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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Winning the world’s biggest American football competition is one thing, but generating conversation is a whole different ball game. 

The Chiefs ultimately won the championship, but did they win the world’s attention? And how did the advertising brands and most talked-about celebrities fare?

We used our Meltwater social listening and media intelligence suite to determine who really won the biggest night in football and advertising.

Note: The following data was sourced from Meltwater Suite and looks at mentions of relevant keywords, social media handles, and hashtags on February 11, 2024, from multiple sources, including news, comments, podcasts, social media platforms, forums, blogs, and broadcast television.

Which team “won” football’s biggest night?

While the game itself was a nail-biter, with the Chiefs winning 25-22 in overtime, the Kansas City team’s victory was much more overwhelming in terms of media mentions and social conversations. Throughout the entire game, and even the entire day of the game, there were more mentions of the Chiefs than the 49ers.

In total, the Chiefs racked up 2.35 million mentions, compared to the 49ers’ 1.28 million. However, the team that “won” in your corner of the digital world might look different.

For example, conversations on X (formerly Twitter) overwhelmingly focused on the Chiefs, while Redditors had more to say about the 49ers. Mentions of the teams looked much more balanced to people who mainly engaged with the game via broadcast television. 

Sentiment-wise, across sources (including social media, news, broadcast, blogs, forums, and podcasts), the Kansas City team also came out on top with a higher proportion of positive mentions than those of San Francisco. 

Which brand commercial “won” football’s biggest night?

No surprise here. Verizon’s one-and-a-half-minute spot featuring Beyoncé (that also teased the drop of her next album) blew the competition away with more than 61.9K mentions on February 11. 

Of the 19 brands we analyzed, the e-commerce site Temu came in second. Its animated commercial, which aired three times during the game, generated 46.7K mentions. However, most of those non-neutral mentions were negative as internet users complained about the number of ads and speculated about the company’s business practices. 

Looking strictly at sentiment, Mountain Dew came out on top, even though the brand had the fourth-highest number of mentions. The majority of mentions of its ad featuring Aubrey Plaza were positive, something no other brand we analyzed can claim. 

Which sponsor “won” football’s biggest night?

In our on-demand webinar featuring exclusive analysis of the big game, Meltwater’s Consumer Insights Product Specialist Louise Henderson used our consumer intelligence platform’s logo recognition feature to determine which sponsor had the biggest brand presence.


Nike had the biggest presence by far in terms of reach and engagement generated by content with images of the company’s logo. In one of the highest-engagement images from that night — Travis Kelce kissing Taylor Swift after his championship win — the Nike logo is especially prominent.

Explore the retail insights from the big game first-hand in our exclusive, interactive insight dashboard.

Which celebrity “won” football’s biggest night?

Winner: Usher and the Apple Music halftime show

Of all of the stars connected to the big game, Usher was undeniably the brightest one. Mentions of him and his halftime show reached 2.33 million on February 11, almost as many as those about the NFL champions.

Taylor Swift, whose boyfriend Travis Kelce plays for the Chiefs, was a major talking point of the game, but even her 1.64 million mentions couldn’t outshine Usher. She did, however, beat out the 49ers and Beyoncé, despite not playing, performing, or being featured in an ad during the game, as shown in this graph of mentions from noon to midnight ET.

The most talked about star did change throughout the evening, with mentions of Beyoncé peaking at 8 pm ET, just after her Verizon ad aired. But from just after 6 pm to about 8:30 pm, when the Chiefs took the top spot for good, Usher and the halftime show dominated conversations about the game. 

In our webinar analyzing brands and the big game, we looked at how the digital presences of the brands that dressed Usher for the halftime show. Via our consumer intelligence platform, we found that the reach and engagement of social posts about Skims beat out those of luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana.

Still, the success of Skims did not reach the engagement benchmarks set by Fenty and Loewe during Rihanna’s halftime show performance last year.

Get our full expert analysis of how this year’s big game compared to last for fashion brands and sponsors.

Overall, the NFL championship game was a standout occasion for brands across industries to capture attention and drum up engagement, but understanding the event’s true impact takes the kind of precise data analysis that only powerful solutions can provide.

