly: Those new shoes you had to have, that café that makes irresistible cookies or that new spot in Mexico that just made your bucket list might have been posted on your social media. In fact, research shows 80 percent of consumers have purchased products in direct response to social media content. Here are the biggest reasons brand mentions matter. Brand Mentions Increase Brand Awareness According to our 2023 Global Comms Report, 54% of communications industry leaders said that “building sustainable growth and value for the brand” was a priority for their organization. One way to do that is through brand awareness. Each mention of your brand broadens your online footprint, amplifying your presence to reach an increasingly larger audience. Consider each brand mention a beacon, shining your brand’s light onto potential customers. This exposure boosts your brand awareness, keeping your brand top-of-mind for consumers. Brand Mentions Reveal Public Opinion Not all brand awareness is good. Sometimes you need to manage your reputation. By keeping tabs on brand mentions, you get a real-time pulse on public opinion about your brand. Leveraging social listening tools to identify brand mentions gives you the ability to “listen in” across social media channels in real-time to understand what people are saying about your brand. This allows you to promptly address negative sentiments and capitalize on good vibes, helping shape a positive brand image and providing valuable insights into potential marketing strategies. This kind of online reputation management is critical for the long-term health of your brand equity. Brand Mentions Provide Social Proof We’ve all asked a friend or family member for a recommendation. That’s called “social proof,” and the online version of it includes testimonials, reviews and even unboxing videos. When prospective customers see others complimenting or discussing your brand with a positive mention, it boosts your brand’s credibility. And one Salsify survey found that 46% of U.S. consumers will pay more for a brand they trust. Brand Mentions Strengthen Your Authority Did you know brand mentions can benefit SEO? Search engines like Google use brand mentions to indicate brand authority. If the algorithm sees your brand being mentioned a lot, whether through backlinks, quotes from your experts or mentions in reviews and articles, that can boost your brand’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERP). And with so much real estate now taken up by ads, it's more important than ever to be first, not last. Brand Mentions Inform Strategy The “ability to respond to changing dynamics and opportunities in a timely manner” was also a top priority for respondents in our Global Comms Report, at 46%, while “crisis preparedness, response, and execution” came in at 34%. Both of these concerns speak to one of the biggest benefits of brand mention monitoring: Staying ahead of crises. It can also inform strategies like influencer marketing and journalist outreach, helping you find potential collaborators. Brand mentions are crucial tools that shape your digital image, influence customer behavior and build or break down trust. But to really leverage them to control your online presence, you need to go even deeper. Beyond Brand Mentions: Brand Sentiment The definition of brand mentions is straightforward. It’s even right there in the name. But brand mentions alone are just the tip of the iceberg. To really leverage them, you need to put them in context. You need to know who is talking (customers or competitors), what they’re talking about (your customer service, product, news or something else) and what they’re saying (love it, hate it, neutral or just reciting the facts). All that context adds up to brand sentiment: that is, how people feel about your brand. But to truly understand sentiment, you need to go even further. Solutions powered by artificial intelligence (AI) – like Cision’s new Stance technology, which will be released later this year – can take a deeper dive into the context of brand mentions, giving you a better understanding of the larger narrative around your brand. That’s why turning brand mentions into actionable insights starts with monitoring, but needs to go beyond traditional tools. Brand Mention Monitoring: Going Beyond Sentiment Listening, analyzing and reacting to what’s being said about your business, and doing it quickly but carefully, is essential to controlling your brand narrative. But keeping track of brand mentions in an endless mountain of status updates, notifications, tweets and online reviews can seem overwhelming – and you’ll also need to monitor offline spaces. This is where traditional brand monitoring tools fall short, and where more comprehensive media monitoring comes to the rescue. Media monitoring is a multi-faceted approach that tracks and analyzes both brand mentions and brand sentiment across print, radio and television, as well as digital media. It’s a comprehensive answer to the question, “How do I find brand mentions?” Here’s where to look. Social Media In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, keeping track of social media alone can seem like a lost cause without the right media monitoring solution. And monitoring social media brand mentions isn’t just about gathering data and metrics across social networks; it’s about fostering connections. Whether answering a query, resolving an issue or expressing gratitude for positive feedback, finding and responding to brand mentions on social media enhances your customer relationships and promotes a positive brand image. Thankfully, social media listening tools can provide real-time alerts when your brand is mentioned, detailed analytics on the sentiment and reach of these mentions, and tools to facilitate swift and effective engagement. Cision’s social media management solution monitors social brand mentions across multiple platforms in a centralized dashboard, allowing you to spot trends, track competitors and respond quickly in real-time. Review Sites and Forums Review sites, forums and online communities related to your niche can provide a wealth of information on how customers feel about your brand and your product. In the Salsify survey, 54% of U.S. consumers said they research product quality before they buy, and 32% research consumer opinion. By regularly checking review sites, you can identify brand mentions and gain valuable insights into how your customers view their experience with your brand. If you’re already using social listening or media monitoring tools, chances are you have access to these types of insights, for a more efficient process. Cision’s social media monitoring tool, for example, includes access to hundreds of online forums and review sites, including Google Reviews, Amazon, CNET, eBay and TrustPilot. Not only does this type of data provide critical insight into your brand, but the faster you can access it, the faster you can respond to help mitigate the effects of negative reviews and keep customers coming back. Broadcast and Print Print media is far from dead, and broadcast is evolving quickly from radio and cable TV to podcasts and streaming services. You might think it’s impossible to monitor brand mentions on these channels because of how they’re distributed, especially considering some of the largest online editions of print newspapers are behind paywalls. But you might be surprised. Today, several media monitoring tools are available that make it easy to capture and analyze brand mentions on these disparate channels. Cision’s broadcast media monitoring solution, for example, gathers data about your brand from over 2 million TV and radio broadcasts each month and 7,000 hours of podcasts each day, while our print monitoring tool gives you access to tens of thousands of local, regional and national newspapers. Final Thoughts: Maintain Your Brand and Its Reputation Brand mentions play a vital role in shaping your online presence and reputation. They contribute to brand awareness, visibility, and credibility while providing valuable insights into customer sentiments. By actively monitoring and engaging with brand mentions, you can manage your reputation, identify areas of improvement, and leverage opportunities for growth. The ability to stay connected and responsive to the digital conversation about your brand has never been more important. If you want to learn more about how to not only monitor brand mentions but turn them into opportunities to grow your brand awareness and brand equity, speak to a Cision expert today.
