Kantar customers can now access Ubermetrics’ global social media data and analytics - Ubermetrics customers can now access Kantar’s offline earned media data.

Berlin, 29th August 2019. Kantar and Ubermetrics have formed a strategic partnership to bring the best of their data and analytics to the communications and PR industry in Germany. As the world's leading company in the field of earned media intelligence, Kantar will use the social media data acquisition and analysis expertise of the global data and PR analytics specialist Ubermetrics. In parallel, Ubermetrics' customers will have access to Kantar's extensive capabilities in the analysis of offline media. Kantar also takes on the responsibility for license management.

Through its cooperation with Kantar, Ubermetrics is now able to enhance its portfolio of high-quality data from all media types. Ubermetrics' Media Monitoring and Media Analysis offering will be complemented by 360-degree coverage of the media landscape, including data from print media worldwide. Kantar is expanding its social media monitoring and analysis offer with additional automated data analysis and is improving its dashboards with additional features.

The partnership brings together the first-class earned media expertise of both companies. Kantar, the global leader in connected intelligence, provides its clients with all the data they need to make informed decisions on all aspects of media monitoring, reputation analysis, audience targeting and media planning. More than half of Fortune Top 500 companies, global institutions, leading agencies and media providers rely on Kantar solutions and analytics. Ubermetrics is a leading content intelligence platform for marketing and public relations professionals who process more than 50,000 articles and content per minute from more than 460 million media sources based on artificial intelligence (AI).

Michael Maillinger, CEO Media Division in Germany, Kantar: "The integration of Ubermetrics' data and analytics into our portfolio allows us to better address our customers' needs and deliver tailored metrics quickly and comprehensively. As a result, our highly specialized range of newsroom solutions is once again significantly upgraded.“

Bernd Molzahn, Founder and Chief Sales Officer, Ubermetrics: "We are pleased to be able to offer our customers the complete range of high-quality services in media analysis through our strategic partnership with Kantar. The global Kantar network gives our customers access to critical, additional data and channels - a key factor in planning and monitoring the success of global communications campaigns."

-end-

About Kantar: Kantar is the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company. We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies, Kantar’s 30,000 people help the world’s leading organisations succeed and grow.

About Ubermetrics: Ubermetrics is the leading Content Intelligence platform for Marketing & PR experts. The Ubermetrics Content intelligence platform is an AI-driven technology transforming public content into meaningful insights for effective content-driven communication strategies. With Ubermetrics, digital communicators can discover, research, analyse and optimise content and trends to maximise communication effectiveness and ROI. The Ubermetrics platform processes over 50,000 content pieces per minute from over 460 million sources. Our advanced Artificial Intelligence, metrical and text-mining analytics enable digital communication experts to discover relevant topic, trends, influencers and channels driving successful content strategies truly resonating with stakeholder groups. Ubermetrics operates out of offices in Berlin, Germany and San Francisco, USA and works with customers like BMW, Word Health Summit, Fink & Fuchs and RCI Banque.

Read the original artile here: https://www.kantarmedia.com/global/newsroom/press-releases/kantar-ubermetrics-partner-to-provide-enhanced-earned-media-data-in-germany

Data has been the new buzzword for a few years now; there are 2.5 Quintillion bytes of data created each day at our current pace (Forbes). I don’t know what a Quintillion is, but I’m positive it’s beyond what my mind can fathom.

What data are you using to measure your performance, and how do you know this data isn’t a vanity metric and is actually valuable to your business?

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that no specific value is always a vanity metric; rather, the “vanity” term applies when numbers are provided out of context or do not serve a direct measurement purpose. A good way to sniff out vanity metrics is to ask: is this number just something that sounds “cool” to pass up to management? Or does it provide insight that helps make day-to-day decisions?

Let’s take a look at some basic examples before diving into ways you can avoid these mistakes.

Both vanity metrics above are standalone numbers that somebody has shown their boss, guaranteed. Once we pull back the curtain it gives the vanity metric context and provides clear next steps on how to take action to improve the results. This is what we want!

In PR, the “vanity” label is typically slapped onto values such as UVPM or AVE. If those are the only metrics your PR team is using, I agree entirely. We are no longer living in a world restricted to newspapers and billboards where a very rough guess at views is acceptable. Everything is digital – everything – even refrigerators and toothbrushes are tracking consumer data. So why is PR allowed to run blind and pretend that real metrics don’t exist?

Consider UVPM (Unique Visitors Per Month). UVPM is measured at the outlet level and provides the number of visitors that outlet, as a whole, receives per month. PR historically adds up UVPM numbers from any outlet they were mentioned in and calls this their audience. I call that silly.

Let’s say I was mentioned in Ad Age, the Pittsburgh Business Times, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Ad Age: 3.17M UVPM

Pgh Business Times: 3.37M UVPM

Pgh Post-Gazette: 4.77M UVPM

Total UVPM: 11.31M !!!!!

But wait, isn’t Pittsburgh’s entire metro population only 2.36M? Even New York City’s population is 8.62M. More people read my specific article than live in southwestern PA and NYC combined?! (Nope.)

Two blatant factors need to be considered with UVPM:

Just because your article appeared in an outlet doesn’t mean every unique visitor per month has read it. Ad Age may have over 3 million people visit their site per month but how many of those read your specific article?These numbers are not deduplicated across outlets when combined. The odds that someone living in Pittsburgh has visited both the Pittsburgh Business Times and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a full month’s time frame are, let’s face it, pretty high. Adding these two statistics without the ability to identify individuals and determine overlap is highly inflating the numbers.

While I may have been mentioned in all three publications above, I cannot genuinely claim that over 11 million people saw my brand’s name. That number, however, could be my very top of funnel metric, which I’d call “potential reach” and append with many more metrics down the funnel.

Now consider AVE (Advertising Value Equivalent). AVE is an attempt to quantify PR as if it got the spend of a paid advertisement, typically incorporating coverage, placement, and even credibility. I appreciate the attempt – PR and Comms teams should absolutely be able to quantify their coverage and justify the dollar value it aligns with. However, AVE is not a hard statistic by any means, and is a very poor standalone metric.

There is no concrete way to measure AVE. In fact, as of 2017, many organizations including AMEC and CIPR have banned the use of AVE as a valid metric. Most calculations utilize ratios that compare Paid Media spend/size/reach to Earned Media spend/size/reach, with random multipliers thrown in there. (Sounds legit, right?)

Two blatant factors need to be considered with AVE:

The content itself is not comparable. A small paid ad, let’s say two square inches on a screen, is jam-packed with value statements, logos, etc. to promote your brand. An article, however, spans an average of 12 square inches on a screen, and how often is your brand mentioned throughout? Also, what if it’s mentioned in a negative tone or amongst competitors?Earned Media is much more credible than Paid Media. If it is indeed a positive article about your brand, it comes across to consumers very differently than a paid banner advertisement would, for example. (Keep reading for more on this.)

AVE as it exists today should be avoided. However, moving the PR industry forward from a metrics standpoint is something I can definitely stand behind. Keep reading on how Cision integrates into the Paid Media space to gather validated insights, not vanity metrics, that can help PR teams begin to provide the same data that Paid Media has for a decade.

In short, when determining which metrics to use, ask yourself: Does this give me insight into the individuals I’ve truly reached with my PR? Am I confident it represents the value in my efforts? Are there actually insights I’ve gained from these metrics that will drive tomorrow’s decision making?

Now that it’s clear what Vanity Metrics are, how can PR and Comms act on this knowledge? Look for part two of this three part series in the coming weeks.