Learn how to take your market, audience, and brand reputation research in-house with the Meltwater Suite. Schedule a demo today to see how Meltwater can help your organization break through the noise and connect with your audience:

Who 'Won' Football's Biggest Night? A Social and Media Intelligence Analysis

Are you caught up on your microtrends? These days, it feels like they come and go faster than ever, especially in the world of style and fashion. Luckily, technology like natural language processing and large language models make understanding trend origins and trajectories a less daunting, and more precise, task.

For example, look no further than two of the most highly discussed fashion microtrends of the moment: grandpacore and the mob wife aesthetic. While one was poised to be the first big trend of 2024, it was soon eclipsed by the other. We used our social listening and media intelligence suite to better understand these two social media fashion phenomena and how they compare. First, let’s clarify our terms.  

This word cloud based on grandpacore mentions from throughout the month of January highlights some of the most popular elements of this style trend.

Grandpacore must-haves include comfy casual pieces, long-sleeved button-ups, sweater vests and sweaters, blazers, loafers, scarves, classic lines, and layering.

The two most retweeted tweets in the conversation, featuring K-pop stars Jennie Kim and G-Dragon, illustrate the trend further. Notably, both tweets reference Pinterest’s 2024 trend forecast report.

Initially, this cozy trend started gaining steam in fall 2023, with a spike on November 20, when the Associated Press published a Black Friday gift guide that mentioned “grandpa chic.” Since then, the conversation has continued to grow, with its largest spike occurring on January 26. That day BestReviews.com published a blog titled "‘Coastal Grandma’ is out and ‘Eclectic Grandpa’ is in,” which had a potential reach of 7.4 million people.

As with grandpacore, the January word cloud for conversations about the mob wife aesthetic reveals this fashion microtrend’s key elements.

Essential elements of the mob wife aesthetic include gold hoops, vintage and faux fur, leopard print, and big hair. 

And while people generally have a range of cultural references for grandpacore (from Tyler, the Creator to, well, their grandpas) those for the mob wife aesthetic are much more focused, as shown by our platform’s top entities analysis. 

The biggest name in the conversation shouldn’t come as any surprise: Carmela Soprano, played by Edie Falco on HBO’s The Sopranos, is the star of this microtrend. Elvira Hancock from Scarface and Carmela’s fellow Sopranos heroine Adriana La Cerva are other inspirations. Meanwhile, Kendall Jenner and Dua Lipa are the modern celebrities driving conversations about the trend.

The trend was essentially non-existent before blowing up in early January. Mentions of the mob wife aesthetic spiked most on January 25, and as our platform’s AI-powered insights finder uncovered, that 5% increase in mentions was thanks to “the Kardashian family’s appearance at Paris Fashion Week.”

Since then, social media posts from the likes of Kacey Musgraves, Sopranos meme pages, pop culture Reddit pages, and even HBO have driven engagement around the topic.

At the end of 2023, media outlets — including far-reaching ones like New York Post, Yahoo! News, and BuzzFeed  — reported that grandpacore was predicted to be the big microtrend of 2024. For a moment there, it looked like they were right, but that all changed on January 7, when chatter about the mob wife aesthetic began to rise. By January 12, it had outpaced grandpacore to enter a whole other trend league. As of early February, mob wife aesthetic is generating even more conversation than quiet luxury, one of the bigger social media fashion trends to come out of 2023.

As we enter February, it’s fair to say that the mob wife aesthetic trend has officially taken off, beating out grandpacore to be the first big fashion microtrend of 2024.

If there’s anything marketers can learn from this battle of the trends, it's that new cultural phenomena can catch fire at any time, becoming the internet’s new obsession overnight. The key to staying ahead of them is keeping an ear to the digital streets with social listening solutions. See how Meltwater can do the heavy lifting for you by scheduling a demo today:

Grandpacore vs. Mob Wife Aesthetic: The Battle of the Microtrends

Harnessing the many moving parts of branding is no simple feat. That’s why you should enter the world of branding podcasts, where each episode is like a mini crash course in the art of branding. These audio gems are equal parts informing and entertaining, giving you an enjoyable experience as you take your brand to new heights.

Whether you’re a seasoned branding expert or a new marketer eager to dive in and start making an impact, podcasts are a great way to unlock your brand’s true potential. You’ll learn the secrets of the world’s most successful brands, discover new brands that are trending hot, and hear case studies about what works and what doesn’t in today’s market. 