From Media Monitoring to Developing Impactful Content - Key takeaways from the Comms Connect Event in Indonesia
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2110"] All smiles for Comms Connect Indonesia 2023[/caption] After a three-year hiatus due to COVID-pandemic, Cision PR Newswire held our very first event in Indonesia in the post-pandemic era. Comms Connect Indonesia graced Jakarta on 12th July 2023, which was met with much enthusiasm by an impressive turnout! Here are the highlights of the afternoon, Highlights from Cision's Global Comms Report 2023 Rendrian Maharsya, Cision Account Director for Indonesia, kicked off the event by sharing what inspired the theme of this event - Cision's 2023 Global Comms Report: 'A Seminal Moment.' One key finding was the notable progress in securing a 'Seat at the table,' as strategic communicators now have more direct reporting lines to the C-suite. In the APAC region, 65% expressed optimism about communication's growing significance in relation to the C-suite. However, with advancements, there are also challenges.; These observations set the tone for the afternoon, offering participants a glimpse into the current state of the communications industry worldwide. The Power of Brand Monitoring Priscilla Setyawati, Cision Senior Communications Strategy Consultant for the APAC region, emphasized the paramount importance of brand monitoring in the media which can provide a wealth of valuable insights to formulate strategic plans and make informed decisions. These insights encompass crucial aspects such as brand perception, competitor benchmarking, industry trends, crisis identification, and selecting the most appropriate media channels. Priscilla introduced the communicator's funnel, comprising three phases: brand, digital Impact, and revenue impacts. To monitor effectively, she recommended utilizing tools like Cision's Communications Clouds, Brandwatch's Consumer Intelligence, or Google Analytics. Lastly, she highlighted the need to continuously monitor results to gauge effectiveness and impact before determining the subsequent steps for PR activities. Crafting Impactful Content for the Right Audience Aries Nugroho, Senior VP & Partner GM of Fleishmann Hillard, offered invaluable tips on crafting impactful content, specifically press releases, for the right audience at the right place. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2092"] Aries Nugroho, Senior VP & Partner GM of Fleishmann Hillard[/caption] According to Aries, impactful content should possess lasting power, continuing as a topic of public conversation long after its initial publication. To achieve this, he stressed the need for content to deeply resonate with the audience, evoking emotions and thus, creating lasting impacts. Essential elements of impactful content could be thought-provoking narratives, inspiring stories, credible quotes, visual artworks, educational value, and authenticity. They have the potential to capture attention, engage, inspire, and influence audiences in a meaningful way, even inciting action. Relevance to the audience, acknowledging the constant competition between one's story and the aligning with the audience's interests are also critical elements. To ensure successful content development, he advised that one should, Understand the audience Identify clear goals Select the appropriate platform and media Craft a compelling title Create a well-crafted message Measure the content's impact Embrace changes and Focus on Priorities Prabu Revolusi, Managing Director of iNews Media Group, shared that despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the uncertainty of the global economy, iNews Media Group thrived by diversifying its media and channels, catering to different audience demographics. Prabu highlighted the need for brands to understand the most suitable media and channels to disseminate their message and achieve communication goals effectively. He stressed the importance of creating unique and viral-worthy content, underscoring how innovation and adaptability can lead to success in uncertain times. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2092"] Prabu Revolusi, Managing Director of iNews Media Group[/caption] Data-Driven Communication Strategies Dian Rufal, an experienced corporate communications expert, delivered a compelling session, where she underscored the crucial role of data in managing effective communications strategies. It is not only informative, but it also deepens understanding, enables precise measurement, evaluation, and facilitates optimal resource allocation. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2094"] Dian Rufal, an experienced corporate communications expert[/caption] One can gather data through surveys to gauge customer satisfaction, stakeholders' perceptions, and the impact of social media. Connecting data with specific objectives is also vital. Lastly, Dian shared the need to communicate the results to C-level executives in an efficient and effective manner while continually monitoring and improving strategies based on the insights gained. Panel Discussion Following the speaker sessions, an interactive panel discussion was held, where participants engaged in lively discussions and posed riveting questions, further enriching the learning experience for all present. Three lucky audience members walked away with prizes from our lucky draw, which added another layer of excitement to the already intriguing event! [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Congratulations Sari for winning the grand prize![/caption] All in all, the event was a resounding success as we received plenty of positive feedback that Comms Connect Indonesia 2023 provided attendees with a platform for knowledge-sharing by industry experts and an opportunity for all to network. Final Words As the event continues its journey across the APAC region in the second half of this year, communication professionals can anticipate the upcoming Comms Connect events in South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia. Stay tuned for more updates and follow CISION PR Newswire @CisionPRNewswire on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube social media for tips and the latest tools so that you can navigate the ever-world of communications efficiently.
Frequently Asked Questions About PR Measurement
Measurement is critical in today’s media landscape. Combing through the data of your campaigns can help quickly identify the elements and messaging that worked, those that didn’t, and help develop more effective strategies for the future. PR measurement can also help prove and justify investment, something that’s even more important now that, according to the recent Global Comms Report, 47% of comms leaders now report directly to the CEO. But where do you begin if you’re new to all things measurement? Cision’s recent Measurement 101 webinar, led by Insight Directors Camille Rollason and Alex Alsworth, provided an introductory look at best practices and how to make sense of audiences and data. During the panel they surveyed webinar attendees to get a sense of the challenges they face in obtaining budgets for earned campaigns and which parts of the measurement journey they find hardest to accomplish. See below for the poll results: The discussion also included an audience Q&A (with the questions from the webinar answered below), but with time pressing Camille and Alex weren’t able to answer all the queries. They took the opportunity to answer some of the additional questions below to provide a handy measurement FAQ. Where should you start if you’ve never had a measurement programme before? Alex: I think key is to start simple. Especially if you need internal buy-in. Not every measurement programme needs to be multifaceted and drilling into every bit of minutiae. Set some simple, informed KPIs for yourself – test learn and progress. If you don’t have a baseline to begin with consider some smaller pieces of work to develop that context. Either looking at your own averages and outputs or the conversations around key competitors, the wider industry and share of voice. Setting that context yourself around how you’re doing compared to others can be an effective, simple way of setting the scene. From that simple start you can go on a bit of a journey, take your stakeholders with you and gradually increase the complexity and scope of what you’re trying to evaluate. Think about building around a framework, really ensure you’re planning ahead, you’ve had the right conversations and make sure you’re getting what you need out of it. How do you measure a competitor's share of volume, reach, and tonality – especially in a very niche market? Camille: It's interesting that the question was posed was particularly for a niche market. Maybe I'm taking too literally, but it should be possible, even with just two organisations to measure share voice. Indeed, it can be hard to crawl the coverage if it’s particularly niche. But I think the key thing with share of voice, it shouldn’t be taken too simply by volume or volume + readership. Smart share of voice measurement is important, considering things like prominence for example. You may have a smaller share of voice compared to an industry peer, but maybe you’re landing almost 100% headline articles. That’s not necessarily the best job but it says something. Volume shouldn’t be taken in isolation when it comes to share of voice. Don’t think too obsessively about your place with a share of voice chart: I think the importance of measuring really comes down to what are others doing differently as opposed to the competitive angle. There’s so much more to it than whether a share of voice is growing or declining. How does the advent of AI help best practice evaluation? Alex: I don’t think AI is going to replace that kind of evaluation and insight [around] interpreting results. It may increase speed, it may increase productivity so I think we should be using it as a resource to speed up our work and to give ourselves more time to do more critical evaluation. In terms of what I I'm hoping we can use it for, it’s to use our resources and time as well as possible. What are the biggest risks associated with not measuring? Camille: The attitude of putting something out there and hoping for the best is the equivalent of wandering around in the dark. It's great to get a grasp of how your coverage is landing, just to have some idea of awareness. To put it a bit more concretely I think measurement is extremely key for the making different choices outcome. If, say, you have a hunch or assumption that this topic is the biggest in your industry, and you need to be a part of it: if you don’t measure and just hope for the best, you’ll never know if it worked or not. You might also not be aware that there’s another topic in the industry that’s growing, or you might not be aware that whatever messaging you’re putting out is not landing at all or landing terribly. Month in month out it’s just a shot in the dark. What are some alternatives to AVE, especially for clients that are very focused on financial results of coverage? How would you suggest re-orienting those clients' expectations? Camille: AVEs are limited as a measure, as they don’t account for qualitative considerations such as sentiment, prominence and message delivery. With those reasons in mind, it’s best to think about a more nuanced capturing of the prominence or impact of coverage, or measuring outcomes like a survey, shares or social engagement. Finally, real PR value is not all in sales. Encourage your clients to think about the big picture - changing consumer behaviours in the long-term – rather than viewing coverage as just a potential one-off boost to sales. My clients used to say that Gen Z doesn't consume traditional media outlets and tends to avoid investing in PR. Instead, they prefer measuring influencers by conversion rather than relying on media outlets. What's your point of view about this? Camille: There is indeed a changing media landscape – print down, online up, subscriptions waning. Gen Z as an audience in the UK spend 77 minutes more than average on social media, and over-index heavily on brand discovery though celebrity endorsement, blogs, vlogs and social (according to Global Web Index data). People tend to 'age up' to an interest in news and current affairs as they get older, and it's always been that way. However, the sheer weight of time that the typical Gen Z consumer spends online means the visibility of earned media coverage (particularly via social media shares) remains exceptionally strong. In fact, higher percentages of Gen Z consumers report seeing content from outlets such as the CNN, BBC News and even The New York Times in the last month than their Gen Y counterparts. The key thing is that the content is punchy, stands out and demands a click - because that age group probably won't go hunting for it themselves. Traditional and social must also be measured alongside one another to get the full picture. Media outlets and their value isn't going away any time soon. Long form is where we still capture that detail, while social serves a different purpose. Aligning measurement against both is key, regardless of generational view. How do we realistically measure reach and impact of digital coverage? I have had push back on the monthly unique users model and have been asked to report a more 'realistic' view - is that looking at daily figures or would you suggest another approach? Alex: Like any ‘opportunity to see’ metric, reach or readership figures will always produce high numbers and it’s important to set context and expectations when interpreting these results. It’s often most useful when used over time and in context to track rise and fall rather than taking numbers as gospel. Even if it’s not ‘realistic’, using reach can still provide a useful weighting to analysis when exploring which media are most impactful. Unique Visitors Daily (UVD) is a potential alternative to UVM if you are concerned about over-inflated numbers. These will still be large, but in a lot of cases are more reflective of the audiences, particularly for quick turn-around, high volume news sites where stories are less likely to stay front and centre for long. Beyond that in terms of refining, anything you can do to evaluate a ‘probability to see’, using elements such as mention prominence, headline presence, or other impact measures like this, can help add some clout to findings. It’s also important to consider a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis. How do you balance understanding your audience with acknowledging that PR sits at the top of the marketing funnel? Alex: The right messaging and positioning can affect brand reputation and visibility over time, even if not directly linked or attributable to a purchase. These long-term awareness considerations are important. Your output and messaging should still be shaped towards and informed by your potential and target audiences and what you are looking to achieve, so starting on the right foot is vital. It’s crucial to work within a framework that acknowledges your earned media efforts in the context of wider activities in Paid, Owned, Shared and their impact on the overall marketing funnel. PR evaluation cannot answer all those questions. Ready to see how Cision Insights can help transform your communications strategy? Schedule a consultation with one of our experts today.