Follow this link for the original article from Cision: https://www.cision.com/us/2019/07/behind-the-curtain-of-vanity-metrics/

SAIL LABS was selected by EU Gateway | Business Avenues as one of the 50 European companies to participate in an EU-funded mission to Singapore and Thailand, dedicated to Information and Communication Technologies.

From June 17th to June 20th , our Director of Business Development, Francesca Galeotti, and the Business Development Manager, Alexander Oberkersch, attended the NXTAsia Summit in Singapore. On the occasion, SAIL LABS had the opportunity to present their solution on stage at the Exhibitor Spotlight and at their branded booth.

After the Singapore mission, our colleagues travelled to Thailand, where they remained until the 22nd of June, participating in B2B networking. The activity offered the possibility of a professional exchange between companies and experts from various fields.

This photo gallery includes some of the moments of SAIL LABS´ mission in Asia.

*The credits from the pictures containing logo marks belong to EU Gateway | Business Avenues.

Follow this link for the original Press Release: https://www.sail-labs.com/2019/07/19/sail-labs-had-been-chosen-to-an-eu-funded-mission-and-attended-to-two-events-in-asia/

pressrelations GmbH acquires the media review and analysis division of Linkfluence Germany GmbH

Dr. Volker Meise (Managing Director of Linkfluence Germany GmbH), Jens Schmitz (Managing Director of pressrelations GmbH)

The full-service media monitoring provider pressrelations and the international social intelligence provider Linkfluence announced a wide-ranging cooperation today. pressrelations acquires the German media review and analysis division of Linkfluence including all customers, news and project managers. In Linkfluence's core business, the two companies will also cooperate closely: Linkfluence will make its AI-based social listening solutions Radarly and Search, as well as its market research portfolio, available to pressrelations customers.

The strategic goal of the cooperation is to combine complementary technical solutions and expertise for the constantly growing requirements in the areas of marketing and PR.

"We are extremely pleased about our newly acquired customers and guarantee a smooth takeover with the project managers they are familiar with", promises Jens Schmitz, Managing Director of pressrelations GmbH. "In addition, we benefit from the enrichment of our products with high-quality social data by Radarly. Our NewsRoom solutions as well as our trend detection tool FirstSignals will gain significantly in quality with the additional sources and possibilities of image recognition."

Over and above the European core markets, the cooperation between the two globally operating media monitoring companies will also extend to the USA in the future. Linkfluence has offices in San Francisco and New York, and pressrelations has an office in Austin, Texas since 2018.

"With pressrelations, we are relying on an innovative partner whose cross-media monitoring tool NewsRadar is already successfully in use on four continents and thus fits perfectly into our global approach", says Dr. Volker Meise, Managing Director of Linkfluence Germany GmbH. " We are particularly pleased to have ensured a stable transition for our employees and to continue working with them on international customers. We are convinced that together, we will create significant added value for our customers in the area of full-service media monitoring. Our strengths complement each other almost perfectly."

pressrelations GmbH

Founded in 2001, pressrelations GmbH, with headquarters in Duesseldorf and branches in Berlin, Hamburg, Austin, Dublin, Moscow and Sofia, is an international service provider for cross-media monitoring and analysis services. The company combines in-house technology with human expertise through its news managers, analysts and consultants. pressrelations provides practical insights and guidance to over 500 customers, for planning, controlling and evaluating their communication work

Linkfluence Germany GmbH

Linkfluence is a leading provider of social data intelligence, providing unique solutions for monitoring, analyzing and activating social media. With its Radarly software suite and associated services, Linkfluence captures and analyzes more than 200 million publications per day to help brands make better decisions. Founded in 2006, Linkfluence is a French company with strong growth and more than 200 employees in France, Germany, the UK, China and Singapore. Linkfluence has more than 500 references worldwide, including Danone, Toyota and Pernod Ricard.

Contact for additional information:

pressrelations GmbH

Klosterstraße 112

40211 Düsseldorf

Romina Gersuni

Global Strategy Manager

Tel. 0211/1752077-814

romina.gersuni@pressrelations.de

www.pressrelations.com

The months-long auction has seen several private equity firms participating, including Apollo Global Management, Platinum Equity and Vista Equit

According to news reports, WPP has confirmed that it is in talks to sell its majority stake in its data analytics unit, Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital in a deal valued around $4 billion. This comes after it was reported that WPP was looking to cap an auction for the business by the end of the week. WPP also highlighted that the proposal was still under negotiation and would therefore not necessarily end in a deal.

The months-long auction has seen several private equity firms participating, including Apollo Global Management, Platinum Equity, and Vista Equity.

According to reports, Kantar CEO, Eric Salama described the frontrunner for the business as “people who share an ambition for growth – they want to grow Kantar and scale it and they want to make it a much more tech-driven business in every aspect".

This offloading of the majority stake in Kantar was confirmed in October last year and would be the latest move by WPP CEO, Mark Read to streamline the business after former CEO Martin Sorrell exited the company last April. The news of the talks with Bain Capital comes just after WPP has confirmed plans to sell its 25% stake in Chime Communications to majority shareholder, Providence Equity Partners, in a deal worth £54.4 million.

Read the original article here: https://www.exchange4media.com/announcements-news/wpp-in-talks-to-sell-majority-stake-in-kantar-to-bain-capital-reports-97800.html

SAIL LABS Technology research team members, Dorothea Thomas-Aniola, Katja Prinz and Erinc Dikici participated in the kick-off meeting of our new H2020 project MIRROR* at the University of Hannover, Germany. MIRROR stands for Migration-Related Risks caused by misconceptions of Opportunities and Requirement and will examine the perceptions of Europe and EU member countries outside of Europe. The aim of the project is to develop an integrated platform, a set of tools, as well as a systematic methodology for the comprehensive intermedia analysis of the perception of Europe by countries of origin for migration, the detection of discrepancies between perception of and reality in Europe, and the creation of awareness for the impact of such misconceptions and resulting threats.

A strong multidisciplinary consortium, combining research, industry and practitioners will cooperate over the next three years with the goal to gain a better understanding of how Europe is perceived abroad and the mechanisms involved in the process.

The project consortium consists of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universitaet Hannover (Germany), Bundesministerium fuer Landesverteidigung und Sport (Austria), Malta Police Force (Malta), Polismyndigheten Swedish Police Authority (Sweden), SAIL LABS Technology (Austria), Eurix Srl (Italy), Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (Netherlands), Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis (Greece), Totalforsvarets Forskningsinstitut (Sweden), Universitat Wien (Austria), Universita Ta Malta (Malta), Conoscenza E Innovazione Societa Aresponsabilita Limitata Semplificata (Italy), Fremde Werden Freunde (Austria), Fondazione Agenfor International (Italy).

The perception of Europe has a high impact on expectations and decisions of citizens from outside Europe to migrate to EU member countries. Misperceptions and targeted misinformation campaigns can lead to security threats. It is therefore crucial to better understand how Europe is perceived abroad, detect discrepancies between image and reality and to spot instances of media manipulation.

MIRROR started on June 1, 2019 and has a runtime of three years.

*The MIRROR project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement № 832921.

Follow this link for the original Press Release: https://www.sail-labs.com/2019/07/01/mirror-project/

No news really is good news if you live in the UK, as a recent study shows that UK and the Netherlands are the most depressing countries when it comes to news coverage. However, at least The Netherlands counters all this negativity by also being the country that has the most positive news stories.

The research, conducted in six countries, reported and analysed media sentiment from national news outlets. At a total level from all countries, the data showed that negative or neutral news stories made up over three quarters (85%) of output. Negative news was covered 32% of the time, neutral 53% of the time and positive 15% of the time. Examining the international data, news on TV was the most positive in tone (38%), narrowly ahead of print media (36%), and with radio a firm third (26%).