Add these branding podcasts to your professional development routine and start building a powerful brand you can be proud of:

Branding agency master Pia Silva hosts the No BS Agency Podcast. Her agency model is designed to help branding experts work smarter, not harder, by simplifying their approach. She traded the traditional retainer model for one-day branding intensives and now teaches her followers how to do the same. Her no-frills truth bombs keep listeners engaged and make learning fun.

Pia features multiple subject matter experts on her podcast to share how they’ve conquered branding challenges and how they’re applying a no-BS approach in their own agencies. Service providers can learn how to run leaner without sacrificing quality or results — and ultimately do less work for bigger profits.

Hosted by Jacob Cass and Matt Davies, the JUST Branding podcast goes beyond surface-level discussions — it dives deep into strategies and techniques that shape successful brands. The hosts focus on real-world branding experiences from renowned industry professionals. You’ll hear in-depth conversations with brand strategists and designers who share their personal journeys, lessons, and invaluable advice for marketers.

The hosts also don’t shy away from controversy. Through thought-provoking discussions and the occasional disagreement, they share new angles on familiar subjects. Past topics include storytelling, brand naming, brand identity, design, and neuroscience, leaving marketers with plenty of food for thought.

Tip: Learn more about developing the ultimate brand strategy framework.

Host Brianne Fleming talks about marketing with a pop culture twist on the Making the Brand podcast. Pop culture, including music, TV, and social media, can have a tremendous effect on branding. That’s why you’ll hear your fill about Barbie, Taylor Swift, American Idol, and other fandoms that can teach you a thing or two about good branding.

Using fun, easy pop culture references makes this podcast relatable to marketers of all ages, no matter how long you’ve been in the profession. Brianne breaks it down into simple, easy-to-digest insights that brands of all sizes can apply to their own strategies. And with nearly 100 episodes to date and more on the way, there’s plenty of content to fawn over.

Hosted by Philip VanDusen, Brand Design Masters Podcast takes things back to the basics and shows marketers the exact construction blueprints other brands are using to build and grow powerful brands.

VanDusen brings together some of the most brilliant minds in the industry to share their insights and experiences. Each episode delves deep into the world of brand design, exploring topics such as storytelling, visual identity, and consumer psychology.

Each episode explores topics like storytelling, visual identity, and consumer psychology. He puts into perspective how successful brands achieve their goals. Marketers can unlock new ways of thinking about branding and create memorable experiences for customers.

Tip: Take a look at the best customer experience examples to inspire you.

Where To Listen To Brand Design Masters Podcast

A logo isn’t everything in branding, but it is something. Your logo is one of the first things customers see, and it’s one common way they come to associate your brand with your products, services, and personality. That’s why The Logo Geek Podcast is one of the best branding podcasts out there — because visual imagery can help or harm your brand.

Hear from host Ian Paget as he discusses the ins and outs of successful graphic design. He speaks with designers and entrepreneurs from around the world about how they approach logo design and bring a brand to life. Freelancers and professional designers benefit from the podcast, too, with conversations focusing on how to get clients, how much to charge, and how to sell design services.

Tip: Learn more about product branding and co-branding.

This weekly branding podcast hosted by Stef Hamerlinck discusses all things brand strategy. Most episodes feature industry experts and brand representatives who dish on their experiences, tips, and problem-solving approaches. Each episode offers fresh perspectives on the ever-evolving landscape of branding.

With more than 140+ episodes to date, marketers have a treasure trove of insights at their disposal.

Previous topics have included AI in branding, brand health, and brand tracking, the creator mindset, and the power of humor in branding, among many others.

Designed for creative entrepreneurs, The Brand Strategy Podcast focuses on elevating brands in practical and intentional ways. Hosted by Bonnie Bakhtiari of B is for Bonnie Design, she speaks about her real-world experience in building thousands of successful brands. With nearly 300 episodes to date and new ones launching every two weeks, marketers can learn tried-and-true strategies to level up their brands.

Previous topics include how to write copy that converts, personalized marketing, content marketing, and how to use AI tools like ChatGPT in branding. This podcast blends classic advice with emerging methodologies along with real-life examples of her suggestions in action.

Further reading on AI: A Practical Guide to ChatGPT for Marketing and PR, How to use ChatGPT for PR Agencies, ChatGPT Social Media Marketing Life Hacks, The Best Tech Podcasts, 9 Powerful ChatGPT Prompts for Marketing, How Meltwater Uses AI, How to Use Chatbots to Improve Your Sales, Meltwater AI Writing Assistant for Social Media Managers, Meltwater's AI-Powered PR Assistant, Why Are Your Brand Mentions Spiking? AI Can Explain, Will ChatGPT Take My Marketing Job?