What is Media Monitoring? Definitions, Examples and Benefits
Keeping Ahead of the Curve: Understanding Media Monitoring Knowing what people think and feel about your brand is invaluable, and media monitoring can help do just that. Media monitoring enables strategic communications and marketing teams stay informed about what people say about their company, products, services or competitors and respond to that feedback more effectively. In a way, it allows you to be the proverbial fly on the wall. While traditional media is still a powerful marketing tool, new media, especially social media, is where people are learning about brands and being swayed by them. According to a recent survey, 44% of consumers turn to social media ads to inform their purchasing decisions, compared to just 13% via traditional television advertising. Given the sheer volume of content generated by various media platforms, from news articles and blogs to online reviews and social media posts (5 billion Snapchat videos and photos are shared daily), it can seem impossible to keep track of the conversations about your brand. But fear not: This article will break down how media monitoring can help you track and understand the most important conversations to your brand’s reputation and your business’s bottom line. What is Media Monitoring? Media monitoring refers to tracking, analyzing and measuring various media channels. These channels can include traditional media (think newsprint, magazines, radio and television) and digital media (web-based applications—which is where most of us spend our time these days). Analyzing the data from these sources enables you to understand everything from public perception to the growing trends in your industry. Now that we know what media monitoring is, let’s dive into the different types: Social Media Monitoring Social media monitoring involves tracking mentions, comments and shares of your brand, product or service across various social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and TikTok. By monitoring social media channels, you can respond to customer feedback, understand audience sentiment around your brand, identify trends and respond to them effectively. While social media can be your best friend when it comes to helping you connect with your audience, it can quickly become your worst enemy. If your social media posts come across as tone-deaf or insensitive, or your response to criticism is too late or inappropriate, you risk people viewing your brand and its product negatively. Online Reputation Management Bad news travels fast. No matter how great your business or product is, at some point, you will have to deal with negative online customer comments that could harm your brand's reputation. Online reputation management involves monitoring and managing the online reputation of a brand or individual. This includes tracking reviews, comments and ratings on various review sites, such as Yelp or Google, and addressing negative feedback. Like social media marketing, how you respond (and how quickly that response comes) is key. A thoughtful, timely response can turn a negative review into a positive one; a poorly constructed or inauthentic response (or no response at all) can result in a customer doubling down on their grievances. News Monitoring News monitoring involves tracking mentions of a brand, product or service in traditional media, such as newspapers, magazines and television news. By monitoring information, businesses can stay informed about their industry trends and competitors. Moreover, news monitoring allows you to identify Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) that you can leverage to promote your brand in a more positive light. Competitor Monitoring Media monitoring tools aren't just for tracking how people feel about your brand; you can also use them to see what the public thinks about your top rivals. Competitor monitoring involves tracking competitors' media mentions and activities to identify their strengths and weaknesses and inform your business strategy. Crisis Management As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours, and the faster you can respond to negative press with the right message, the better. Crisis management involves monitoring media channels to detect and respond to negative feedback or crises, such as product recalls, data breaches or negative reviews. By monitoring media channels, businesses can immediately mitigate potential damage to their reputation. Why is Media Monitoring Important? Don Draper, one of the pop culture’s most famous marketing geniuses, said, “If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation.” While the “Mad Men” character may be fictional, the advice is very real. Media Monitoring allows you to take charge of the conversation and steer it in the direction that helps benefit your brand. With the proliferation of digital media channels, including social media, review sites and online forums, conversations about your brand can happen anywhere, anytime. Media monitoring allows you to track these conversations and gather valuable insights into what people say about your brand and competitors. Moreover, media monitoring allows you to track the effectiveness of your PR or marketing campaigns, automate reporting against priority success metrics, and make data-driven decisions to improve your overall marketing communications strategy. Understanding Your Audience Ever gotten a banner ad for a product you would never use in your life? Media monitoring can help you avoid being “that brand.” One of the most significant benefits of media monitoring is a deeper understanding of your audience. You can learn more about your customers' needs, preferences and pain points by tracking conversations on social media and review sites. You can see what topics and messaging resonate with them and adjust your marketing and targeting strategy accordingly. According to a Yieldify study, 75% of customers agreed they are more likely to buy from brands that offer a personalized experience, and 97% of customers, as noted by Salesforce, saw a rise in business outcomes as a result of increased personalization. Moreover, media monitoring allows you to identify influencers in your industry who are talking about your brand or products and have a personal connection with your best customers. These influencers can be powerful allies in spreading the word about your brand, so building relationships with them is essential. Improving Your Brand Reputation Benjamin Franklin once said, "It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it." By tracking mentions of your brand online, you can quickly identify negative comments or reviews and respond appropriately. A well-crafted and quick response to negative feedback can help mitigate the damage to your brand's reputation and show your customers that you value their feedback. Identifying Industry Trends and Opportunities No matter how great your brand or product is, you must continuously evolve to stay fresh and competitive in your industry. But, as Coca-Cola learned the hard way, you can’t just change for change's sake, especially when your customers have a very strong connection with your brand. Media monitoring lets you not only see how your brand message is currently resonating with the public, but also stay on top of industry trends and identify new opportunities to gain a competitive edge. For example, if you notice that your new product is setting the internet abuzz, you can learn from people’s posts why it’s such a hit and how you can further capitalize on this trend for future developments. You can also leverage media monitoring to identify potential partnerships or collaborations with other businesses in your industry. According to research from consumer review site Visual Objects, 71% of consumers enjoy co-branding partnerships. Media monitoring tools can help you pinpoint opportunities to collaborate and expand your reach to your target audience by tracking mentions of your brand with other companies, KOLs, and industry influencers. Tracking Your Competitors Do you want to know how the competition is doing and what products of theirs are a success? You don't have to wait for industry reports to get the tea. Monitoring your competitors' online mentions gives you valuable insights into their strategy, allowing you to adjust yours accordingly. You can also identify potential weaknesses in their approach and capitalize on them to gain an advantage in the marketplace. These monitoring tools also allow you to track your competitors' sentiment and reputation. By analyzing this data, you can identify areas where they are weak and adjust your strategy to capitalize on those weaknesses or develop a product that addresses a customer need your competition doesn't. Media monitoring is a critical tool if you want to stay ahead of the curve in today's fast-paced digital world. By tracking conversations online, you can gain valuable insights into your customer's needs and preferences, identify industry trends and opportunities, manage your brand reputation, and stay competitive. Respond to Crisis Sometimes even our best efforts can fall flat. As powerful as digital media is for promoting your brand, it can be your worst enemy if you trip up. Crisis management is an essential aspect of media monitoring. In today's lightning-speed digital world, negative comments or reviews can spread quickly and damage your brand's reputation. You may recall the backlash over Pepsi's ad featuring Kendall Jenner, which tried to mirror the Black Lives Matter movement. The $5 million ad was ridiculed on various social channels and news forums for being tone-deaf and opportunistic, forcing the company to pull the spot and issue a groveling apology. But even smaller campaigns and social media blasts can take on a life of their own and go in directions you never predicted. Media monitoring lets you quickly identify potential issues and respond appropriately to soften the blow. While in some cases, it can be best to let the outcry die down, responding to negative feedback shows your customers you value their input and are committed to improving. Additionally, media monitoring allows you to leverage social listening and social media monitoring tools to track the spread of negative comments or reviews and adjust your messaging to better align with your brand’s overall strategy. Frequently Asked Questions Why is media monitoring important for businesses? Media monitoring is crucial for businesses because it allows them to stay informed about their online presence and the conversations happening about their brand. By understanding public perception and sentiment, businesses can improve their products or services, provide better customer service, and address negative feedback or issues in real time. Media monitoring also helps companies stay ahead of industry trends and track their competitors' activities, providing a competitive advantage. What are the types of media monitoring? Media monitoring encompasses various types of tracking and analysis across traditional and digital media to understand public perception, sentiment and trends about a brand, company, product or service. Some examples of media monitoring include social media monitoring, online reputation management, news monitoring, competitor monitoring and crisis management. Each type provides unique insights and benefits for businesses to improve their online presence, provide better customer service and stay ahead of competitors. How does news monitoring help businesses? We’ve talked a lot about monitoring new media, but what about traditional media? You may wonder if it’s worth your time to track what the local news and other traditional media outlets have to say. Well, in fact, it is. A 2022 survey revealed that the leading offline news source used in the U.S. was local television news. Monitoring news coverage is an effective way to stay updated on industry trends, competitors and brand and product mentions in traditional media such as newspapers and TV news. Moreover, news monitoring allows you to respond quickly to any negative news or public relations crises, so you can help mitigate any potential damage to your brand’sreputation. Cision's media monitoring tools can provide businesses with valuable insights and help them stay ahead of their competition and better understand all media coverage concerning their brand. What are the best media monitoring tools? With so many tools out there, there is no ‘one size fits all’ monitoring tool. To help you choose the right platform for your team’s unique goals and needs, check out The Ultimate Media Monitoring Buyer's Guide. Final Thoughts Seeing as how one tweet, headline or viral video can change the sentiment of your brand, media monitoring needs to be an essential part of your brand communications strategy. By carefully tracking and analyzing various media channels, you can gain valuable insights into public perception, sentiment and trends that matter to your brand. The ability to automate data collection across multiple media channels and create meaningful dashboards that surface critical KPI's and success metrics is essential for marketing, communications and PR teams that want to make data-driven decisions. Long gone are the days of the market research panels. Today, customers have no problem telling you what they think of your brand, but you need a platform to find out what they are saying and where they are saying it. With the right monitoring tools and strategies, you can proactively stay ahead of industry trends, closely monitor your competitor's activities and manage crises with confidence. Find out why leading companies rely on Cision’s media monitoring platform – for everything from social media monitoring to crisis management – to enhance their online presence, brand reputation, and audience engagement. Learn more today.