Results by country

Negative news

United Kingdom and The Netherlands (50% each)Mexico (43%)France (37%)Germany (18%)Spain (13%)

Positive news

The Netherlands (40%)Mexico (21%)France (17%)United Kingdom (14%)Germany (11%)Spain (1%)

Discussing how the UK compares with other countries James Kelliher, CEO atWhiteoaks International, says it isn’t all bad news: “In the UK we often think that it’s only our media output that is frequently negative, yet this study demonstrates that news in the Netherlands is equally negative and Mexico isn’t far behind at third. At home, the level of negative output does, however, provide plenty of material for our nation’s love of satire and wry humour, with this study showing we rank just fourth out of six for positive news coverage. This ranking against other leading nations is undoubtedly influenced by our continuing political uncertainty.

Positive News

Negative News

“Furthermore, with mental health concerns and awareness of them increasingly affecting our industry and the wider population of the UK, I’d argue that now more than ever, the PR industry needs to work harder. We need to make the case to journalists of all kinds that positive stories, where they are relevant and powerful, can and should be just as, if not more interesting for readers than negative ones. If we continue to view the majority of our news output through a negative lens, then we may have an ongoing challenge to counteract the effects on our mental wellbeing, with unknown consequences.”

So come on, let’s try and cheer everyone up by pushing the feel-good stories harder, life is hard enough without the news making people feel sad.

Methodology

The research was conducted in March 2019 in the UK, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and in Mexico. It was carried out by member agencies in each respective country that are part of the WIN PR Group (see below). Each day, the agency teams recorded and analysed media sentiment from news generated by a balanced selection of national radio, print and TV news media outlets.

The six agencies which participated in the research are: Whiteoaks International(UK), Comcorp (France), Finzel PR (Spain and Portugal), Fortis PR (Germany), Marcommit (Netherlands) and FJ Communications (Latin America).

Read the original article here: https://www.prmoment.com/pr-research/uk-tops-the-charts-for-negative-news-stories?fbclid=IwAR1HMupggLMO8JXvqXf1ZWR1S19U7ER-nHZJi9sc8buapFwbF0u2mZpXlzw

Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

The year 2019 may well be remembered as the one when PR rediscovered its Cannes mojo.

Let’s be candid. The last few years have been years of disappointment for the PR industry at Cannes. The number of wins has been low. The ratio of PR firms entering compared with advertising ones has been going the wrong direction. And some judging decisions (e.g. the one last year to not award a Bronze in the Young Lions competition) have been puzzling and unhelpful.

All of which has led to a significant segment of the PR industry losing faith and losing interest in the Festival.

But… this year seems different. And hopefully we will be able to look back on it as an inflexion point for the industry’s relationship with Cannes.

PR agency heads will be leaving Nice airport with quite the haul of victorious trophies in their luggage, and with a fresh confidence that Cannes really isn’t all about advertising firms outgunning them.

Why does that matter?

It matters because Cannes remains the ultimate showcase of creative work, and the ultimate battleground of creative ideas. For a certain size and type of agency, winning or losing at Cannes is a defining part of their year; one of the key tests by which CEOs judge themselves and judge their teams. And, as marketing disciplines continue to blend, competing against firms that specialise in other forms of work isn’t an aberration -it’s increasingly a daily event.

The Cannes Lions Festival is by no means for everyone. But to some it most certainly is. To the future of our industry, it absolutely is. And that makes it highly relevant to us all.

To say that things are improving after some years of decline is not to say that everything is perfect, however.

Small agencies are still put off, thinking it is the preserve of much larger agencies. It is not, and we need to keep on saying so.

It is still too expensive, and Cannes would do well to lower prices – they might well find that their income rose if they did so. But there are ways of engaging in a cost-efficient way, not least by basing yourself at the ICCO House of PR, now in its seventh year.

And perhaps most crucially, our industry too often fails to showcase the stunning work it delivers because we are not quite strong enough with video content. Heavier investment here would not only help us win more Lions, it would also, and much more importantly, help us deliver even better work for clients – at a time when the marketing disciplines are blending in our favour, mastery of video storytelling is vital.

And so to conclude. Cannes 2019 was good for PR. But Cannes 2020 could, should, and I’m sure will be, better. We’ll be back next year, representing the industry, and helping its best work be showcased via our engagement with the Festival. And in the meantime, we’ll continue working hard to help our industry shine in the sun of Cannes, and roar on its award evening.

Read the original article here: https://iccopr.com/how-the-pr-industry-rediscovered-its-cannes-mojo/?fbclid=IwAR1FruFTJHTmNxcpc3lezT3vr4xpn57NJQ40vl7lYUN3JsZUDs3FWxFjf1o

Credit: Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay

This month, Swedish tech company United Robots delivered its 1 millionth article written by a robot journalist.

By comparison, the New York Times would need 11 years to publish the same number of articles.

Launched just three years ago, United Robots uses artificial intelligence and natural language generation to produce publishable news content from large datasets, mainly covering local sports, property sales and business.

"Robots are good at generating volumes of articles from structured data sets - humans could do that too, but not at the speed and volume that robots do," said Cecilia Campbell, product and market officer at United Robots.

This allows for coverage of football matches or property sales even in remote areas with no reporters. Robots also help local media who do not have enough reporters to do the legwork to cover issues that matter to hyperlocal communities.

Many fear, however, that the the rise of the robot will mean the end of human local journalists altogether. The truth is that the number of local reporters has been steadily declining for years, and it has more to do with difficulties to monetise local news that with the use of automated content.

"Local media no longer cover local sports below a certain level in the league system," said Campbell.

"In most cases, the choice is not between a well-written text by a journalist, or an automated article produced by a robot. The choice is between a robot text, or no text at all."

The ultimate judge here is the audience and, by the looks of it, readers do not really mind. In a small survey of 102 people by MittMedia, the founder of United Robots, 68 percent of respondents said they did not even realise the article was written by a robot.

By automating the writing of editorial from big data sets, Campbell explained, there is no limit to the volume of articles a newsrooms can publish. The key is to do something useful with what they get.

First of all, automated content allows local media to cover entire topics such as all lower football leagues in a specific region.

They can also create new websites populated with this content, such as Klackspark.com, which is a football destination for Swedish county Östergötland created by a local media group. The website covers from the top flight league Allsvenskan, right through to division six.

Byline: "Östgöta Media's text robot". An article generated by a football fixture in the Swedish sixth division

New products also mean the brands have more ad inventory or sponsorships to sell to advertisers.

More hyperlocal content can also help attract new audiences and convert users into paying subscribers- MittMedia has seen a subscription conversion rise of 40 per cent since using the sports bots. This content also generates higher levels of engagement once readers become subscribers which is important for subscriber retention.

The advantage of United Robots is that it only works with structured datasets, as opposed to scraping data from all over the Internet.

"So if it's not in the data, it doesn't get written, which means very little risk of inaccuracies," concludes Campbell.

Read the original article here: https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/robot-journalists-revive-hyperlocal-communities-left-behind-by-declining-regional-media/s2/a740705/?fbclid=IwAR34vfV_TfFZrxTIfCEQIll9gAxc6vlFrZiRtJEr7LeCf-72s4hD0YghRjI

The FIBEP Tech Day was a great opportunity for developers to meet in Prague and discuss new standards, products and latest technologies.

The dedicated tech workshop was hosted at the Newton Media Prague office. Over thirty CEOs, CIOs and CTOs discussed about data transmission standards, the new role of social media as a business platform, how important it is to choose the right technical partner and the significance of research.

