United States

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

Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

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

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

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

Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a new social media app on April 18, 2017. The app is called Infield Chatter. As is the custom with new social media apps, this one is only available for your Android and iPhone devices. You can download it from the corresponding app store.

As of this moment, there are five major social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, and Instagram. All of these platforms have one thing in common: you can discuss almost any topic on them. Therefore, people get together and form their own cliques or niches. They connect with people who share their same interests. You’ll find sports fans on every platform, but it was hard to find a sports-only social media platform.

The purpose of Infield Chatter is to have a place where MLB players can talk to and connect with their fans. Although it’s true that they can do this on other social platforms, this one is strictly for baseball fans. That means this place can be a safe haven, especially for people who only get on social media to talk baseball.

One of the things that the app is unique for is no trolling. The app creators have a team in place of real people who actually browse the site and respond to reports. It’s not automated like it is on Facebook, or ignored like it is on Twitter. The MLB cares about the welfare of its players and the fans, in the sense that it won’t tolerate such behavior. If you’re caught engaging in this type of behavior, your account will be suspended.

That means you can’t run around saying derogatory things about any team, player, stadium, coach, staff member, or anything or anyone related to the MLB. Be respectful to other people on the app, or leave.

Twitter could take a few pointers from this app.

Another social app was announced by Tumblr called Cabana. The purpose of this app is to allow groups of friends to watch videos together. There are already about a dozen apps out there for this same purpose, but apparently, Tumblr felt like it was smart to jump into the game.

The co-founder of Shoes of Prey recently announced a social network app that allows strangers to have conversations with each other. It’s called Mottle. The funny thing about Mottle is you actually use Facebook to sign into it. The social network is geared around in-depth human connection, which is something you apparently don’t get on Facebook. That’s probably why you need it to sign in.

Three niche social media apps were announced within two days, and there are probably more to come. Social media isn’t going away, but having a network that appeals only to a certain group of people isn’t a bad idea.

Like every other trend on this planet, when someone sees a good idea they want to copy it. What MLB did was genius, because their fans are very dedicated to the sport and their favorite team. They’ve gathered their target audience into one place. If they treat them right, people will continue to be enthusiastic about baseball, go to games, and buy their merchandise.

The point is to find a group of people who are very dedicated to something and bring them together. So a social network for gardening or anime may be a very big hit. A social network about polyps probably won’t fly with the general public.

If you’ve got big money like MLB or Tumblr, you can easily drop millions into developing a social app. If you don’t have the money, you can either start small (like a forum) or create a place to hang out with people who share an interest connected to your industry.

For example, an auto glass repair business may create a Facebook group about cars. People interested in trading stocks may join a general finance forum.

Once you’ve got your audience, you can start to get to know them—how they think, how they act, what they want out of life. The closer you get to your prospects, the more of a relationship you’re going to build with them. They’re going to trust you, which goes a very long way toward the health of your business.

This article was originally published on this site on May 18, 2017. We republish posts on Saturdays for readers who may have missed them the first time. It was written by Brian Rashid from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

Are Niche Social Media Sites the Beginning of a New Trend?

Software as a service (SaaS) company Meltwater has just revealed its role as a launch provider for Amazon Web Services (AWS) Data Exchange, a cloud service launching today designed to provide customers with third-party data.

The new Packaged Data Sets will bring Meltwater’s expertise in news and social data gathering to the largest data marketplace in the world.

The Amazon Web Services platform currently offers over 165 fully-featured services, ranging from machine learning applications to virtual reality, mobile, security and many others.

With such a variety of applications and millions of customers, the AWS Data Exchange market is set to propel Meltwater’s reach even further.

“We’re excited to be a launch provider with AWS and look forward to working within AWS Data Exchange to help our shared customers gain business insight from these new packaged data products which combine the best of our content and AI capabilities,” said Tim Barker, Head of Product for Fairhair.ai at Meltwater. "AWS Data Exchange complements the range of products and services we already deliver to over 32,000 customers and provides us with an exciting new path to rapidly develop and deploy further packaged data products in response to market and individual customer requirements.”

Meltwater specialises in providing packages containing data processes aimed at supporting different business processes.

“[The company] believes in the value of businesses using online data to make better-informed decisions and become more competitive in their markets,” commented Leor Distenfeld, Executive Director of Outside Insight at Meltwater.