Communication Lessons from Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa
“We create the world we want,” said Maria Ressa, the Filipino-American founder and CEO of the news website Rappler, upon accepting the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize for championing freedom of expression and speaking truth to power. The consummate communicator, Ressa spoke with clarity, sincerity and humility about how her own life experience fuels her mission to advocate for democratic values in her career. Professional storytellers of all stripes—journalists, public relations and communications leaders, copywriters—may follow her example in the quest to create positive impact through authenticity and purpose. Ressa’s personal story includes immigrating to the U.S. in her childhood and returning to the Philippines on a Fulbright Fellowship as a Princeton graduate to study political theater. She honed her skills as a leader and communicator as the CNN bureau chief in Manila and then Jakarta, covering numerous international conflicts. After nearly 20 years at CNN, in the early 2000s, she created a Facebook page called Move.PH, which evolved into the vital news source Rappler in 2012. She positioned the organization to be tenacious in reporting on the violent Philippine drug war and critiquing fake news and propaganda. The strides Ressa has made in debunking propaganda and fake news in her native Philippines have been recognized on a global level, including the distinction of being one of Time Magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2018. As with a young Queen Elizabeth addressing the British people during World War II and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeking international support for Ukraine’s independence, the stakes for Maria Ressa are extraordinarily high. She understands how to communicate that freedom of the press, along with truth and democracy, are worth defending and that doing so is critical to securing a stable future for humanity. While not all institutional or business goals have such consequential geopolitical implications, communications industry professionals can learn a lot from Ressa, especially when considering how best to articulate an organization’s purpose and greater societal contributions. Here are five ways communications professionals can model Maria Ressa’s communication practices. Follow the Data Ressa knows the dangerous impact social media can have on communities. Her media organization, Rappler, exposed ways that supporters of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte were using Facebook to manipulate public opinion while his administration carried out a murderous war on drugs in the Philippines. She received death threats on social media and faced multiple arrest warrants as a result. Social media attacks “are meant to pound you into silence,” she later told PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff. But Ressa had a weapon with which to fight back: inarguable facts. “You look at the data,” she said. “That started something different for us [at Rappler]. It was investigative journalism.” Rappler and Ressa used data to show how fake news, disinformation (“a lie seeded for purpose,” as she has described it), empty viral phraseology, “memes” and various other propaganda were being weaponized to make people skeptical of things they saw, heard and read. It’s “insidious manipulation,” she said. “The data proves it. I lean on the facts. It’s evidence-based.” The takeaway: When it comes to data, having a clear picture of the marketplace of ideas is critical for understanding the health of your brand and how you stack up against the competition at any given time. With data, strategic and informed decisions can be made to focus investment, drive successful campaigns that reach key stakeholders and deliver positive results. Consider, too, how persuasive data is when included in your press releases, consumer-facing campaigns, investor relations materials and other content that you produce. "YOU LOOK AT THE DATA. THAT STARTED SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR US [AT RAPPLER]. IT WAS INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM." Always Be Prepared “If you plan ahead, and you embrace your fear, then everything else is OK,” Ressa explained in an interview where she spoke about how she grapples with the pressures of being targeted by the government and by online trolls. She said that before leading a team of journalists into a conflict zone: “I would lay out the worst case and I would prepare for that worst case. Then I would be ready, and I could improvise in the moment no matter what happened.” Challenges to herself and her brand bolstered Ressa’s confidence and compelled her to stand her ground. “The more I was attacked for my journalism, the more resolute I became,” she said in her Nobel Prize acceptance speech. “I had first-hand evidence of abuse of power. What was meant to intimidate me and Rappler only strengthened us.” And she remained strong because she had a clear understanding of where her and her company’s values lay, and that led her to always look—and plan—ahead. The takeaway: While most PR and communications professionals won’t ever find themselves in such life-threatening situations, the brands they serve can be faced with a death by a thousand cuts—especially in social media. Her advice to plan for every possibility is a strategy every public relations team should adopt to help ensure ownership of their brand story. Say It Like It Is It’s important to “say it like it is,” as Ressa advises. Tell your story truthfully and consider the individual people who make up the segments you’re addressing. This authentic person-to-person way of thinking about communication will be more engaging to audiences that matter. Trying to game an algorithm or buy followers won’t cut it anymore. Ressa understands that the quality of engagement matters more than sheer quantity. “We’re responsible for our area of influence,” she has said. “And if we, each in our area of influence, live our values then we can connect…[all] these areas of influence. We have to find a new way of creating civic engagement in an age of exponential lies.” As Ressa says, “The immense openness and empathy that’s there—we need to bring this back into the virtual world.” The takeaway: Remember that you’re speaking to humans—not numbers on a dashboard or columns of demographic targets or marketing personas. Consider how the words you use in the messages you create might resonate emotionally and intellectually on an individual, personal level. Tell Stories That Resonate When asked about the importance of journalism and the quality of information for the #HoldTheLine coalition—a nonprofit group formed to defend Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines—celebrated economist Joseph Stiglitz said, “You have to disseminate [information] in a way that people understand.” Eschewing clickbait headlines, Ressa and the journalists at Rappler break down complex political and social issues and make them more understandable to the general public. The takeaway: Capitalizing on content you create for one audience by sharing it with another may save some time, but customizing your messaging so it speaks directly to different constituencies will have a greater impact. Consider vocabulary, voice and company or product values for each segment in your campaign. For corporate communications professionals responsible for speechwriting, Ressa’s 2021 address to the Nobel Committee is a master class in oration. She weaves personal information and popular culture with historic facts, enumerates and explains key points that lead to her conclusion and call to action and consistently references her foundational values. "IF YOU PLAN AHEAD, AND YOU EMBRACE YOUR FEAR, THEN EVERYTHING ELSE IS OK." Harness the Power of Digital Channels When thinking about launching Rappler in the Philippines, Ressa knew that “the very things that made legacy news organizations successful were the very reasons why they could not succeed in the digital age,” as she recalled in that same NPR interview. “It was just, you know, you’re too caught up in legacy systems.” She and her news organization have relied strategically on digital tools for information gathering and reporting, as well as to reach diverse audiences in the formats that suit them. With the vast majority of Rappler’s audience active on Facebook, that’s one platform that was critical to the distribution of national news. It’s notable that she and Rappler are active in the same channels that feature propaganda and misinformation (the “competition”). By branching out across all media—digital, social and legacy—Ressa has cultivated an audience interested in facts-first journalism (the “product”). The takeaway: Whether traditional channels of communication, such as network news, public appearances or books, or new media, such as social content, podcasts or e-newsletters, all technologies should remain on the table as long as they enable connection with audiences that matter to your brand. "YOU NEED TO ACTUALLY LIVE YOUR VALUES WHEN IT MATTERS THE MOST, NOT WHEN IT’S CONVENIENT." Be Consistent Perhaps the greatest takeaway from observing Maria Ressa exemplary mastery of communication is consistency of focus on her values. For Ressa, it’s democracy and freedom of the press—two matters that feature prominently on her personal Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and in her public addresses. As she said in her Salant Lecture on Freedom of the Press in 2021, “You need to actually live your values when it matters the most, not when it’s convenient.” Brands and organizations must consistently walk the talk—especially when it comes to DEI, ESG or other values-based statements they make. Authenticity matters, above all else. And with solid data and intelligent analysis, proper planning to prevent or stave off a crisis, clear and consistent messaging that speaks to human psychographics and demographics, customized campaigns, a diverse portfolio of communication channels and the infusion of values and purpose, one can emulate Maria Ressa, a master of communications.