The program started with company presentations (MediaTrack, DataScouting, Zissor AS and >>OBSERVER<< GmbH Austria) that focused on different technologies. DataScouting presented its software solutions for media monitoring (print and broadcast), logo detection and ad monitoring. In the afternoon, Talkwalker and Infomedia A/S led the social media workshop.

DataScouting presenting its software media monitoring solutions for print and broadcast

Having the right technological partner on your side makes all the difference. Sebastjan Hribar, Deputy CEO at Klipping (part of Newton Media Group), shared the company’s journey towards technological externalization.

Last but not least, it would not be the right tech day without research. Priberam Portugal presented the results of Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation project. In collaboration with the Deutsche Welle and the BBC, Priberam developed a platform capable of dealing with large volumes of data across many languages and different media types.

The FIBEP Tech Day follows the previous MITT version, with the last one taking place in Vienna in 2016. The FIBEP Tech Day is an essential event that brings into a single room technology specialists and media intelligence experts.

FIBEP Tech Day, Prague 2019. Picture Credit @_FIBEP

“The party was nice, the party was pumping…and everybody having a ball” … these are the lyrics to the song “who let the dogs out” by Baha Men Sorry that make the perfect ending for this article. The location for the 2020 Tech Day has not been announced yet, but we already look forward to it.

Follow this link for the original article form DataScouting:

https://blog.datascouting.com/fibep-tech-day-2019/

BARB, the UK television audience measurement currency, has commissioned Kantar, the world’s leading Television Audience Measurement (TAM) provider, to roll out its new Focal Meter router meter across all broadband homes on the UK’s TAM panel.

Focal Meter will measure viewing across four screens (TVs, smartphones, tablets and PCs) to IP-delivered video content from all broadcasters and complement the existing People Meter which measures linear and time-shifted content viewed on TV Sets.

Data collected using Focal Meter will allow BARB to introduce several major service enhancements to its Gold Standard currency:

Collect viewing on smartphones by individual panellists for the first time and thus allow demographic profiling of this growing platformProvide greater insight into the 20% of TV Set viewing that is currently unidentified by enabling identification of aggregate level viewing to SVOD and other on-line video servicesEnable delineation of (Broadcaster) On Demand and online box set viewing and distinguish this from time-shifted Personal Video Recorder (PVR) viewing Significantly increase the total number of devices measured and reported on the panel

Kantar’s Focal Meter collects data by intercepting web traffic from all devices connected to the home router, preserving respondent privacy by only reporting data from a specified list of BVOD and other online video sites.

Richard Poustie, UK Managing Director of Audience Intelligence, Media Division, Kantar comments, “We are very excited and proud to have been commissioned by BARB to extend the scope of our measurement service on the world’s leading Television Audience Measurement panel. Amongst many other capabilities Focal Meter will significantly enhance the measurement of four-screen viewing and audience profiling by device type and introduce smartphone viewing for the first time.”

Kantar has already rolled out the Focal Meter in Finland and Norway and is in the processing of rolling it out in Canada, Italy and Russia in 2019 and 2020.

Read more about our metering technology here.

Read the Original article here: https://www.kantarmedia.com/global/newsroom/press-releases/barb-commissions-kantar-focal-meter-for-deployment-across-uk-television-audience-measurement-panel

I recently received a question from two German researchers: Do journalists profit from automated journalism or do they find themselves homeless a few years later?

I reflected that this focus on the potential threat of automated content to reporters’ jobs and the quality of journalism is all but gone in Sweden. This may have something to do with the fact that here almost all local media houses now use the technology every single day.

The attitude to robots and artificial intelligence among the public is more positive in Sweden than e g in the United States. This may be one reason Swedish media houses use news robots more extensively than the publishing industry in most other countries. Source: Hanna Tuulonen, University of Gothenburg; Robin Govik, MittMedia, Sweden.

Two years ago, Hanna Tuulonen looked into this topic for her master’s thesis on investigative journalism at the University of Gothenburg. She interviewed journalists to find out how attitudes toward news robots changed after they started working with or side-by-side with news robots. Even in 2017, it was clear that once they were somehow working with these automated features, journalists’ attitude toward news robots changed from neutral and negative to positive.

The reason? The robots take care of the repetitive tasks, allowing reporters to shift their focus toward interviews, field work, and analysis.

United Robots has delivered automated journalism to Swedish news groups since 2015. When we first started approaching newsrooms, editors and reporters often felt a sense of unease. They perceived what we do as a potential threat to both journalism and journalists. Over the past four to five years, as publishers have embraced the technology, that situation has changed quite radically in this country.

Today I rarely meet journalists who view news robots as a threat. We’ve talked to a few reporters who work with our technology about its impact in the newsroom and on what’s published.

These are some of the comments they’ve made on the key aspects of this technology.

Robot journalism frees up journalists’ time and doesn’t threaten jobs.

“I don’t see news robots as a threat to journalism. Right now, they give journalists time to develop better journalism. It allows us to spend more time doing what we’re best at and less time doing basic reporting,” said Markus Isacson, sports reporter at VK in Umeå. “I don’t think robot journalism is a threat to our jobs. Of course, there may be people who think journalists will be replaced by ‘cheaper’ robots, but I doubt that publishers who go down that route will have a bright future.” Jennifer Engström, a journalist at Mittmedia in Sundsvall, also sees benefits in terms of letting her and her colleagues focus on qualified tasks: “If we can save time, effort, and money by having a robot doing ‘simple’ journalism, that’s worth a lot more than having a reporter spend evenings/weekends calling in match results. This means we’ll live longer as a media company — and I’ll keep my job longer.” According to sports reporter David Hellsing at Mittmedia in Örebro, the robot simply doesn’t do what he as a journalist does: “I work closely covering one of the big sports teams in our city. The robot will never get that close.”

Robot journalism provides more local content.

The robots allow local media houses to provide more local content, according to journalists Anna Sundelin and Mattias Åkerlund at VK’s Affärsliv 24. “We currently don’t have the resources to pay journalists to cover division 5 football matches or traffic news from villages and towns all around the county — but that is content robots can deliver.”

As of June 2019, Swedish publishers use news robots a lot more extensively than the industry in other markets. As a result, journalists are familiar with the technology and its benefits in the newsroom. With news media in countries beyond Scandinavia now increasingly deploying robot journalism, I believe the talk of threat we so often hear will change into a focus on the opportunities.

Read the original article here: https://www.inma.org/blogs/big-data-for-news-publishers/post.cfm/robot-journalism-frees-up-journalists-time-provides-more-local-content?fbclid=IwAR1ReYuRVZRyTX9MAcfIOuIjmwUe-2wOQEtfx7z5u-apeqWxASDnHD7t4-M

Last week was an amazing inspiration boost for new standards, products and technologies in Prague. Starting with AMEC’s Summit and ending with FIBEP’s 2nd Tech Day, which follow Vienna’s MITT 2016 edition.

FIBEP, the world’s largest association for media intelligence and communications insight, hosted jointly with NewtonMedia, a dedicated Tech Workshop for tech savvy CEOs, CIOs and CTOs.

A wide range of topics were discussed such as data transmission standards between media intelligence companies, the new role of social media as a business platform and the relevance of choosing the right tech partner to boost efficiency, and why not, profitability. Several technologies were showcased too, from AI-powered print production software, going through logo and ads recognition systems, face recognition software and tools for broadcast monitoring. And not to forget, collaborative AI-media monitoring engines coming as a result of EU-Research projects.