“Historically, we have provided PR and Communications departments with the insights they need to stay ahead, but with the launch of our derived data sets available on AWS Data Exchange, we bring this expertise to departments such as business intelligence, competitive intelligence, marketing and legal, who can leverage this data and create insights to their advantage,” Distenfeld explained.

Some of Meltwater’s data packages focus on providing investors with potential trading opportunities by tracking daily changes in media coverage and sentiment for companies, and rebalance portfolios based on shifting sentiment and business event patterns across different industry verticals.

Others focus on informing Media and Entertainment production teams by tracking changes in daily media coverage and sentiment for TV streaming platforms and flagship shows, while making more informed sponsorship and advertising decisions by tracking coverage for different celebrities.

Finally, Healthcare and Life Sciences organizations can use the company’s data to track media coverage around key drug classes and medical conditions and market accordingly.

Meltwater joining the AWS Data Exchange will enable businesses across multiple industries to support their data-driven strategies through access to a new range of packaged data products.

With over 500 million new documents being added daily, and best-in-class NLP enrichments layered on top, these datasets will provide AWS Data Exchange customers with an unprecedented amount of data to help drive their business strategy.

“We’re delighted to have Meltwater as a data provider as part of our launch,” said Stephen Orban, General Manager at AWS Data Exchange. “They have years of experience aggregating data from numerous channels on a global scale. 

“With the market calling for more external data to complement internal datasets, we believe with that Meltwater can provide our customers with enhanced visibility into the world around them, so that they can make better-informed decisions”, Orban concluded.

The AWS Data Exchange website is already live.

Meltwater Launches Data Sets on New Amazon AWS Data Exchange

For those choosing to go into PR—and many are, with PR projected to be one of the top 10 occupations by 2022, the career options are plentiful. PR pros can work for corporations, agencies, nonprofits, start-ups, or small businesses. They can specialize in a variety of areas that fall under PR, from producing content to crisis communications to media relations and more.

So, why might a PR practitioner pursue consulting as a career path?

For those who’ve worked in-house, becoming a PR consultant can be an attractive option. Agencies tend to burn out their brightest stars with long hours and low pay. Meanwhile, those who work in corporate PR can get bogged down in bureaucracy, making it tough to feel as if they’re making a difference. This can lead to boredom or the suspicion that they’re a cog in the wheel.

Given that, more PR pros may turn to consulting as a career option. Many small and medium-sized businesses look to consultants to help out with their PR initiatives. For consultants, this relationship can be rewarding since their work directly impacts the company’s bottom line.

Further, PR consultants enjoy the freedom and flexibility to work from anywhere. lowering overhead costs. If you have a phone and a laptop, you’re in business. Soloists can work with other vendors as needed, so they don’t need to hire and pay staff.

Of course, beyond the basics, consultants may want to consider additions like subscriptions to media databases, and social media monitoring software, so they can track campaign results for clients.

What are some areas of PR specialization?

Writing: Small and medium businesses need content—but who has time to devote to creating it? PR consultants can neatly fill this gap by writing content ranging from newsletters, blog posts, press releases, contributed articles, white papers, and case studies.

Social media: Social media is another area in which PR pros can shine. Their ability to research topics to find content that companies can post—in addition to brand content—can help maintain a steady stream of traffic.

Event planning: Some PR consultants excel at planning and executing trade shows, community events, and conferences for small and medium businesses that lack dedicated event staff.

Crisis communications: It’s no secret that today’s brands can easily find themselves in hot water. Anything from an accidental social media misstep or national tragedy can affect businesses—many who aren’t equipped to handle these situations. PR consultants who specialize in crisis communications can help steer businesses down the right path.

Media relations: Still a crucial part of a strong PR effort, the practice of media relations requires a particular skill set. The consultants that specialize in this area can help companies secure earned media opportunities.

Thought leadership: PR consultants are primed to implement initiatives for executives that include them writing and speaking at conferences, as it requires focused effort, sometimes within a defined timetable. Fruits of such a program can feed other marketing initiatives (like social media and the company’s blog).

Influencer marketing: A growing area of PR, influencer marketing involves how to best plug influencers into your PR and comms efforts. A consultant can help hone in on key influencers and start to build relationships on behalf of the company.