Creating impactful content requires data, insight, and experience - Key takeaways from the Comms Connect Event in Singapore
Comms Connect Singapore 2023 took place on a rainy afternoon on 22nd June 2023, which saw a heartening turnout of communications professionals from diverse backgrounds. The high spirits of our esteemed guest speakers and audience members, which translated to a thought-provoking panel discussion proved that the rain was no damper on the event. Comms Connect provides an opportunity for strategic communicators to mingle and connect (of course). But, most importantly, it seeks to share the wisdom of experts on how one can make, monitor and measure impact effectively in the communications industry, something which our speakers had so graciously contributed to the event. Below, you will find a summary of some of the pointers raised and discussed at the event. Speaker 1: Ronald Khay, Manager of Media Monitoring & Insights at Cision After introductions were made, Cision PR Newswire’s Ronald kicked things off with his take on the topic “Monitor & Analyze Campaign Effectiveness with Valuable Insights.” In his segment, Ronald covered extensively on the communicator’s funnel and its impacts, which could be further categorized into brand, digital, and revenue. Some of the key points that Ronald mentioned were, Set clear objectives to aid in identifying key metrics Look into the details and at the bigger picture at suitable times to spot trends and behaviors Utilize technology to scale to accomplish tasks more efficiently To find out how we helped some of the world’s biggest brands monitor, optimize, and exceed their communication objectives, contact us now. Speaker 2: Julia Wei, Chief Executive Officer at Edelman Singapore Who better to share how one can make an impact by creating impactful content for the right audience at the right time than Julia, CEO of Edelman Singapore, the world’s largest independent communications agency? [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2084"] Julia Wei, CEO of Edelman Singapore[/caption] Julia gave an electrifying presentation, which almost caused her electric blue slides to pale in comparison as she delved into the three shifts that were required to make impactful content. Organization voice to Brand voice Being clear on your brand voice bolsters authenticity, clarity, consistency, creativity, and distinctiveness. Amplified on channel to Designed for channel Short-form videos trend with the highest ROI. We should earn attention by designing content to interact with or break the channel format. Static brand to Active brand Active brands build their content around audience behaviors. Not only are they built differently, but they are also agile in nature to power content at every speed. Speaker 3: Vijay Anand, Editor-in-Chief of Hardware Zone at SPH Media Also touching on the theme of making impact, Vijay from Hardware Zone described how we can embrace changes and focus on priorities. These days, we are flooded with tons of content all the time, so much so that many get buried and never see the light of day. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2076"] Vijay Anand, Editor-in-Chief of Hardware Zone at SPH Media[/caption] Thankfully, Vijay had the answer to the most important question – How does one catch a writer’s attention? by sharing a writer’s consideration pipeline. Apart from that, Vijay also emphasized the importance of Building relationships and trust with the publication and editorial team. Catering events that will appeal to the media. Including certain elements that any good pitch would have. Creating relevance, tailoring the pitch to the publication, and its suitability to the publication is important. Speaker 4: Vishakha Choudhary, Global Public Relations Associate at WEMIX Finally, we had Vishaka covering measuring impact, how we can connect the output to the outcome, and drawing actionable insights from data. covered many aspects such as quantity vs quality when it comes to PR monitoring measurement, achieving value-driven impact, and case studies. If there is one thing that we should away with from Vishakha’s presentation, it would have to be the measurement cheat sheet, which contains the following pointers, Set the context Link financials Engage in cross-functional collaboration Conduct short-term and long-term evaluations Simplify the data [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2090"] Panel discussion[/caption] After our speakers’ compelling presentations, our audience members had a chance to raise their burning questions in our panel discussion. Some interesting questions such as the following, were posed to our speakers. With the increasing number comms leader getting a seat at the C-suite table, what do you think our audience here who are aiming to achieve this should do today? From the media's perspective, what are the top 3 requirements of an outstanding press release? Do you think these requirements vary from industry to industry? If so, can you list a few examples? Final words Before goodbyes were said, the attendees mingled and connected with one another, and perhaps even expanded their LinkedIn following! Announcements of our lucky draw winners were also held during our networking cocktail session. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="2308"] Congrats Daniel for winning the grand prize in our lucky draw![/caption] Overall, we hope that all attendees and guest speakers found this event engaging, informative and enjoyable, as much as we had fun putting this event together. Indeed, Comms Connect Singapore 2023 might have come to an end, but this event series has only just begun! Next up, our Comms Connect series will be taking place in Indonesia on 12th Jul and Vietnam on 26th Jul 2023. Sign up today to avoid disappointment as slots are limited!
You Know More About AI in Comms Than You May Think
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might seem like an exciting new technology in 2023 thanks to the emergence of generative tools like ChatGPT, but in truth we’ve been living with it for some time. Once a product of science fiction writers and Hollywood epics – think the near-future Los Angeles in Her or Tony Stark's computer J.A.R.V.I.S. from the Marvel films – AI is firmly and productively a part of our everyday lives. In fact, it’s probably in many more places than you realize. Machine learning algorithms, the method by which AI systems respond to user input and perform tasks, are the foundation of smart home tech like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri voice assistants. The FaceID function you use to unlock your smartphone is AI. The Netflix recommendation engine that suggests your next series binge is also AI. All of this technology around us is powered by artificial intelligence which quickly produces seemingly intelligent outputs because it’s been trained on large amounts of data. How the Comms World Uses AI Today What about the world of PR and communications? It’s probably no surprise to learn that the industry has been using AI (long before the arrival of ChatGPT) in some form for a while, too. Sentiment analysis, for example, which has been present in the comms space for over a decade, is underpinned by natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. These two subsets of AI are used to understand the emotions expressed in text and classify them as positive, negative or neutral. It should be noted, however, that sentiment models analyze the words people use to share their opinions, but can't account for the context in which they are used. New AI-driven methodologies have the potential to evolve and help introduce that all-important context element. At Cision we call this “Stance,” and you can learn more about it by watching our webinar, AI and the Future of Comms Teams, or reading the recap of the webinar. So, while there has been a leap in the quality of this branch of AI, the capability of a machine to understand human language is not new. What makes it feel new, however, is that the PR and communications industry is one that remains largely text-based – so the rise of ChatGPT, built on a large language model (LLM) to interact with humans in a conversational way, has opened up possibilities for communicators to shape content with AI as a credible creative partner. As Cision Executive Director of AI Strategy Antony Cousins noted recently, the advancement and adoption of LLMs in 2023 represents “a technological leap comparable to the advent of social media or the internet itself.” AI has long had the potential to unlock clarity and speed across all the core workflows of PR and communications professionals – and now is an exciting time in the technology’s development for comms, but even with the latest developments, AI isn’t a catch-all solution, or a replacement for people in the workforce. It lacks genuine creativity and the ability to understand nuances or “read between the lines” of a problem the way a human would. An AI-based tool can quickly and precisely answer the specific question it is asked, but it’s also limited by the question or prompt. From that perspective, think of it as a work co-pilot that can help take care of time-consuming grunt work and enable you to focus on those higher value opportunities that matter most to your brand. Building on AI’s Potential At its core, AI is helping to do a lot of the work that humans would do, but at speed and scale (and in some cases, it's happening in the tools you use right now). With the help of AI and automation, many of the comms professional's routine tasks now take far less time than before. Here are four areas you'll be familiar with and how AI raises the bar: Analyzing and understanding what people are saying about your brand, getting to grips with the emotional tone in a piece of text, and tracking it across multiple channels like social media, news articles or press releases, are vital for comms teams. As we discussed earlier, that's sentiment analysis, which uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to process this information at speed and deliver a verdict. Reading articles to understand their relevance, then filtering and sorting them before supplying them to clients is a process AI can complete rapidly. Think of this as the AI mimicking human behavior, helping to accomplish a task that would normally be viewed as mundane and time-consuming. Sifting through news sources to create condensed versions of multiple articles and generating summaries of social media conversations and emerging trends can be aided with summarization AI. This is particularly useful for comms teams in the creation of media coverage briefings. Creating content, whether that's an article, an image for a social media post, or a press release, can now be streamlined and sped up thanks to generative AI. By leveraging technology like ChatGPT and DALLE-2, comms and PR teams can get past the blank page quickly and find new ways to engage with their target audiences. One other thing that hasn’t changed since we started using AI is that we still need a large amount of data to train these technologies and evaluate their output. For example, to train a model to generate press releases, you need a lot of them. “I think our earliest press release on record was delivered on horseback,” said Cousins in the recent AI webinar. “So in terms of the amount of data that we’ve got, which is where a lot of the competition in this space happens, we obviously have a lot of potential.” "AI isn't a catch-all solution or a replacement for people in the workplace. It lacks genuine creativity and the ability to understand nuances or "read between the lines" of a problem the way a human would." How Cision Uses AI With our expert view to improving how comms professionals work, all of the above AI use cases are already integrated within Cision’s platforms and services. Moving forward, development and delivery of our new capabilities will be carried out responsibly, with data privacy and ethical considerations a fundamental part of how models are trained and applied. This goes beyond being responsible just for ourselves – we understand the risks that brands (and our customers) face to equity and valuation if they're not implementing technology safely and in the right way. “Our intention has never been to be the first getting [new AI products] out. We don’t want to take ChatGPT, [put] a user interface on it and say we’ve got a press release generator. We want to make sure that what we’re doing is right and it works for the breadth of our customers and their audiences,” said Cousins. “We have to make sure this works for everybody and that’s a core tenet of our approach to developing responsible AI.” Starting this year and into 2024, Cision will bring new propriety AI-powered capabilities to market: Risk Score: Powered by 17 NLP models, this real-time insight feature will provide clarity and context to earned media mentions, while uncovering potential risks they pose to your organisation. These signals could be indicators of racism, sexism, hate speech, fake news, humor and multiple dimensions of emotion. Stance: Our next generation of sentiment models, enabling automated analysis of consumer sentiment and intent in context and at scale. Narrative monitoring: A combination of AI technologies that can identify similar opinions in written text across social and traditional media and group them together with a single statement to explain their shared meaning. Combined with content scoring, this technology can give early warning of harmful narratives emerging about brands. Generative press release tool: A press release generator to create optimized press releases. We will combine this with our years of data collection on what makes an effective press release to bring industry-leading generative text capabilities. The AI that Cision develops is vitally important to the clients and brands we serve. Many make decisions based on the guidance we provide, and as AI begins to automate these insights, they will become increasingly important for all of us. With that in mind, we are building AI to empower and elevate our users to do more, faster and do it better while ensuring that risks are understood and transparently mitigated. Remember, this isn’t new, you’ve been using it for years, but it’s now more capable and relevant than it’s ever been.