Where To Listen To The Brand Strategy Podcast

A relatively newer podcast compared to other branding podcasts, Brand Banter Podcast is the collaboration between two friends who met in high school and now share their experiences and passion for advertising and branding.

They feature conversations with industry professionals on everyday branding trends, how to execute on brand campaigns, and how to reverse engineer what other brands are doing.

Where To Listen To The Brand Banter Podcast

Hosted by Bill Gullan, President of Finch Brands, The Real-World Branding Podcast lives up to its name. Bi-weekly episodes feature a branding practitioner who is pulling the strings behind their branding efforts. You won’t find theoretical advice here, just real-world applications in a variety of common and niche industries.

Finch Brands has worked with an impressive portfolio of clients, including Nutrisystem, Conair, Fathead, Splenda, and Samsung. They provide consultancy services for brands that have become household names, and Gullan combines this level of expertise with conversations with other experts to help listeners succeed.

Tip: These are the best tech podcasts and the best finance podcasts you should be listening to.

Where To Listen To The Real-World Branding Podcast

From brand building to brand strategy, The Unified Brand leaves no detail untouched. One of the fundamental rules of branding is consistency, which lends to a brand’s strength and longevity. Host Chris Outlaw helps listeners find their hidden superpowers and use those powers better than their competitors.

Experts from leading companies, agencies, and niche businesses alike share their thoughts about brand identities, positioning, differentiation, and more, all with the goal of helping you walk away with a plan.

Tip: Learn how to gain a sustainable competitive advantage.

Where To Listen To The Unified Brand Podcast

Focused on equal parts personal branding and content marketing, the Brands on Brands podcast helps solopreneurs build credibility and authority in their respective spaces. It’s designed for content creators, consultants, coaches, and other creatives to help them leverage similar branding techniques and strategies to those used by larger companies, but with a personalized look and feel that behemoths simply can’t duplicate.

Past topics have covered everything from building social proof and publishing content to optimizing your web presence for search engines. Host Brandon Birkmeyer invites multiple experts to join the conversation and share their experiences, tips, and strategies that you can put to work right away.

The 11 Best Branding Podcasts to Listen to in 2025

What’s your go-to container for your favorite beverage? Mug, bottle, insulated tumbler with a straw? Whatever it is, grab some water and settle in — today, we are taking a closer look at the phenomenon of the viral Stanley tumbler. 

Marketers have a lot to learn from the success of this once-overlooked drink vessel. We used the Meltwater Media Intelligence Suite to get the numbers on the cup everyone is talking about.

Not to be confused with the hockey championship trophy of the same name, Stanley cups are stainless steel tumblers sold by the Stanley drinkware company. Formally known as the Quenchers, they first went on the market in 2016 but didn’t become big sellers until 2020, when they became a hit on social media. Two years later, they saw a 275% year-over-year increase in sales. Today, Stanley tumblers may very well be the most popular cup in the world — at least when it comes to online conversation. 

Sales of reusable bottles have been on the rise for years, giving birth to other retail hits like the Nalgene bottle, the Hydro Flask, and the S’well bottle. 

The Stanley Quencher stands apart for being huge (it comes in 14-, 20-, 30-, 40-, and 64-ounce versions), highly insulated, extremely durable, having a handle and straw, and coming in a wide range of standard and limited-edition colorways. Together, those qualities make the cup an accessory to keep at hand all day.

The Stanley Quencher first became a trendy bestseller in 2022. That year, The Wall Street Journal, which deemed it “the new office status symbol,” reported that the company’s waitlist for the bottle was 150,000 customers long. 

That success came after Stanely radically changed its marketing strategy. After seeing one shopping blog’s success in selling the cup to its female audience, the company pivoted from marketing the cup primarily to outdoors enthusiasts and workmen to targeting millennial and Gen-Z women. From there, sales took off, and the cup became part status symbol, part collector’s item. 

Stanley then introduced a revamped version of the cup, the Quencher H2.0, in late 2022, paving the way for new levels of virality in 2023.

What does the Stanley cup online conversation look like?