With the right framework and tools in place, hanging out a shingle as a successful PR consultant can become a reality for today’s PR pros looking for more independence and variety in their work. As the PR profession continues to change and grow, expect more comms pros to consider this increasingly popular option.

Know Your Options as a PR Consultant

At the tender age of 22, engineering prodigy Palmer Luckey unveiled his prototype version of his company’s product to several thousand engineers and developers at a conference he hosted himself. The product was the first commercially available virtual reality headset, and was named the Oculus Rift. While the ground-breaking technology had the world feverish with anticipation, another even more promising development was quietly gaining momentum. Enter augmented reality, or otherwise known as AR.

Augmented reality apps allow users to see a composite, false view of the world created by computer-generated images, while looking at the world around them in real-time. In layman’s terms, it provides the user with a mixed-reality – part virtual, part real world. Now, while VR offers users a more immersive and “trendy” experience, the broader application of AR technology in society tends to have tech enthusiasts far more excited.

AR technology gained mainstream attention after the introduction of augmented facial filters by popular mobile apps, Snapchat and MSQRD, as well as last year’s sensationally popular location-based fantasy game, Pokémon Go, but the probability of many more industries adopting augmented reality characteristics is high in 2017. It’s monumental successes like these that underpin why Goldman Sachs has gone on to predict that the AR and VR industry will be worth a whopping $80 billion by 2025.

Companies across the world are quickly realising the opportunity of leveraging this new technology to enrich their brand experience and improve customer engagement. They are doing this by bridging the gap between online and in-store brand touch-points, providing a more immersive experience, which can reduce time to purchase and increase conversion rates. What this means for your brand is that if you want to get ahead of the market, using augmented reality apps may be the way to do so.

In a recent Meltwater webinar on augmented reality, Johan Walters, Digital Solutions Consultant at Clicks2Customers, spoke about how augmented reality is changing customer engagement by measuring the results of some companies’ AR marketing campaigns, and gave tips for businesses attempting to experiment with the promising new technology.

Two Reasons Why You May Want to Get Going with AR Today

1. Augmented reality creates a competitive gap.

A company that has adopted augmented reality apps differentiates itself with challenger brands by creating an always-on digital channel in the offline world that didn’t exist before. AR allows consumers to bring the in-store experience home with them, keeping products top-of-mind and embedding an emotional connection to the brand. The competitive gap broadens as only a few companies have taken strides in staying ahead of trends and already implemented the technology, leaving their competitors behind.

2. Augmented reality apps move the customer through the purchase funnel.

The Pokemon Go craze may have faded, but augmented reality has not. It’s now not only used within the gaming industry, but the retail, e-commerce, education, healthcare, air and space travel, automotive and real estate industries are also catching on.

Audiences are no longer passive “window shoppers” – AR has suddenly provided customers with active brand engagement. With AR, customers can see what their future house will look like, how a different hair colour will suit them, or test drive a car, either in-store or in the comfort of their own home. Consumer interest is sparked and can immediately be drawn down to action, actively pushing the consumer through the purchase funnel.

Tip: With a consumer intelligence platform like Radarly you'll get access to all data needed to map out consumer interests.

BBC Earth and AR discovery app Blipper collaborated in an incredible marketing campaign for the release of the series Planet Earth II. Users could scan one of seventeen everyday objects to reveal one of the animals featured in the film and learn more about the animal and environment. The educational experience and customer engagement concealed the fact that it was a great marketing strategy for a television series. Customers responded by spreading information about the series release and expressing their excitement on social media.

The massive fast-food chain had two main goals: to drive repeat visits and increase word-of-mouth.

They achieved this by launching an augmented reality Christmas campaign in December 2016, offering customers a unique way to celebrate the festive season. Customers could download the Blippar app, scan their food tray with their smartphones, and see their tray turn into an advent calendar. Each day of the month until Christmas (1 – 25 December), a new window was opened, with different activations including a selfie feature, camera filters, games and thousands of 10-pound Amazon gift vouchers up for grabs every day.

They achieved their goal of increasing foot traffic as customers came back to see what would be in the next day’s window and a major buzz was created surrounding the exciting prizes that McDonald’s was offering. The results speak for themselves – McDonald’s saw over 1 million interactions in the 24-day period and an average of 2 interactions per user, meaning customers had repeat visits at least twice in under a month.

