Challenge: Tackling a Competitive and Complex Media Environment
When a booming cloud services company became one of the top ten players in its marketplace, it had to take steps to protect the ground it gained. Being blindsided by new competition is a constant threat in the technology world. Companies need to be wary of giants like Microsoft, Oracle, and Amazon suddenly entering your market.
Thankfully, media intelligence can provide a lifeline to critical competitive information. For this cloud provider, share of voice (SOV) translates directly to market share. As a result, the communications team was tasked with answering ‘Who’s covering our competition but not us?’, ‘How does our coverage stack up to competitors?’ and, most importantly, ‘Who are our competitors?’
Accurate media measurement had been difficult for the team, as mentions were too vague for automated systems to categorize. For instance, the company tracks mentions of PaaS and SaaS cloud-based solutions, its competitors offer these plus other irrelevant cloud offerings, such as cloud data center services. To make matters worse, technology does not handle rapidly changing topics well – a crippling issue for a volatile industry.
Solution: Accurate, Multilayered Coverage of the Global Market
PublicRelay developed and deployed a multilayered media measurement program divided into three categories: brand analysis, country/region specific analysis, and product/division level analysis. This approach would help the tech company see the full scope of its communications operations and measure the interplay of metrics between the different levels of the organization.
Coverage is reported on a daily, bimonthly and quarterly basis to help the company dissect its impact on SOV across all its markets as well as at the industry level over time. Reports contain analysis of key industry topics, top industry mentions, spokesperson mentions, employee news pickups, and social media mentions of the company on Facebook and Twitter. The same analysis is done for its known competitors.
All this data is compiled into detailed SOV reports toned for sentiment and broken down into topics so that the company knows not only its SOV across different product divisions and whether the coverage was positive or negative, but also what key topics are driving the conversation. Competitors are monitored closely, to see how they are weighing in on key topics and if their SOV is growing – integral data for the communications team as it decides where to focus resources to influence market share. Through this multidimensional reporting, they can continuously pinpoint areas where their competitors are dominating, to revamp spokespeople strategies, media engagement campaigns and media events – or launch new initiatives altogether.
Key themes like AI, machine learning and cloud innovations, as well as an influencer publication hitlist from across the globe are tracked to ensure that the cloud services provider has an almost real-time, 360-view of the industry. This information, often analyzed from multiple language sources, allows the company to find coverage whitespace and thought leadership opportunities. Additionally, this is the best way to identify new competitors coming up in the scene. In fact, the company relies on PublicRelay to tell them who to track as competitors. The company can then agilely refine its competitive outlook and set new goals, as necessary.
Result: A Partnership that Drives Strategic Decisions Across All Levels of an Organization
By delivering timely and accurate insights, the communications team is viewed as a strategic partner to the business. It has a direct connection to the executive team who relies on them for intelligence about the complex, volatile and highly competitive market. The team is one of the company’s key lines of defense, ensuring that it will never be blindsided by competitors as it continues to grow its market share.