Standards and Legacy Systems

While, automated AI-based segmentation tools for clipping, searching and distribution of newspaper and magazines, were presented by MediaTrack, the Singapore based content tech specialist, DataScouting, the Greek expert in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Zissor AS, the Norwegian company that recently became a part of the Novian Group INVL Technology.

A refreshing presentation came from Florian Grabner-Zebedin, Senior Software Engineet at >>OBSERVER<< GmbH Austria. He pointed out 4 key aspects to build a strong technological foundation for a data driven world.

a) Legacy Systems: Focus on future proofing and sustainability b) Knowhow and resources: Invest into professionals who will adapt your legacy systems accordingly c) Standards: Own, improve and develop the current standard to maximise your workflows d) Communication: Participate in networking communities and actively share challenges and learnings.

Furthermore he called out for action, asking media intelligence specialist to implement standards for data transmission – an initiative supported by FIBEP.

Social Media and Technological externalisation

The afternoon program kicked off with a social media workshop lead by Florian Lazlo on behalf of Talkwalker and Kasper Hülsen, Chief Commercial Officer at Informedia A/S.

Social Media evolved, and became a relevant business platform, be it for recruiting and human resources, Customer Service and Customer Success or even Sales.

Kasper highlighted the relevance of finding the right technological partners in order to succeed when providing clients with a Social Media Tool Box. A need that extends itself across the complete workflow of a media intelligence organization. Such was the case of Kliping Slovenia (Newton Media Group), Sebastjan Hribar, Deputy CEO at Kliping offered an inspiring presentation on this regard, sharing the company’s journey towards technological externalisation.

AI-Powered tools and more to come

To finalize an exciting day, where specialist from across the globe gathered to push the industry forward, a newcomer to the FIBEP events, Priberam Portugal, introduced the results of an Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation project. In collaboration with the Deutsche Welle and the BBC, Priberam developed a platform capable of dealing with large volumes of data across many languages and different media types. The highlights of the AI powered platform include

a) Automated analysis of media streams across various languages. b) Automated data clustering c) Automated e-mail delivery of multilingual clustered data, summarized in the user specific language.

In our opinion FIBEP’s TechDay remains a great platform to bring technology specialist and media intelligence companies together. We look forward to the 2020 edition!

Read the original article here: https://www.pressrelations.de/blog/fibep-techday-2019/?fbclid=IwAR0DJV-F4qsVjGb15mAqIryVWoKNLdt0UeIuDumNI2U4Aa5wDwHZ9iG_I4g

Romina Gersuni

Global Strategy Managerin bei pressrelations software business division “iCon”

Romina Gersuni, Global Strategy Manager at pressrelations GmbH, has more than twelve years of experience in the media intelligence industry. Since 2013 she has been part of pressrelations, where she consolidated the company’s software business division. Romina is responsible for improving strategies, products, and partnerships as well as for commercializing pressrelations’ services and software solutions.

Part of the group of companies owned by the Rodés family, with more than 1,000 clients and 700 professionals is leader in Spain and Latin América

REBOLD is the result of the merger between Acceso and Digilant, with a growth in billing superior to 30% in 2018 and is based in Madrid and Boston

Madrid, February 19, 2019.- Acceso, leader in media and consumer intelligence in Spain and Latin America, and Digilant, who provides programmatic solutions and services using data science, have merged. The result is REBOLD (letsrebold.com), the new communicationss and marketing firm that was born with the aim of satisfying the new needs of the current clients, in a changing digital ecosystem. In the world we live in, there is a lot of information in the form of data, which can be and should be managed, this will allow to do a much more refined and strategic marketing and communications and will also optimize resources. REBOLD has the equipment, the methodology, the technologies and, what is essential the mind-set, to lead the market in data driven advertising solutions.

The data and disciplines aggregation are in the essence of integration. REBOLD covers the entire spectrum of marketing and communication based on data analysis, by listening to media and consumers, consulting through strategic analysis and implementing solutions through the activation of campaigns. The company brings transparency and simplicity to a complex reality and as the name indicates, through a brave and bold proposal to the sector and to clients.

REBOLD is made up of more than 350 professionals: 150 between its offices of Barcelona and Madrid, to which we add 200 more between Colombia, Chile, the United States, Mexico, Panama and Peru. The company is headed by GlobalJuan Camilo Bonilla – who came from Digilant and Accenture Interactive before - as the global CEO of REBOLD. REBOLD is part of ISP, whose Executive President is Fernando Rodés and whose CEO is David Rodés. REBOLD is headquartered in Madrid and Boston and works with 25 IBEX35 clients, as well as major US brands.

ISP, owned by the Rodés family, is made up of REBOLD and three other companies, each of which is a pioneer in their respective fields in Spain: Antevenio, performance, brand marketing, and technology company, In Store Media, shopper marketing agency and Criteria, company that operates in loyalty retail. The companies that make up ISP are distinguished by their transforming capacity with data science applied to marketing and communication and their international vision.

REBOLD, with a turnover of € 70M and an integration that in fact is effective from the first quarter of 2018, is growing at a rate of over 30%. The business plan includes as a first objective the growth in capacities and the consolidation in the existing markets, to focus from 2020, on the expansion to strategic markets such as European countries and Asia where it does not have yet a presence.

Juan Camilo Bonilla, the new CEO, remarks: "REBOLD reaches the market with a breakthrough value proposition, both in terms of services and in our approach to brands. Through our own methodology, a sophisticated technological capacity and an exceptional team of professionals, we are able to connect brands with their consumers. We offer intelligence about your audiences, about the competitors and about the sector; data-based consulting; and a transparent activation, to achieve the objectives established by the client. We are going to revolutionize the marketing and communications market. "

With this merger, ISP reinforces its vocation to become a reference group in digital communication and marketing worldwide, offering technological marketing services and integral and innovative solutions to brands. Regarding this, Fernando Rodés, Executive President of the group, said: "In our group we have always been ahead in marketing and communications trends. This is what we are doing again, with REBOLD. I dare say that no other company knows consumers like we do. In these times of deep transformation in which the power of the communication chain no longer falls on the brands but, on the citizens, we are able to help our clients to build and maintain meaningful conversations with their audience, and to establish links that go beyond a commercial relationship. REBOLD is called to be a reference actor in this transformation, a new reality that is already here ".

The global billing of ISP reached in 2018 of more than 180 € M, adding more than 720 professionals and 1000 clients. Based in Madrid and Barcelona, ISP has offices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, France, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.

About Acceso and Digilant

Acceso has been a reference company in the media and consumer intelligence market in Spain and Latin America. Its mission has been to help brands connect with consumers through listening and analysis, to which it provides a disruptive combination of technology, methodology and experience in Big Data and Data Science services. Acceso translated data into business decisions, acting as a strategic partner for its customers, he also accompanied them in their digital transformation. Born in Barcelona in 1987, it had a portfolio of more than 800 clients, operations in six countries (Colombia, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Panama and Peru); and agreements with the main media analysis and monitoring companies in 50 other countries. In Spain, 26 of the 35 companies of the selective IBEX were among its customers, as well as public administrations, NGOs and the main agencies.

Digilant, company specialized in programmatic media purchasing and data management, worked with brands that wanted to bet on intelligent data management to discover and activate new users, new channels, new behaviours and new ways for activating their consumers. The technology and data science methodologies that the company possessed, allowed advertisers to discover new customers by analysing complex audience data and their users. This information provided intelligence and exclusive knowledge, operable through all media channels.

About ISP

ISP is a group of marketing companies based on proprietary technology, which helps brands to create and maintain links with their communities, generating relevant, personalized and in real time dialogs. It is formed by Rebold, Anagram, Antevenio, InStore Media & Criteria Loyalty. Based in Madrid and Barcelona, ISP has offices in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, the United States, the Philippines, France, Italy, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal and the United Kingdom. ISP is a holding company of the Rodés family.