Johan Walters gave webinar participants what he thinks are the keys to success in implementing augmented reality. According to him, there are five keys to success that fall into two categories: physical elements and digital elements.

The physical elements drive the volume of engagement

User education: this refers to the type and size of the CTA button, and the incentive to click on it. An example of a type of CTA button is “Click to download app,” or “Click to see it come to life.” When it comes to the size of the CTA, bigger is always better. The consumer needs to be drawn to it and not accidentally skim over it. The user education also refers to the process of educating the user on how to utilise augmented reality apps. This works best as a three-step process; usually: download the app, scan the image, and watch AR work its magic.

Touchpoint: the touchpoint is the marker that is to become interactive. The type of touchpoint can range from anything from a book to an animal. Once scanned, it is the touchpoint that activates the AR experience.

Consumer interest: this refers to the consumer interest in the product. Is it a high-passion product that the consumer cares about? Some ways to increase consumer interest include using incentives or competitions, famous events (such as World Cup sports matches) or celebrity endorsements (various events have involved taking an AR selfie with a celebrity).

Promotion: the promotional aspect of the campaign is also vital. Because AR is still relatively new in South Africa, a lot of companies have to construct their own audience as well as educate their existing audience. Television commercials and sponsored social media advertisements can be used to gain large, new audiences, and your brand’s blog and emailing list can be used to reach your existing audience. In-store advertisements can also boost awareness through direct promotion.

The digital element drive the depth of engagement

Content: The digital element of any AR campaign is the content; whether it’s a game, video, app or film. When it comes to deciding on the content, ask yourself what the impact of this content is: does it have a wow-factor? And does this piece of content encourage repeat usage? This can be achieved by using incentives for customers to follow-up, or cutting up an AR series into bite-sized content to encourage users to come back.

Most experimental approaches are done in isolation of other marketing initiatives and have no impact on the greater brand strategy. This fragmentary approach gives an inaccurate view of how effective a new technology or solution like AR could be. Walters advises businesses to commit to an innovation budget for the following reasons:

Create an innovation line item. This means that spend is made available upfront so you don’t have to borrow from other parts of the budget to afford to try something new. Innovations can then be motivated for with regards to overall budget spend.

Innovation is often a KPI measurement for CMOs. Having an innovative line item not only shows what CMOs are doing with experimentation, but they also have a financial target with which they can measure their key performance.

An innovation budget allows you to experiment with new technologies or solutions without compromising your performance in more traditional methods. Once you’ve experimented, you can upscale what works to drive consumer engagement and increase conversion rates.

Incorporate measurement tools within your innovation budget to ensure you’re making informed decisions. Walters believes that, “measurement is the glue that binds your above-the-line to below-the-line efforts.”

Don’t try to be innovative for the sake of it. Many companies spend billions of rands developing brand initiatives that are tech-savvy and advanced, but if this is not aligned with their brand message or delivery, it will never be sustainable.

You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure

The truly outstanding CMOs are those who are bold enough to experiment with new ideas and new technologies. But they are also the ones who are smart enough to know how to innovate in a way that augments their brand narrative, creating long-term opportunities, without exposing them to unnecessary risk.

Walters says that unless innovation is properly managed, measured and monetized, the real benefits will never be fully realised. Fill out the form below and get hold of the Meltwater team to discover how the right measurement tools can help you make informed decisions about managing innovative marketing campaigns.

How Augmented Reality Apps are Changing Customer Engagement

Every sinew of muscle stretching on adrenaline, the chorused breaths of horses galloping down the stretch, the raucous punters screaming at the top of their beating lungs in the hope of a bountiful victory – nothing beats the rush of the Melbourne Cup. Unless you are Taylor Swift, that is. This year’s edition of one of Melbourne’s most storied sporting events went without a hitch as usual but it did encounter a rather curious spat with the American pop drama starlet when she pulled out of the event’s premier showcase. This raised a fair share of raised eyebrows over social media as it coincided with ABC News breaking a news story about the mistreatment and abuse of horses in the run-up to Cup Day.

