A top 5 energy company approached Commetric to help them understand how they could position themselves as a thought leader on the topics of energy, innovation, and technological advancements. The company’s CEO had repeatedly stated his desire to lead the industry with innovative technology to expand and grow their business. At the time, the company had an underrated global reputation. Although their executive team and company leaders were knowledgeable, top-of-field spokespeople they continued to lack a place at the podium.
The frustration of the company’s executives was exacerbated by the board’s constant request for evidence showing how the media and public perceived the company as a global leader of innovation. The SVP of Corporate Communications asked their PR agency to analyze the media coverage and conversations around their brand and these topics in order to identify and help connect executives to the most influential thought leaders driving these discussions. The agency found it practically impossible to sift through the enormous amount of data due to:
- lack of time (sanitizing the data by removing any junk and/or unrelated info);
- human resources (individuals, particularly those that were multilingual in languages within the company’s target markets, trained to dissect data and draw the big picture visually & textually);
- expertise in mining and analyzing conversations across channels.
It ultimately was like finding a needle in a haystack. Further, trying to discover the needle and explain its impact. That is when Commetric stepped in.
The three key things we did to solve the problem:
Benchmarked the company’s CEO against other industry leaders, global policy makers and regulatory decision makers on key energy industry topics. We ultimately found the company’s brand and reputation drivers across multiple markets.
- Identified key spokespeople (industry thought leaders) with whom to engage (news outlets, journalists, bloggers, tweets and regulatory/think tank spokespeople at the leading edge of energy and innovation).
- Enabled the company to shift the conversation to innovative thinking and products.
- What we delivered was a concise view (influencer map) pinpointing subject matter experts and key influencers on innovation, energy and technology. This clear visual gave the company’s executives a firm understanding of how they were being perceived in their target areas, compared to their competitors. We showcased the current landscape and not only pinpointed trends, but we distilled those trends into early warning signs, risks and opportunities and how those trends would affect the company’s business in future.
Bi-monthly dashboard reports made it easy for the corporate communications leaders to share the info along the reporting chain, and for executives to process the information without having to spend valuable time understanding it.
The company’s PR firm was able to play to its strengths, building relationships with stakeholders, developing messaging etc, while with minimal investment, Commetric was able to pinpoint / highlight the most influential subject matter experts. Each month, the company’s communications and executive team watched as the landscape shaped toward their goal. This made the ROI of this project justifiable and actionable. As a result, the company decided to continue with monthly reports analyzing influencers and global trends.
Commetric applied our media intelligence skills working with many clients in the energy sector that we think we can claim a genuine specialty which also has been recognized by recent industry awards we won. Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some of our experience and the lessons learned in the form of a series of case studies.
Commetric provides global multi-language measurement and analysis. If you are interested in learning more about our award winning work please check out our latest Sabre and AMEC awards including the most recent work we did with the World Energy Council.