Our FIBEP President Laura Garcia, CEO of GlobalNews Group just gave her great talk on Communication Challenges Regarding Technology, AI and New Ways of Content Consumption. Such an interesting topic we can’t wait to explore further at the World Media Intelligence Congress in Lima!

Company owned by INVL Technology acquires Norway's Zissor INVL Technology, a company that invests in IT businesses has acquired the Norwegian company Zissor, which provides media monitoring and digitization software development and services. The transaction was completed on 10 April this year through the company Novian, which is owned by INVL Technology. Following the transaction, Novian holds 100 percent of the shares in Zissor.

"The deal strengthens the Novian group's position in the Scandinavian markets and also brings synergies with other companies in INVL Technology group, particularly Estonia's Andmevara, one of the leading providers of digitization services in Estonia and Moldova," said Kazimieras Tonkūnas, INVL Technology's managing partner.

INVL Technology has announced that in 2019-2020 Novian will consolidate companies, belonging to the IT services and software group. That will let them unite forces for expansion in the Nordic region and increase the value of their businesses. "Zissor is a mature company with a strong portfolio of products and exceptional competencies which will extend the Novian group's ability to implement complex projects in the areas of the media, court and archive information digitization as well as facilitation of access to digital services. In addition, we'll also collaborate in business register modernization and national digital transformation projects, where Novian group companies are working together with other INVL Technology businesses," said Giedrius Cvilikas, the CEO of Novian.

Zissor AS, established in the year 2000, is based in Drammen, nearby Norway's capital city Oslo. The company, which operates on an international scale, provides services to clients working in the areas of media monitoring and digitization. Zissor will continue to be led by Ove Dirdal. "In joining the companies of INVL Technology, we're beginning a new era. We believe that this change will strengthen our company and enable us to focus even more on our goal of offering the market the best functional and technical solutions. For our clients in media monitoring industry, this will mean faster deployment of new technologies and functionalities in our advanced Zissor Media System. Meanwhile, this deal will also open access to new digitization concepts and new markets for our digitisation services," Zissor CEO Ove Dirdal said.

The board of Zissor will comprise Kazimieras Tonkūnas, Giedrius Cvilikas and Elena Vengrienė, CEO of the INVL Technology-owned company Algoritmu Sistemos.

In 2018, Zissor had revenue of 6.4 million Norwegian kroner (EUR 0.67 million on the Norwegian, Swedish, UK, German, Greek and other markets. The company's clients include media monitoring companies, national archives and libraries, and also newspaper publishers. Zissor gets 70 percent of its annual revenues from regular clients.

INVL Technology's businesses operate in three areas: business climate improvement and e-governance, IT services and software, and cybersecurity. Before the acquisition deal, Novian, which works in the IT services and software area, owned companies BAIP and Acena. Companies Algoritmu Sistemos and Andmevara also work in the same area.

Until now, INVL Technology had invested in the Norwegian company Norway Registers Development AS with a subsidiary in Lithuania as well as in NRD Companies AS of Norway with subsidiaries NRD Systems UAB and Etronika UAB in Lithuania, Norway Registers Development East Africa Ltd in Tanzania, Norway Registers Development Rwanda Ltd in Rwanda and NRD Bangladesh Ltd in Bangladesh, and the associate company Infobank Uganda Ltd in Uganda. INVL Technology's portfolio of businesses also includes Novian UAB with subsidiaries BAIP UAB and Acena UAB as well as NRD CS UAB and Algoritmu Sistemos UAB, all in Lithuania, and Estonia's Andmevara AS and Andmevara Services OU with subsidiary Andmevara SRL in Moldova.

For more information contact: Ove Dirdal CEO of Zissor Tel.: +47 90936610, e-mail: ove@zissor.com

In Sweden, local media newsrooms are increasingly leveraging automation to give readers a richer, faster, and more complete content service and to free up editorial resources for deep-dive reporting. As of this year, three of United Robots’ clients (MittMedia, VK Media, and the NTM group) are stepping it up a notch by going all in on robot journalism (in fact, we are founded by MittMedia).

Lately, it seems the world’s news publishing industry is on what you might call a Nordic pilgrimage — at events like INMA’s Media Subscriptions Week in Stockholm in March — to learn about the digital successes of publishers in the region. It’s fair to say the digital transformation has, at least to some extent, been driven by necessity; print decline has been rapid across the Nordic countries.

Automated journalism helps Scandinavian publications fill in the content holes.

But the success of the digital transformation in Scandinavia also stems from our region’s culture of innovation. 2018 was the year automated content — robot journalism — had a real breakthrough in Swedish newsrooms. The majority of Swedish local media groups, as well as national giant Aftonbladet, publish automated editorial texts daily. The results have been positive. And, with the continued pressure on our industry, three of our biggest local media partners are now taking some of it off by maximising their use of automated editorial content. They have signed up for data-driven content: sports write-ups and pre-match texts, property sales articles, texts about company registrations and bankruptcies, and traffic and weather news.

Talking to them about the motivation behind the decision, a key aspect has been improving the news services they provide. Says NTM editorial director Nils Olauson: “The aim of this effort is to provide current and future customers with an even better local news service. The robot articles will probably not individually drive lots of traffic, but through personalised sites which show the ‘right’ articles to the ‘right’ users, the robot will help us offer our customers more content relevant to them.

“We know our readers want more instant updates about traffic and weather, helping them in their everyday lives. We also know they want us to satisfy their curiosity about who’s bought their neighbour’s house, who has set up a new company, or how the local football or ice hockey team has fared.”

We also find a big motivator with our local media partners has to do with making the best use of available newsroom resources. With much of the basic reporting taken care of by the robot, editors can assign reporters to more in-depth jobs, which results in more valuable journalism.

Says MittMedia editorial director Carl-Johan Bergman: “Automation is a clear win-win for us — to have technology help us create interesting content, which we’ve previously lacked and let us focus editorial resources on deep-dive coverage when the final whistle blows, rather than just do a quick write-up. The text robot is not replacing our journalists, but rather it helps us prioritise correctly how we use our resources.”

VK Media COO and digital director Marie-Louise Jarlenfors says robot journalism allows the company to offer readers more hyper-local content and coverage without commiting more editorial resources. “Instead, journalists can focus on producing more quality, local journalism and spend time on investigative journalism that makes a difference.”

In a time when journalism is under threat, it’s thrilling to be part of the solution for so many local news groups in Sweden. We’ll keep reporting here on the progress — and results — of our media partners as they continue to deploy automated editorial content around the country.

Read the original article on:

https://www.inma.org/blogs/big-data-for-news-publishers/post.cfm/robot-journalism-supports-digital-transition-in-scandinavia?fbclid=IwAR35CVki_D2hXdRwCIvXZLzCmrWiR-KnjePj95A1t3YxWAeFNaQjHJ_Lhd0

La empresa de análisis y monitoreo de medios participa de la misión de negocios e inversiones a la India. Durante la misma se firmó el acuerdo de lanzamiento de un joint venture con la empresa Ninestars de India

La empresa de análisis y monitoreo de medios participa de la misión de negocios e inversiones a la India, organizada por el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, que encabeza el Presidente Mauricio Macri, en las ciudades de Nueva Delhi y Mumbai.

Durante la misma se firmó el acuerdo de lanzamiento de un joint venture con la empresa Ninestars de India, para la comercialización de servicios de digitalización a gran escala de archivos de noticias en toda América Latina, dirigido principalmente a entidades gubernamentales y grandes medios.