The event has long been divisive in the Australian social fabric – sporting enthusiasts who supported with pride of a national cultural event while on the other side stood the country’s famed spirit of social activism against animal cruelty. Increasingly, Australian establishments are disassociating themselves from the event as they take a stand against the inhumane practices of racehorse trainers while the punters scoffed at the waning national interest of the sport.

Since the publication of the damning exposé on 18 Oct, news coverage went hurtling down the track like an unhinged chariot. There were more than 23,300 news articles, slightly more than a thousand reports each day before the turnstiles swung open for the majestic equines to jostle for the Cup. The strategically released ABC report drove the momentum of the narrative in the mainstream media. The high coverage in the media undoubtedly had a pervasive influence on Australians. The official attendance for the race is its lowest since 1993 and it is the fourth consecutive year that it has declined. Other major events such as music festival Big Day Out, the last one held in 2014, have been scrapped due to poor turnout and losses incurred by the organisers – a little celebration for those fighting for the cause.

However, unlike Swift, none of the sponsors has dropped out of the premier horseracing event. In fact, the prize money for the best steeds has increased from last year’s edition. To put it in perspective, only the US and Japan have bigger paydays than the Melbourne Cup. Companies like AAMI, Myer and NAB have only issued concern over the controversy while others such as dating app Bumble have monetarily contributed to associations looking after the welfare of the equine industry. With the gambling industry spurring the massive interest of the Cup’s existence, it remains a lucrative sport to invest in.

With a locally-bred horse Vow & Declare winning the Cup, cynical observers would call it a public relations spin. There was a swell of pride in social media as netizens glowed at the victory by a homegrown horse which was not even tipped to win. There were more 120,000 unique mentions of the Melbourne Cup on social media. With more than half of the lineup consisting of internationally-trained and funded horses, the home victory generated around 42% of positive sentiment. The delirium over Vow & Declare drowned out the initial negative narrative of animal abuse and kept it to a lower-than-expected 21%.

Unsurprisingly, with the international lineup and a huge prize at stake, interest on social media came from various countries. Aussies contributed most of the mentions, and the rest of the field reflected the nations which had a strong interest – as highlighted, the US and Japan filled the top five positions. The BBC’s Facebook article on the abuse was the highest-profile social post for the Melbourne Cup, with a social reach of almost 50 million. Comments on the post ranged from utter disgust at the treatment of the horses and calls for the event to be shut down. Many poured scorn at the racing and gambling industries for perpetuating the violence against the poor horses. 

A unique feature of Meltwater’s platform is its Social Echo feature which, demonstrates the full impact of editorial efforts on social channels. The feature tracks the total number of posts, reactions, and comments related to the article on Facebook, as well as the number of times the article has been tweeted or retweeted on Twitter. It enables PR professionals to focus their PR strategy on publications that deliver the best audience engagement via social channels. 

The BBC article was posted on Facebook on the day of the race itself and it was exponentially shared in a few hours. This result reflects the BBC’s sphere of influence and the article’s high Social Echo measurement suggests that netizens were highly engaged with the content. This shows that organisers and marketing professionals should consult with established news agencies such as the BBC to effectively and expeditiously reach out to their audience and get their message across through social media.

Companies also rode on the backs of the Melbourne Cup as they used the opportunity to market their products to the event. High measurements of Social Echo metrics showed companies such as Pizza Hut, Uber and TGIF launched Cup-related marketing campaigns which garnered much attention from the public. For example, TGIF’s campaign exclaimed that they were open for the race itself – many restaurants were closed on the public holiday or boycotted the event altogether. Content maker, The Juice, also received much attention on Twitter as they produced a public service announcement parody which sarcastically mocked the notoriety of the abuse in horse racing, the effects of the gambling industry and the troubles of alcoholism during the event. 

Animal abuse is never a trivial matter and the atrocities exposed in the racing industry in Australia has left some in the ire of the rest of the nation. More needs to be done to pick the hooves of such abuse and monetary contributions can only do so much in its prevention. Tighter regulations and stricter inspections of the industry must be implemented. Holding the industry’s owners accountable for their actions is also paramount. The welfare of horses, and animals in general lie in the hands of owners and trainers. Maybe the race that stops a nation should take a breather and take stock of the treatment of their breeds.