We used our social listening and analytics solution to analyze the Stanley tumbler conversation from January 15, 2023, through January 15, 2024. Over those 12 months, mentions of the cup were almost 900% higher than those in the previous period.

As our analysis shows, online conversations about the cup spiked on November 17, 2023, at more than 20,600 mentions. This was largely thanks to an internet user who posted a video of her Stanley Quencher that survived a car fire. In the video, she revealed that the cup still had ice in it, a testament to its superior insulation.

Stanley responded in what was perhaps the best retail PR move of 2023 — offering to buy the woman a new car. The story spread across social media and was picked up by traditional media outlets in the United States and abroad. 

As a result, “fire” became one of the top keywords in the overall conversation.

Mentions of the cup spiked again on December 28, 2023; that day, the top keyword in the Stanley conversation was “Crocs”.

This was due to a viral tweet that highlighted that the current Stanley CEO, who took the tumbler from the verge of discontinuation to retail success, previously worked at the footwear company.

Most recently, the conversation spiked on January 5, 2024, when Forbes, The Washington Post, and The New York Times all published articles about the Stanley phenomenon on the heels of the company’s viral collaboration with Starbucks. 

The special-edition “Galentine’s Collection” of tumblers launched in Target stores on January 4, prompting fans to camp outside of the retail locations — and even tussle with each other — for a chance to buy the $49.95 cups. As a result, mentions of Starbucks in the Stanley tumblers conversation increased by more than 800% compared to the previous two weeks. 

Stanley cups have a large and enthusiastic following, but our analysis shows that the sentiment of the overall conversation is mixed.

One of the most engaged positive mentions came from this viral Reddit post showing a girl crying and hugging her father after receiving one of the tumblers as a gift.

Meanwhile, one of the most-engaged negative mentions also came from Reddit via a post from someone who doesn’t understand what the hype is all about.

As our AI-powered content clusters tool identified, Stanley cup-related incidents of school bullying, as well as injuries related to the Target launch, have also contributed to negative sentiment about the product and the craze surrounding it. 

What can marketers learn from the Stanley cup craze?

First and foremost, the rise of the Stanley cup shows that brands see success when they follow the lead of their audiences. Had the company continued to pursue the outdoors segment instead of millennial and Gen-Z women, we wouldn’t be talking about it today.

Next, the success of Stanley cups shows just how crucial social media is to attracting attention and building an aesthetic around a product. Partnering with influencers and celebrities who highlighted the cup as a lifestyle product rather than a strictly utilitarian one was key to its success. For example, our analysis shows that mentions of #ad in the Stanley cups conversation from January 15, 2023, through January 15, 2024, were 4,480% higher than those during the previous 12 months. (That random car fire helped, too!)

The brand’s partnership with country star Lainey Wilson has proved particularly successful, with a recent collaborative Instagram post racking up more than 131,000 likes.

If you’re looking for a Stanley cup-like boost to your bottom line, start by using social and media intelligence to see where your audiences are and how they are connecting with your brand. See how the Meltwater Suite can take the guesswork out of your marketing by scheduling a demo today.

The Stanley Cup Craze — a Social Listening Analysis

The future of print has been mulled, pondered and agonized over for centuries. Ever since the first printing press was built in Gutenberg in around 1440, daily newsletters appeared all over Europe and as the printing press spread, new publications appeared. The first traditional weekly newspaper in the UK, The Daily Courant, appeared in 1702 and journalism, as we know it, was born.

You see, the news has always relied on technological advancement. As printing improved, we printed more, more often, and spread it further. Entering the digital age, online news disrupted the print medium, in the same way the printing press dislodged the monks and scholars responsible for creating text material by hand.

And now, as the internet advances at breakneck speed, social media continues to develop and advances like artificial intelligence push the potential of news further. For those of us who work in media, we can see the changes developing on a daily basis. We've learned to adapt, pivot and change tact, just like those 15th century monks. 

But, contrary to popular belief, print media is very much alive which in turns means so is print monitoring. Millions of newspaper and magazine titles are still in circulation globally, with approximately half a billion copies distributed annually. 

While it’s undeniable that in the digital age, online and social media usage is higher than ever before. However, print media continues to be an influential force in its own right and it still forms an important part of a holistic media strategy for most organisations. We are living in a hybrid media age.