Harnessing the Power of AI for PR and Strategic Communications
Lessons from ‘AI and the Future of Comms Teams’ While the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) technology has many people needing more certainty about its implications for the future, we at Cision know PR and comms professionals can work with AI to craft more satisfying outputs, better understand consumers and empower their teams. During a recent webinar, experts from various areas of Cision came together to discuss the potential impact of AI on PR and strategic communications teams and how they can navigate it. Antony Cousins, Cision’s Executive Director of AI Strategy; Chelsea Mirkin, SVP of Insights Consulting at Cision; Alistair Wheate, Senior Solutions Strategist at Brandwatch; and Joseph Rhoton, Senior Strategy Director at PR Newswire, provided a variety of perspectives on issues surrounding AI, including how human guidance and AI technology can combine to refine communications efforts, the benefits of sharing human responsibilities with technology, and the solutions available to help with the above. The webinar is now available to watch on demand. If you are short on time, we’ve provided three main takeaways on how PR and comms professionals can work with AI to empower the future of strategic communications. Lesson 1: Unlock Amazing Potential With Narrative Analysis To illustrate AI’s potential to get to the deeper meaning behind traditional and social media content to create strategic narratives for your brand, Cousins used a recent example from a study gathering social and traditional media mentions of COVID-19 vaccines. One of the challenges with studying COVID using sentiment analysis is that overall sentiment is so low, it’s hard to derive any meaningful insights from it. Cousins said applying a new ‘Stance’ model can help get to the deeper narrative around COVID vaccines. Stance is an evolution of sentiment that provides a more accurate narrative of the conversation around brands or topics. “The challenge when analyzing anything to do with COVID…is that the sentiment was so generally low, it was hard to get decent insights from it,” Cousins explained. “Stance asks a specific question of this content – not just ‘Are these words positive, negative or neutral?’ but ‘Are they positive, negative or neutral toward an overall topic?’” Using the example of the false narrative that was playing out on social media around COVID vaccines and their likelihood to cause death, Cousins showed how it wasn’t until a tweet went viral that this false narrative caught fire and made its way into traditional media. For brands, you don’t have to wait until a false narrative about your brand reaches an influencer or reaches a traditional media outlet. “The time to act is as soon as you identify it,” Cousins said. “The challenge is, in a large amount of content, how do you identify that harmful narrative? And that's where AI comes in…AI is the only way to identify that content early enough to do something about it.” As PR and comms teams gear up for what will likely be another wild election season, combatting misinformation will be critical. Cision’s narrative analysis technology, which will be released later this year, is designed to help brands identify misinformation or harmful information early enough to act on it effectively Lesson 2: Consider AI Another Stakeholder Category It won’t be long before communications professionals need to think about AI much the same way they already think about consumers, employees, analysts, policymakers, and other stakeholders. As more consumers rely on AI for information, AI’s impact on brand perception will be significant, because AI is consuming all the information that is out there about your brand. “All of that earned media content that you're working so hard as a comms professional to get out there and all that news coverage about your brand, all those social media conversations, those blogs, the AI is gobbling all of that up, it's reading it all,” said Wheat. “And then it's absorbing that and using that to then make recommendations.” Thus, understanding what AI “thinks” about your business or what it’s saying when a consumer asks questions or asks for recommendations is essential to stay ahead of the curve. Perhaps even more important for communications teams will be understanding why AI is saying certain things about your brand, a capability that companies like Cision are actively working on. “A big part of what companies like ours are going to be doing…is helping to try and untangle the AI narrative, and trying to figure out why the AI is saying certain things. Wheate said. Lesson 3: The Human Touch Still Matters One of the biggest questions and concerns around AI is its potential to replace humans in various occupations. According to Cousins, fears of AI replacing the human workforce can be eased by hiring and training people to work in tandem with the technology. The change for the next generation of the workforce is we need to make sure we're still hiring those folks,” he said. “They are the future of the business, and we need to really partner with them, because we need to make sure they understand the difference between good content and great content. We can't just accept the output.” The complete impact on the workforce has yet to be discovered, but Mirkin believes AI presents an opportunity for even more data-driven communications. “The potential to lose control quickly and for brands to become politicized is really a major concern,” Mirkin said. “So if we think about that in the context of the content creation space, really knowing when the human touch makes a difference. We're hearing a lot of optimism about the potential to accelerate decision-making and add the potential to make space for creativity and innovation.” The Bottom Line AI is not set to replace human innovation but connect with it to unlock greater potential for communicators and accelerate workflows while maintaining the significance of the human touch and the need to understand narratives and cultural shifts. PR and communications teams could use AI to inform decisions, enrich content and extend their reach. Partnering with a team like Cision, with the expertise and technology to leverage this opportunity, will further position PR and comms teams for success. For the full conversation, watch the webinar. To learn more about how Cision is helping PR and communications teams navigate AI and other emerging technologies, speak with an expert.
Are APAC communicators maximizing the potential of earned media?
