Media intelligence is a service required and used by most, if not all, businesses. And with the lines of PR and marketing becoming more and more blurred, it’s easy to see why these practitioners would make use of media intelligence. This technology is useful for a great many things and is most well-known for its ability to analyse copious amounts of data from varying media channels.
This data is used by brands to gain insights into how it is performing, what its consumers are saying and to benchmark itself against competitors.
However, there is so much more that this service can actually do for these industries.
Here are five things you didn’t know media intelligence could do for brands:
1. Media intelligence can manage your reputation during a crisis
If you’ve used a media intelligence service provider before, you probably already know that it can help with your brand’s rep — but did you know that you can actually follow the crisis as it's happening in order to better manage your reputation?
This means that you’ll be notified of what’s being said about your brand throughout the discussion, which allows you to respond accordingly. When it comes to online crises, it’s vital to respond as quickly as possible in order to show your customers that you care about their concerns that you are willing to resolve their issues.
This can easily be done with a media intelligence solution. Additionally, you’ll be free to revel in the positive comments as well as respond to any general queries your consumers may be asking.
2. Media intelligence gives insight into exactly what your competitors are doing
Benchmarking your brand against competitors is incredibly useful, but, with media intelligence, you can even take it a step further by actually seeing exactly what your competitors are getting up to.
For example, if you want to see which editorial media your competitors are being mentioned on, you can do that! You can also see which publications they’re not being mentioned in or have not even tried out in order to remain ahead of the curve.
Additionally, this technology also utilises the tracking of brand mentions in the media, which allows you to see where your competitors are being discussed and what’s being said about them.
This, in turn, opens up your own brand to opportunities where you may console a flustered client and offer them your services as an alternative. Or, you can see why your opponents' consumers are raving about their products in order to get an idea of how you can alter your strategy and products or services for the better!
3. Media intelligence analyses the strength of your advertisements
With media intelligence reports, you’ll be able to spot any issues in your clients' or even your own advertisements. Specifically, you’ll be able to see if there are any misalignments regarding your ads and media coverage.
For example, if your brand is bringing out a new competition that focuses on helping others in need, but your ad only focuses on the competition itself, and doesn’t mention the sustainability aspect of it, you’ll know that the focus needs to change. People need to know why the competition is taking place and what it is good for.
Your advertisement is only as good as your brand’s core message, and even though you want the word to spread about the competition, people need to know what message your agency is trying to drive home.
Thus, media intelligence reports will allow you to focus on your brand holistically as opposed to just one aspect of your business.
4. Media intelligence measures the impact of your communications efforts
With media intelligence, you can optimise your communications strategy. Knowing that you are looking at all aspects of your strategy will help you rest easy, knowing that you’ve done everything in your power to do what’s best for your campaigns, and more!
This technology will allow you to see whether your messages are reaching your target audience as well as gather whether you have received positive, negative or neutral reactions.
Additionally, you’ll be able to see exactly which media publications put out your press release, meaning you’ll know whether your pressers are being sent to the right media agencies or if it’s getting picked up by the wrong audience (back to the drawing board it is!).
Media intelligence service providers also let you see how much of the information in your brand’s message was cut down, which will give you a clear idea of what to include, and not include, in future press releases.
5. Media intelligence helps you discover fresh content ideas
That’s right, with media intelligence, you’ll be able to find new content ideas for your brand! With this solution, you’ll be able to see which topics in your industry are trending, as well as what your consumers are talking about.
This gives you a clear enough idea of what your audience wants to receive coverage about. For example, if you’re a toothpaste brand and more and more consumers are discussing the benefits of adding charcoal to toothpaste, you can hop directly on that trend by developing a new product, discussing that product in a press release and then creating an ad for your new toothpaste!
Best of all, you can then track the keywords used once you’ve marketed your product in order to see how it’s being received by your target audience.
Additionally, with your service provider, media analysts will be there to highlight any spikes in your content. At Focal Points, our Ad Hoc reports analyse specific topics before, during and after media exposure to highlight the peaks in your coverage. They also discuss the development of your topic over a period of time.
Added to that, sentiment analysis is done to see which consumers are loving your campaigns, ads or press releases, which ones find it to be ‘okay’ or neutral and which ones have some concerns.