In 2020, the global print monitoring market was worth an estimated $115 million and is set to continue growing. It can be a real challenge to keep on top of print content. While technology has advanced for print tracking on large publications, specialist and local titles are often only accessible in print form, requiring old clipping methods. 

With news cycles moving at a fast pace, your brand doesn’t need to be playing catch up. For many industries, a large portion of their relevant media is exclusively in print too, in the form of trade publications, local news and magazines. It's important to be able to capture all mentions, in one place. This is where print monitoring comes in.

Tip: Take a look at the most popular US magazines, the largest US newspapers, and the state of print media in South Africa.

So, What Is Changing in the Print Monitoring Field?

Why Choose Meltwater for Print Monitoring?

Reading Tip: Take a look at the largest US newspapers

Before the age of online news and social media, media monitoring was all about tracking print media for mentions of your brand, products and services. Electronic media monitoring tracks mentions for your brand as well as keywords including your products and services but also increasingly your industry, competitors and trends. The idea of media monitoring is that you're notified as soon as any relevant news breaks. Our software incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) to help sift and filter through these mentions, bringing you the news as it happens, in all its forms, along side social media.

At Meltwater, we have a comprehensive suite of media intelligence and analysis to bring you the latest insights in your inbox, be it the coverage itself in print or online, or our analysis on your content.

Much like a paywall erected on some of your favourite news sites, print media has now evolved to become a publisher of exclusive content that you can’t easily find online. With digital sources, a reader can become overwhelmed by the various media types (text, audio and video) that are constantly being shared with them. Digital has become standard in a sense, while print has evolved into an experience with a niche readership, curating clear-cut audiences on a large scale.

Print has often acted as a safer space, away from the blur of "fake news" over the past few years. Many consumers view traditional print media as more reliable, produced at considerable cost, and under constant audit by regulators. While this might not stop your friends and family from sharing the latest conspiracy theory on Facebook or Whatsapp-ing you chain messages that hold no credibility, it does speak to the sense of trust that consumers have in newspapers, magazines and journals. 

If we go back a few decades, print monitoring looked like this: PR and comms teams often sat in workrooms collecting print cut-outs, pasting them into workbooks to be scanned, analysed and reported on. Now, print is scanned by computers, looking for keywords and phrases, easily scanned in and delivered to your media monitoring suite in PDF form, alongside all other media. It's safe to say the print environment has changed drastically.

Digitalisation has made it easier to aggregate, analyse and tabulate for valuable insights that pros can present to their executive team and other stakeholders. And, it's far more cost-effective. Copies of news clippings are compiled almost instantaneously and organised accordingly. 

Full-text clips are captured and stored in a digital format that is searchable on any device. Circulation data is also recorded to gain a better understanding of the level of audience reach, all managed from one centralised tool.

Clips can be customised according to country, region, language, publication date, and format, among other metrics, giving greater insight into publishing activity and reader interest. To collect this data, Meltwater partners with regional print providers and pulls their data into their platform using an API. The main sources tracked include newspapers, magazines, trade journals and newsletters.

Staying on top of all the latest industry trends has never been easier with Meltwater’s print monitoring tools and software. Very few organisations have the time or luxury to sit down a team, search for printed newspapers, cut clippings, highlight keywords, and organise them for analysis or future reference but as a Meltwater user, the process is entirely streamlined and digitised for you. Plus, it's easier to share your findings across your team. 

In addition, our easy-to-use platform helps your brand connect with the best journalists and influencers, in your network and beyond, to help you initiate the right kind of conversations and partnerships. We have over 30,000 satisfied customers to back up our claims.

We’re not just about print monitoring but are an all-inclusive media intelligence provider. PR, marketing and communications professionals can streamline media monitoring (online and print), detailed influencer metrics, and integrate social understanding, in real-time, using our platform. There‘s no need to use multiple tools to track all your mentions.

One success story that makes use of our print monitoring tools is Guinness World Records. Using Meltwater’s all-in-one media intelligence tools, which included online and print monitoring, they were able to connect with social media influencers and traditional news outlets much easier.

Meltwater’s print partners are well-vetted and can be either locally, regionally or globally located. This means that all our data and insights are top-notch, trusted, and reliable. 

Witness the sheer power of AI-backed insights by requesting a demo of our media monitoring software. Get to see the value of your earned media and return on investment. This information is also available via our mobile app, giving you easy access to brand conversations on the go. 

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