Whether at Tokyo’s Shibuya’s Crossing, standing in the face of Australia’s largest full-motion digital billboards in Melbourne, Victoria, or strolling along Orchard Road, one of Singapore’s most bustling streets, one thing is always looking back at you – Advertisements. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1120"] Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing surrounded by billboards[/caption] The question is, do consumers, like yourself, buy into these advertisements? The Asia-Pacific region accounts for the second-highest advertising spending worldwide at over 200 billion U.S. dollars per year, which leads to an incredibly high advertisement exposure rate. However, studies have shown that 3 out of 4 consumers avoid ads. As a consumer, how many times have you bought something after seeing an advert (paid media) vs reading a glowing review from trusted media (earned media)? Most probably, often enough, and rightfully so, we buy into earned media over paid media as earned media is the most effective form of communication. Although effective, earned media poses some drawbacks and might not be receiving sufficient media budget to reap its benefits. Earned media Challenges APAC communicators ranked the highest for the two earned media challenges surveyed – creating content that is effective and distributing content. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1120"] Fig 1 - Source: Global Comms Report 2023[/caption] Communicators in APAC also ranked the highest for continued over-reliance on media impressions. Communicators in Europe also had the same top choice for what is troubling them the most. Those in the States felt that aligning metrics to revenue or other vital business KPIs is their top struggle. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1120"] Fig 2 - Source: Global Comms Report 2023[/caption] Media Budget Allocation Communicators in APAC have been allocating less of their media budget than the global average for earned media. Communicators in APAC are also allocating more of their media budget to paid than earned media. The same pattern could be picked up by communicators in Europe but not in the States. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1120"] Fig 3 - Source: Global Comms Report 2023[/caption] Results when Investing in Earned Media In North America, survey results from a Demand Gen Report* revealed that nearly half of B2B marketers have increased their earned media spend over that past surveyed year. 61% of marketers have claimed to have expanded their use of earned media as part of their overall demand-generation efforts. The results? The increase in earned media efforts has proven effective for most B2B organizations, with 90% ranking their programs as somewhat (61%) or very (29%) effective at achieving their goals. Some of the performance goals they were supporting with earned media are, Driving pipeline (66%); Increasing revenue (50%); Improving the overall customer experience (41%); and Increasing retention and customer satisfaction (38%) If more convincing is needed, a survey of 500 European C-suites found that half of the executives are likely to read content from a recognized expert, while 47% look for content recommended by an influential figure in their industry. All these point to the need of prioritizing the usage of earned media in one’s communications strategy. Untapped Potential in Earned Media In conclusion, earned media is rapidly gaining traction and influencing consumers’ behaviors. With the success of B2B marketers in North America, who had shifted their budget and priority to earned media due to declining response rates from traditional investments in paid media, APAC communicators should also diversify their current marketing mix. They can do so by, Setting aside more budget to invest in earned media Integrating earned media strategies into more performance marketing plans Sourcing for tools to aid them in bolstering their earned media efforts, Cision Media Monitoring & Analytics, and Cision Insights Currently, APAC communicators are slightly behind in the earned media field when compared to their counterparts in Europe and the U.S., but with some guidance and with the right tools, APAC communicators could also be well on their way! Reach out to us to find out more about how our specially curated tools can aid you in maximizing the potential of earned media for your business.
Generative AI: Where Will It Take Us 10 Years From Now?
When we consider the future impact of generative AI and tools like ChatGPT, I always feel it’s necessary to do so from two perspectives: the technology itself and the people it will affect. You’ve no doubt come to this article to get a sense of where generative AI will take us over the next decade, but first it’s important to understand the journey we’ve been on with the technology until now. I’ve been working in artificial intelligence for 10 years, and back when I started, building AI was much, much harder. We didn’t have any automated tools, good quality datasets weren’t available, research was limited, people with the right skills were harder to find, it was a lot more expensive, the outputs were less predictable than they are today, believe it or not, and were even less trusted by people. Because of all these factors, it was also an incredibly difficult area to get investment in. But over those 10 years, companies like Google and Facebook were investing and sharing some of their results openly. Technologies like PyTorch and Hugging Face were super-critical in getting people into the AI space faster. More and more, companies started adopting these technologies and investing most notably with Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI, which led to a tipping point at the end of 2022: the arrival of ChatGPT. While a decade’s worth of time and money has brought us to where we are now, the only thing that period tells us about where we will be in 10 years’ time is that we will be exponentially further ahead, as all those problems I listed earlier are solved and investment in AI, specifically generative AI, is now skyrocketing. The number of new startups specialising in AI is going through the roof. Training AI needs data and according to Leftronic, 90% of the world’s data was generated within the past two years alone. The number of people working in AI is growing quickly (Gartner has predicted that AI will create 2.3 million job in the US). We’re at a point where you can go online right now and build yourself an AI app knowing nothing about AI, or even coding! With one hundred million users within two months of launch, we have ChatGPT to thank for AI breaking out into the mainstream. That too will cause us to jump ahead faster as the pre-trained large language models have gained the level of complexity required to be pretty good at a broad range of tasks, meaning more people, and different types of people are going to start using AI and thinking of new ways it can be applied. AI Is the Biggest Technological Leap Since Social Media This is not a drill. This isn’t a fad. This will not go away. For me personally, this is a technological leap comparable to the advent of social media or the internet itself. AI, like social media or the internet before it, will be life-changing and disruptive in ways we can’t yet begin to understand. What we do know about AI is that however quickly it advances, the human element remains critical. If you judge any creative content on four factors of speed, cost, basic quality (e.g. grammar, word count) and then that special component of true creativity (or “je ne sais quoi”), the bad news is a generative text tool like ChatGPT already has us beat on three of those four. We’ll never be faster, cheaper or better at hitting the basics than AI is right now. It’s an expert in every topic, generates text in seconds and doesn’t make typos. Our critical role, and competitive advantage, as humans is adding that truly creative and innovative spark. However, as ChatGPT is potentially already discovering the hidden deep structural patterns of human thought our advantage here is quickly eroding and, in a decade, will be wafer thin, if it exists at all. Sounds depressing. Or is it? Because regardless of how much better AI gets, it will still be limited by responding to our prompts. Purposefully exceeding the brief or explaining to the client (or a manager) why their question isn’t actually the right question… that’s where our human experience, creativity and insight are needed. That’s where our role will remain important. AI Natives are About to Enter the Workforce So what about the people it will affect? What will the ChatGPT-enabled workforce look like 10 years down the line? It’ll be made up of AI Natives. Right now, we have children about to head to university who are already using generative AI. Unless the education system fundamentally changes how children are assessed (something that isn’t going to happen quickly), then they are going to be using generative AI just to ‘get started’ on every single written assignment they have. They won’t have to face the terror of a flashing cursor on a blank page. ChatGPT is going to be the study partner that’ll always be there when they need them. The reality of the relationship between this generation and AI is going to be polar opposite of the cultural image the rest of us have grown up with, that dystopian vision of the Terminator films or HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. As they enter the workforce, their familiarity and comfort with AI tools will only accelerate the adoption and impact of AI in various industries and each of these people you hire will effectively be bringing a small team of interns with them, only in 10 years’ time, generative AI won’t be the quality of an intern, it will certainly have developed its creative abilities and potentially entirely new skills from where it is today. So by the time these new hires become mid-level account managers or press officers, they’ll have zero concern over making every available use of something like ChatGPT. However, never having to deal with the blank page problem might impact their creative and innovative skill development. So, that creative edge we have right now, if it still exists in 10 years, is going to be paper thin. That’s why we need to do everything we can to protect and nurture that innovative spark, ensuring our collective creative skills don’t atrophy as we rely on generative AI tools more and more. We must also look at the diversity of experience in our teams. AI Natives will be tech-savvy and comfortable using the latest tools, but without experience, they won’t know how to ask the right questions or refine the output to create genuine value. The more experienced members of the workforce can teach them the right emotional and empathetic skills, and ensure the right goals are set to activate the right output (not just good output). There is a huge amount for us all to gain in terms of productivity, and we should not be thinking about how we can do the same amount of work with fewer people but rather how much more we can do with those same people exploiting AI. How many more clients can we reach, onboard, serve and support? How much more personalized can we make all these activities? And can we figure this out faster than our competitors? The future of AI is full of potential, and while it may challenge some traditional notions of work and creativity, embracing and adapting to these technological advancements will be essential for thriving now and in the years to come.
April's Focus: Good ESG Stories about Earth Day
The focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) communications has been increasing with demand for content coming from stakeholders and shareholders. As one of the pillars of ESG, environmental-themed press releases allow a company to communicate its initiatives, goals, accomplishments, etc. to its audience. Trending for April on PR Newswire was the Earth Day-themed press release topic. This year’s theme for Earth Day is “Invest In Our Planet”, which is a great topic and talking point for ESG communications. Let’s look at some of the press release examples related to this trending topic, LONGi unveils "Zero Carbon Energy for Earth" initiative on 2023 Earth Day LONGi, a leading supplier of solar photovoltaics (PV) solutions, unveiled the "Zero Carbon Energy for Earth" initiative, hosted a "Solar for All" themed event, and brought together representatives from the UN and other NGOs. In its press release, LONGi provides more details to provide context and uses it as an opportunity to communicate the company’s ESG strategy. Earth Day: Angel Yeast Sets Out Green Manufacturing Roadmap, advancing sustainable development This press release from Angel Yeast, the world's leading yeast manufacturer, provides details about its commitment to full implementation of green manufacturing. Details in the body include its achievements in 2022 including carbon reduction measures and expanding PV power generation projects. Information on tangible numbers, goals, and awards is provided to readers as a way of measurement. Furthermore, goals to “continue lower energy consumption and improving energy efficiency” for 2023 are announced. LILYSILK Celebrates Earth Day 2023 through Continued Investment in Our Planet and Longstanding Sustainable Fashion Practices LILYSILK, the world's leading silk brand, made a few announcements about its achievements and reiterated its commitment to upholding sustainable fashion practices. It is partnering with One Tree Planted to help with reforestation, a partnership with TerraCycle® will help offer a free and convenient way to recycle non-donatable LILYSILK products. It has also self-launched a zero-waste movement. The press release also includes tangible outcomes of its actions to provide readers with a way to quantify results. In conclusion, telling stories about your ESG goals, achievements, and other initiatives during Earth Day is a great strategy to communicate the company’s commitment to the planet, because mentions on Earth Day receive more awareness and attention. These companies are also wise to have chosen to launch their press releases aligning the yearly Earth Day topic to gain an edge over their competitors who might release Earth Day-related press releases at another time. Be sure to keep an eye on the announcement of the Earth Day 2024 theme and use it as an opportunity next year to strategically communicate your company’s ESG goals and achievements. If you'd like to keep your investors informed of your company's ESG strategy and news, our ESG Wire can help. We can provide you with an ESG Resource Centre to showcase your annual reports and your company's ESG highlights, ESG News Automation, which will keep your website updated with the latest ESG news stories and design services to create your business's personalized branded ESG website. Contact us to find out more about Cision PR Newswire's ESG Wire!