Participaron de la firma Laura García, fundadora y Presidente de Globa News Group y Gopal Khrisnan fundador y CEO de Ninestars.

Para el Gerente General de GlobalNews Group, Carlos A. Diaz, “este Joint Venture nos permite reutilizar nuestra propiedad intelectual y combinarla con el know how en digitalización de grandes archivos de Ninestars y así lograr una propuesta eficiente para el mercado latinoamericano”.

El proyecto no sólo implica un desafío al integrar y transferir tecnologías y conocimientos de GlobalNews y Ninestars a la nueva entidad, sino que significará la generación de hasta 100 puestos de trabajo genuinos en su sede argentina en los próximos 3 años y una inversión de casi 3 millones de dólares en ese período.

Read the original article at: https://dossiernet.com.ar/articulo/globalnews-group-anuncia-joint-venture-de-servicios-de-digitalizacion-de-informacion-durante-la-mision-oficial-a-la-india/18878

Last Friday, February first, 25 FIBEP colleagues from 12 different countries met at Kantar Média offices for the 2nd edition of the Copyright Talks.

Led by Christophe Dickès (Kantar Media), the discussions covered many copyright situations in different European Media Monitoring and Analysis companies. Two lawyers specialised in European Copyright joined to share their expertise.

This special day started with an update on the European Copyright directive and its impact on the media monitoring and analysis industry, given by Mrs. Gaullier (Vercken & Gaullier). This was followed by the intervention of our expert in copyright, Thierry Cornez (COO & Board member). He presented the Belgian situation and its complexity due to the two languages in the country. He also explained the Auxipress monitoring history in this respect and the different agreements the company has with the press editors. Next, Michael Maillinger (Kantar Media DE) shared insights about the expensive situation in Germany related to the new digital licensing approach.

During the afternoon, participants continued the discussions and exchanges around the situation in Poland, presented by Krzysztof Sitkiewicz (Instytut Monotorowania Mediów), who described a context with agreements (or not) and a significant pressure from the publishers. Christophe Dickès then spoke about the case of the long negotiations on the use of audiovisual media in France and the defence of the principle of fair remuneration.

During the second part of the afternoon, Valérie-Laure Benabou and Florence Gaullier described relevant law cases for the media monitoring industry. They captivated the attention of their public with problems related to linking, copying content and competition issues. A highly interesting session for everyone who was present. Unfortunately, there was too little time to cover all the aspects planned and numerous questions of the public. Then, Thomas Vejleman (Infomedia) took the stage with an update from the Nordic countries. He covered the various aspects of the one-to-one relation between publishers and media monitoring organisations, copyright and the evolution of their market.

In conclusion, we can affirm that this second edition of the FIBEP Copyright Talks was a day filled with high quality insights and that it should take place again soon. The participants had the occasion to share knowledge on topic which are so important for our industry. Each participant was able to gather some information about how the situation is in other European countries. The event confirmed that each media monitoring company is involved. This might not change soon, but thanks to the FIBEP, we have some days to exchange expertise and to grow stronger together.

See you next year for a third edition?

Read more from auxipress at auxipress.be

The trending topics in January 2019

BE – Political issues remain on top of the Belgian media agenda in January 2019, but become less important than in December when the resignation of the Federal Government was a hot topic. Sports are also an important topic in the Belgian media. Companies and consumers are becoming more important than in December, just like culture.

NL – Sports are most mediatised in The Netherlands in January 2019 and become even more important than in December. Political issues also mark the news in January. Ecology is a top trend in The Netherlands with 6% of the media interest. Economic and mobility issues are also important with respectively 5% in the Dutch media agenda.

Different trends in the media agenda in Belgium and The Netherlands (during January 2019)

BE – During this month of January 2019, the Belgian media emphasise more issues related to politics, Europe and migration issues, employment, culture and economy issues than the Dutch media. This is exactly the same trend than in December.

NL – On the other hand, during this month of January 2019, issues related to housing and ecology were largely more covered in the Dutch media than in the Belgian media. The same applies for transport and mobility issues, technologies, sports, housing and health and food issues.

NL and BE Trends: Positive evolution of top topics (January 2019)

NL – In January 2019, the top five issues gaining media exposure in the Dutch media are (1) security and justice, (2) population and association, (3) health and alimentation, (4) media and (5) employment.

BE – In January 2019, the top five issues gaining media exposure in the Belgian media are (1) technologies, (2) companies and consumers, (3) security and justice, (4) media and (5) transport.

NL/BE Comparison – Belgium and the Netherlands share upward trends in security and justice, companies and consumers, media, transport and population and association.

11 themes are different between Belgium and the Netherlands with for example: (1) Economy (increasing in the Belgian media, decreasing in the Dutch media), (2) housing (rising in the Belgian media), (3) technologies (rising in the Belgian media) and (4) health (rising in the Dutch media).

For the top 10 of the most mentioned brands in the Belgian and Dutch media, 3 brands out of 10 are found on both sides of the ranking.

1.Facebook is present in the Belgian and Dutch top 10. The brand is 1st in the Belgian and 2nd in the Dutch media. Different topics were present like privacy issues and the integration of Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

2.Apple is present in the Belgian and Dutch top 10. The brand is 3rd for the Belgian media and 4th in the Dutch media (privacy issues, development of own video streaming service).

3.Google is present in the Belgian and Dutch top 10. The brand is 7th for the Belgian media and 7th in the Dutch media (GDPR) .

4.Shell Oil Company (10) is exclusively present in the Dutch top 10 due to coverage on a possible take-over of Eneco and the Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

5.In the Belgian media, Proximus is very present due to the announcement of job losses. VTM also appears in the top with the celebrations of 30 years VTM. Renault appears this month due to the arrest of CEO Carlos Ghosn on suspicion of fraud.

Read the original article on: https://auxipress.be/en/news/the-trending-topics-in-january-2019

John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood has received quite a bit of attention. The book was included in Bill Gates' list of '5 books I loved in 2018'. The book also won the Financial Times / McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award in 2018. The book is to be turned into a movie, with Jennifer Lawrence as the founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes.

The book tells the tale of Theranos. The case has been widely publicised, as the promise was something that affects just about everyone: blood tests done quick and cheap. If true, it would have been truly revolutionary, but unfortunately, the technology could not live up to the hype, not yet.

Theranos was founded in 2004, and in September 2018 it was officially dissolving. In June 2018, the federal government indicted both Holmes and Theranos’ former president Ramesh Balwani on criminal fraud charges.

Theranos promised big, but could not deliver

Many startups start with a big promise, but when it comes to showing what you actually have and what you can deliver, few put up as elaborate a scaffolding, as Theranos seems to have done. One cannot but think that they wanted it to work, and could not accept that they could not deliver on the grand promise. In 2015, the veil came down on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

The case will no doubt fascinate for years, especially how it went on for so long. Basically people wanted to believe, they wanted to be the first ones in on such a revolutionary technology.

Whenever someone promises something big, something revolutionary, one should check the evidence. Check what is being written about the company, the technology and the people involved. Also, take a look at the business field. M-Brain can help you there. Even if you decide to take something on faith, the better you do the investigation, the safer you are in your choice.

Read the original article on: https://www.m-brain.com/blog-posts/bad-blood-importance-of-information/

According to our recent survey with PR Week, 77 percent of CMOs and CCOs believe that comms can do a better job measuring and proving its impact on business objectives. As advertising and owned media peers improve in this area, precise communications metrics and direct links between PR campaigns and real business results have never been more important for our industry.