Melbourne Cup 2019: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The Scottish people have embraced immersive technologies, supported a movement towards more liberal human rights policies (by and large) and embraced low-carbon behaviours faster than many of their global counterparts. How do we know this? Well, we’ve done the research and looked into what Scottish audiences, in particular, are talking about.

Through survey data, event info, government policies and behavioural insights, a brand can start to gain a fundamental understanding of who they are talking to in a specific location. However, gaining this insight can involve a lot of manual labour and can be very time consuming.

In a fast-paced environment, where popular themes and discussions change daily (within greater conversations) it can be difficult to keep up using traditional methods. As brand custodians this presents us with a few difficult challenges when speaking to Scottish consumers – especially in a digital world.

It’s easy to miss mentions about specific topics, as well as brand complaints and slander due to the sheer magnitude of information on the internet. According to statistics directly from the Scottish government, 97% of adults said they used the internet at home. With this level of accessibility, drastically higher than in most parts of the world, a flood of opinion-based content can be released about your brand, and you might not know until it’s too late.

Scottish audiences have phenomenal access (compared globally) to the internet and are not afraid to share their opinions online – which makes this audience a potentially lethal opponent to any brand.


Scots are tech-savvy. And, this isn’t an assumption based on connectivity alone. In a report by Public, 3 Scottish cities were named among the most digitally savvy urban areas of the UK, namely: Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh. Generally, we know that tech-savvy audiences expect user-friendly, familiar interfaces, instant gratification and high levels of customer service and delivery.


Scotland is a leader in terms of global conversations and highly conscientious. Twitter data shows that topics, such as climate change and politics have been highly prioritised by Scottish audiences.


Mobile take-up is high, reportedly at 70% since 2016, according to Ofcom. Therefore, a mobile-first approach is necessary for brands targeting emerging audiences.

So, with all of this in mind, you’ve got a powerful audience embracing digital on a daily basis. How will you ensure that your brand stays positioned in a positive light? And that you meet these growing needs of this computer literate and plugged in market?

The Herald Scotland claims that one third of Scots are ‘addicted to social media’. According to a survey by polling firm Censuswide Scotland, ‘17% of Scots feel anxious if they cannot access their social accounts, while 14% say they could not go 48 hours without visiting them’.

In light of this, your brand needs to be where its consumers are, monitoring the conversation on popular social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. So, how do you do this “social listening”?

You can start with media monitoring software and set the monitoring location to Scotland. Essentially, this software will trawl social channels for you looking for specific keywords or mentions of your brand, which you choose. It centralises the instances where these words or related themes have come up into a dashboard, where you can quickly see top tweets and posts in a few minutes. This helps you to assess which of them needs to be addressed urgently as the top mentions will have the biggest social impact.

At the same time, you can view the sentiment of each post, marked by positive, neutral or negative indicators. You can also see an overview of sentiment for all mentions, over a time period that you select. This way, you can quickly establish if there is a crisis brewing or if your consumers are generally saying positive things about your brand on social media.

There are a number of metrics you can set to monitor and help you stay on top of social, and each is easily downloadable or in ready to report format.

Beyond the social, lies an equally important world of media and editorial content from third-parties and journalists looking to discuss relevant topics and brands. It’s easy for your company to be in the public eye before you’ve even become aware of it, and while most journalists will request a direct comment from you in line with a mention.

However, in the famous announcement from Forbes, we as humans create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day, which is almost unfathomable. There’s no way that you could manually crawl through all of that yourself. A search engine is a good starting point but it doesn’t allow you as much control over what you need to see first and how you can share that data. In the same breath, the digital landscape is about more than just your brand. It’s about threats and opportunities too.

Monitoring the media with a data-driven mechanism allows you to suss out your competitors, identify opportunities for new creative ideas and products and find out who is doing what you do, but better. You aren’t limited in terms of the keywords you can use, which opens up a gateway of curated information that can revolutionise the way you do business.

Other important benefits to monitoring Scottish media

If you think back to earlier in this post, we spoke about Scots being a generally tech-savvy audience with high expectations. In light of what we know about media monitoring, this is an extremely relevant point. Scottish consumers have expectations for excellent customer service and many of them turn to the media to have these expectations met – particularly social media.