The Rise of Generative AI and What It Means for the Communications Industry
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has surged into the spotlight in 2023 thanks to the emergence of generative tools such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat and Google's Bard, alongside image creators DALLE-2 and Midjourney. We need only look at ChatGPT, which in January this year, passed 100 million active users , making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, to understand the pace of AI growth. (By comparison, it took TikTok nine months and Instagram two-and-a-half years to reach that same 100 million milestone.). Generative AI is quickly filtering into many different sectors and industries, and the world of communications - one driven by words and images - has already started to embrace it. As adoption increases, so too does the creation of more and more synthetic media (AI-generated texts, art, video and audio). Meanwhile, as these content generators become more widely available for experimentation and product development, understanding how synthetic media might complement the human intelligence required for effective communications is vital. These rapidly evolving—and already controversial—technologies will have a significant impact on the communications industry. In 2023 and beyond, strategic communicators and PR professionals must understand the opportunities and challenges generative AI and synthetic media present. The broader comms industry also has a responsibility to ensure it utilizes AI in an ethical, responsible manner, while protecting and investing in human-led creativity and professional development. Changing the Dynamic of What's Possible Where AI technologies can be effectively applied is in support of the way PR professionals carry out routine tasks such as developing the framework for a press release, announcement or catalog/e-commerce copy; incorporating SEO keywords into content; generating lists of media outlets and journalists to target; and even predicting pitching success. Brands can also go further by employing AI tools to generate audio versions of press releases or web content, or support content accessibility through text-to-speech features, making it possible for those with visual impairments to communicate. Generative AI is also now being baked into many social media publishing platforms, allowing users to create text and images to be published across brand channels. But AI content generators aren’t just tools that do existing tasks better: they also have the potential to do entirely new things with content. One such example is the BBC’s approach to creating “flexible media” through AI whereby content is delivered to users dynamically based on their environments. A news article on a smartphone may change between text, video or audio, allowing the publisher to tell stories in different ways to different audiences. AI takes care of generating the different version of that same story. For communicators, staying up to date on trends in AI and how media organizations and brands are applying these technologies will be crucial to staying competitive. As Cision Chief Product & Technology Officer Jay Webster wrote in an article for Public Relations Society of America , generative AI is evolving quickly but needs to retain human input. “Artificial Intelligence in the creation of content is moving beyond applications such as SEO, opening the door to data-driven narratives and full-fledged content generation. AI-based natural-language tools exist that can produce copy for a basic press release that a human writer can then refine.” Buyers, Beware Though AI’s potential to reshape PR is significant, there are just as many ways it can be disruptive and potentially harmful. AI tools are “trained” on specific and historical data sets, many of which can be problematic in serving up meaningful content as AI is essentially “guessing” the next best response to a prompt based on that data. That guess is only as good as the data on which it has been trained. With that in mind, comms teams need to ensure that their data is robust enough to align with the task they're asking AI to do. Imagine if an application developed to help content creators write marketing copy was trained only on social platforms such as Twitter and public-facing Facebook content. It would only create content based on the way that other brands have already communicated on social media (thanks to its limited training set). The danger lies in porting those AI-generated results over to other situations or use cases. As reporting by outlets like the New York Times and PBS NewsHour has made clear, there is a long way to go before AI content generators – whether in the form of a chatbot designed to imitate conversation or a tool for creating long-form text – can be relied upon to deliver accurate and factual content. For these reasons, humans who interact with synthetic media generators need to be mindful of the prompts they use to elicit responses. ChatGPT needs good quality prompts to create good quality output. And it can’t help you if you mistakenly feed it the wrong information. The language or imagery used in requests may also include unconscious bias—and may lead professional-grade tools astray. Though improvements are likely to be made to limit query fallibility, taking the initiative to learn and understand best practices will reap the greatest benefits of this technology. 5 Things You Need to Know About Generative AI: AI-generated content can’t be copyrighted under existing intellectual property law; it instantly becomes part of the public domain. Only content created by a human being can be protected by U.S. copyright. Because AI algorithms are trained on huge amounts of existing content, there is a risk that the original creators of that content could bring copyright infringement claims based on the use of their intellectual property in training the AI or in the content it produces. (Getty Images and several individual artists have already filed suit against companies pioneering AI image generators over the use of their images and artistic styles.) AI that has been trained on flawed content may perpetuate bias and stereotypes, or generate content that is misleading or outright false. Synthetic media is already being used maliciously, such as to create fake news. Sophisticated media monitoring will be critical for identifying misinformation or fake news that could harm your brand’s reputation and responding to it before it gains traction. It can be difficult to verify the origin and authenticity of machine-generated content, which can undermine trust in the PR industry and in the media more broadly. It is too soon to tell what guardrails—if any—will be legislated in the U.S. or internationally. However, policy makers are already moving on this issue. In the U.S., the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently launched a request for comment (RFC) regarding AI accountability. In the UK, meanwhile, a recent whitepaper outlined "responsible innovation and [maintaining] public trust in this revolutionary technology.” Enhancing—Not Replacing—Human Creativity As AI becomes more ubiquitous, public relations practitioners will need to be aware of benefits and caveats that innovations in AI provide. For the most effective applications of these emerging technologies, the human element will continue to be essential. As Cision Executive Director of AI Strategy Antony Cousins told PRWeek , “AI lacks the empathy and creativity that only a human with an absolute understanding of a problem can solve, and it’s not even remotely ready to help us build and maintain the relationships that allow many of us to succeed.” One might use an AI-backed software solution to write an outline for a case study or press release, or to generate social media imagery with the greatest potential for consumer engagement, for example. But to guarantee accuracy, any such content would still need to be reviewed, vetted and optimized by humans with subject matter expertise. Remember that tools like ChatGPT can read your question and provide a response, but they won’t understand the context. Though it can appear you're having a human-like conversation with a chatbot, it's only providing responses based on what its existing data is telling it should be the next response. ChatGPT isn't able to think on its feet or interpret ideas, it also can’t go materially beyond what has already been created on a topic. So for that reason it lacks the ability to exceed a brief in the way humans can. However, AI can help you generate an answer if you're posing the right question. For example, ask AI to simply write a press release and you'll likely end up with something routine and uninspiring. Is it a product press release? Who is the audience? And who are the main competitors? The specificity of the question, coupled with the right data training set, will lead to better results. No matter the use case, AI, when used responsibly and mindfully, with a guiding human hand, can empower practitioners to work smarter, not harder. AI Definitions – Your Cheat Sheet of Need-to-Know Terms: Artificial Intelligence (AI): Computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages. Chatbot : A computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the internet. ChatGPT : An AI language model developed by OpenAI, which is capable of generating human-like text based on the input given to it. DALLE-2 : An AI application that generates images from a user-input text description. Deepfake : AI-synthesized media that is false, such as doctored videos where one person’s head has been placed on another person’s body, or surprisingly realistic “photographs” of people who don’t exist. Large Language Model (LLM) : an algorithm trained on a corpus of content that’s been developed to produce text, respond to questions using natural language or translate material from one language to another Predictive Analytics : the use of data, statistical algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the likelihood of future outcomes based on historical data Sentiment Analysis : the use of natural language processing , text analysis , and computational linguistics to systematically identify and quantify subjective information such as positivity or negativity Synthetic Media : Artificially generated media content such as video, audio/voice, images, and text, where AI takes on part (or all) of the creative process (Oxford Forum on Synthetic Media)