As the leading global provider of Earned Media Management solutions, Cision took this challenge head-on. We launched the first true business results attribution product in the history of the communications and PR industry with Cision Impact. Cision Impact provides essential KPIs such as validated unique views, audience profiles, and most importantly, direct linkage to a user-defined outcome for a specified piece of content. With Cision Impact, earned media content becomes a business results driver, much in the same way paid search or social advertising is viewed by marketing peers.

Cision made a significant investment behind its commitment to improving attribution with the acquisition this morning of TrendKite, a leading PR measurement and analytics provider. Founded in 2013, TrendKite is a digital PR platform with a like-minded focus on business outcomes and complementary strengths in social analytics, visualization and AI. Both companies are tremendously excited about our joint vision for Earned Media Management and believe that together we can offer comms professionals a more compelling offering at a faster speed to market than was possible for either company acting alone.

Marketers and communicators will now have the following enhanced capabilities from Cision:

Sophisticated Measurement With Approachable User Experience

Cision Impact, the industry’s first technology for true campaign measurement and attribution, leverages a robust ecosystem of ad tech and audience data providers, demonstrating how earned media content consumption translates into revenue-generating activities. When integrated into the Cision Communications Cloud, the combination of these attribution capabilities with TrendKite’s platform will deliver marketers the most sophisticated campaign measurement available, all with an industry-leading user experience.

Comprehensive Media Monitoring & Analysis

Cision’s media monitoring platform taps into millions of earned media sources across online, print, broadcast, and social media. Combining TrendKite's AI capabilities with Cision’s global content footprint will deliver the insights communicators need to optimize campaign programs and enhance performance through improved reporting and analytics.

Enhanced Earned Media Targeting

TrendKite’s social influencer management functionality enables brands to identify and build relationships across platforms with a range of personalities, from the world’s most influential people to niche subject matter experts. Coupled with the Cision Influencer Graph, which understands the connections between an influencer, the content they create, and the audiences they reach, Cision will offer more insights for brands to effectively reach their target audience through earned media outreach.

2019 is proving to be an exciting chapter for Cision with this year’s acquisition of Falcon.io and now, the addition of TrendKite. Both additions to the Cision Communications Cloud go beyond standard industry offerings, providing enhanced functionality for the execution of sophisticated marcomms campaigns. We look forward to working with our customers and industry professionals to leverage these excellent technology offerings to deliver more value and solve business needs.

Read the original article here: https://www.cision.com/us/2019/01/cision-acquires-trendkite/

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most popular concepts in the communications industry, but it’s also sparked its fair share of controversy among experts. While some technology leaders, like Elon Musk, fear the threat of unregulated AI, others, like Mark Hurd, believe it to be a foundational tool in business success.

The public relations sector isn’t exempt from the list of industries uncertain about AI’s impact. The very mention of AI sparks varying sentiments of fear, excitement, skepticism and curiosity in PR professionals — but what exactly is AI and what does it mean for the future of PR?

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence, at its core, focuses on making intelligent machines capable of solving problems as well as (or better than) people can. It provides new ways to create problem-solving systems. At its core, AI assesses large sets of data with fast, iterative processing and detailed algorithms, which allows the program to learn and adapt from patterns or features in the data.

For decades, programmers coded software in structured ways to provide consistent outputs, but now, computers are capable of learning without a rigid set of rules, which describes a subset of AI commonly called machine learning.

In terms of PR, AI has the potential to write data-driven content, assist in crisis management and even predict media trends. In fact, leading PR agencies already utilize AI in their day-to-day functions. Google states that they use AI to “augment the abilities of people, to enable us to accomplish more and to allow us to spend more time on our creative endeavors.”

Think of the tools that you employ regularly as a PR professional — many are equipped with AI and machine learning capabilities to deliver quality information that enhances how you do your job.

The AI Boom

AI was conceptualized in the years following World War II when scientists theorized that they could create an "artificial neural network," a type of algorithm that modeled itself on the human brain. It wasn’t until 1956, however, that the term “artificial intelligence” was coined at a conference at Dartmouth College. Those who attended the conference were extremely optimistic about AI’s future. MIT cognitive scientist Marvin Minsky went on to write in his novel that “within a generation… the problem of creating 'artificial intelligence' will substantially be solved."

The early 2010s saw the rise of big data, which gave AI the thousands of data points it needed to become smarter as well as the computer power necessary to enable AI to process its vastness. The conditions were set for an AI explosion. Tech leaders like Aaron Shapiro, CEO of digital firm Huge, for instance, began to refer to AI as the precursor to the third phase of the digital revolution, after the birth of the web and the arrival of mobile and social technologies.

By 2016, advances in AI had led to a number of technological breakthroughs. Now, the average American interacts with AI dozens of times per day. A Fortune story cites data from CB Insights claiming VC firms invested $5 billion in 658 AI companies in 2016, a 61 percent year-over-year increase. In 2016, 38 percent of businesses had implemented AI into their operations, but by the end of 2017, this number had skyrocketed to over 60 percent.

AI’s Modern Use in PR

AI has had a bit of a slow start in the communications professions. In fact, in 2017, just 3 percent of news stories discussing the PR industry even mentioned AI. PR professionals, however, are slowly but surely adapting to new technologies. PR agencies have now begun to harness the power of AI in their daily functions and to realize its potential to streamline client operations, create new experiences that increase brand affinity and improve user experiences. Here are just a few of the ways PR pros are using AI today:

1. Data-Driven PR Campaigns

Automation and machine learning can aid in the creation of new campaigns while simultaneously eliminating the guesswork. AI has the ability to sift through massive amounts of data and discover the elements that will likely lead to campaign success, not to mention that it can complete these tasks much faster than any human. AI helps PR professionals make creative decisions based on facts and trends rather than relying on a gut feeling. It can streamline the decision-making process, supplying reason to both qualitative and quantitative decisions, including:

The best time to begin a campaignCompelling subject lines or content copyThe most effective social channels on which to deploy the campaignWhich bloggers, influencers or journalists to approach

Using AI, PR professionals can create hyper-specific material that’s perfectly aligned with their audience’s interests. They can eliminate the time wasted on content that won’t resonate with a target demographic and ensure that their digital material is supported by data.

2. Automate Mundane Tasks

AI provides a degree of relief to the list of menial tasks that pass across the desks of PR professionals on a daily basis. As Mike Cearley, social and innovation managing director at FleishmanHillard, says, “Repetition-based tasks or data entry that can be done quicker at scale are going to be fulfilled by technology.”

Responsibilities like scheduling calendars, structuring meeting notes, setting due dates, creating Gantt charts and sending out follow-ups can now be completed by an emerging technology practice called Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a form of AI that enables business professionals to automate rules-based processes. Some companies have even begun experimenting with automating things like earnings reports to maximize their creative engagement. AI applications will help PR pros save time on day-to-day functions, resulting in an increased opportunity to devote more time to creativity and project ideation.

3. Sentiment Analysis and Crisis Management

Mentionlytics reports that over 30 percent of company crises turn global in less than an hour. Given that an online crisis today can spread as fast as a virus, PR pros are left managing a crisis after it’s already been blown out of proportion more often than not. AI is now used in sentiment analysis, which utilizes natural language processing to differentiate vocabulary use, tone and language context. The real-time insight that AI provides allows PR companies to respond quickly and effectively to any press that may arise regardless of sentiment.

AI can analyze hundreds of different factors, including some from social listening, to predict the kind of brand threats on the horizon. This gives PR agencies time to create a plan of action to deal with potential negative situations. Today’s AI systems are equipped to interpret context and attribute true meaning, and it will also grow smarter over time.

The Future of AI in PR