With monitoring software, you can pick up on complaints about your brand even if they aren’t tagged, clearing up disputes from disgruntled customers before they escalate. You can also preemptively offer your services and exceed expectations when it’s so easy to see who is talking about what.

Want to really connect with and understand your Scottish audiences? Have a look at our media monitoring software and see how easy it is to do so. Simply contact us and we’ll give you a free demo.

Media Monitoring in Scotland – A Brand Gateway in a Promising Market

When your business is international, it’s only natural to ask the question “should our PR agency be global too?” But, increasingly, some companies are finding it’s a better fit to manage a stable of regional PR agencies that really know their audience.

Whether you have an existing partner that says it can support your new regional activities or you’re starting fresh with your search, it’s important to be thorough in your decision making, especially since international PR and marketing activities gone awry could permanently damage, or even destroy, your brand.

Tip: Learn how to hire a PR agency and how to hire a marketing firm.

Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better in Global PR

Global PR agencies have innate appeal simply because they can act as a one-stop-shop that can scale with you. And, in many cases, these brands have earned their reputation through a track record of success and true global expertise.

But an agency should not be chosen as your best partner simply because it is global. Further, the convenience of having one agency may come at costs that your team hasn’t considered.

Understanding the difference between translation and localization is crucial when choosing an agency partner. Translation services simply take a message from one language and turn it into the equivalent words in another language. Localization, on the other hand, is the process of adapting a message with the region—and its preferences and idioms—in mind.

The difference may seem subtle, but localization controls how everything about your communication—from your word choice, imagery, layout, channels for distribution, etc.—may be received by regional audiences. For PR, this also means tailoring your media approach based on the communication styles of that region.

In an attempt to stay competitive, agencies may tout regional expertise that is nothing more than translation. Or, many global agencies now partner with local agencies who actually do the work at the local level, begging the question of if you should cut out the middle management—the global PR agency.

Topics to Vet with Your Global PR Agency Partners

When considering a global agency relationship, be thorough in your discovery phases to ensure you have a full scope of what services they actually provide. Make sure you cover each of these topics when vetting your agency partners:

Scope of International Services: Dive deep into the exact nature of how the agency conducts its international business. Do they have established offices in your target market, partner with outside agencies, or do they conduct all business out of their HQ? Agencies may outsource work that gets added to your bill, so you should understand what is performed in-house and what is included in the fees.

Case Studies and Customer References: Ask to see case studies of work done in your target region(s) and ask for client references.

Main Contact: Who would your primary contact be, where are they located, and what languages and cultures have they mastered?

Engaging with multiple regional PR agencies carries added responsibility around communications and further complications with your workflows (don’t you love scheduling meetings for three time zones?), but the benefits can outweigh these added hurdles.

Working with multiple agencies is a very common practice. In 2017, an estimated 43% of companies were working with multiple agencies, and over half of the comms pros in the same survey noted that one of the top reasons for working with PR agencies was because of activities in specific geographic markets.

Much like in your home country, the local options will vary greatly in quality, but you’re eliminating chances of translation gone wrong.

Finding regional agencies to partner with may seem daunting. But it can greatly reduce the risk of brand blunders in your most important international markets. Use these strategies for success when exploring regional partners:

Ask Your Network: Check if your existing agency has an international partner they recommend and ask your peers and colleagues about their agency relationships.

Have A Local Representative on Your Search Team: Regardless of who is leading the agency search, a member of the regional team this agency would partner with should take part in the conversations. They can better identify potential red flags, and dive deeper on if the local agency is able to deliver on the services you need.

The Meltwater Blog

Are Niche Social Media Sites the Beginning of a New Trend?

Meltwater Launches Data Sets on New Amazon AWS Data Exchange

Know Your Options as a PR Consultant

How Augmented Reality Apps are Changing Customer Engagement

Melbourne Cup 2019: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Media Monitoring in Scotland – A Brand Gateway in a Promising Market

Want Big Global PR Results? Time to Think Small

How to Get Executive Bylines in Publications

4 Top Paid Influencers You Probably Never Heard Of—But Can Learn From

6 Tips for Enforcing Consistent Messaging Across Your Organization

5 Reasons Why Gaming Is the Next Big Brand Opportunity

Social Media Reactions: Greta Thunberg, UN Climate Action Summit 2019