As critical figureheads, Chief Executive Officers play a key role in how corporations are perceived by the public, and so it's vital that organizations keep their fingers on the pulse of CEO-focused media.
In collaboration with .companion, a data consultancy and KPI expert, Meltwater presents the 2021 CEO Echo; a monthly media intelligence analysis of CEOs heading up some of the world's largest brands. The ranking leverages Meltwater's media intelligence capabilities and automated analysis by the .companion bot to offer readers highlights and benchmarks across the following areas:
- Total CEO Digital Footprint
- CEO Communication Excellence
- CEO Social Excellence
- CEO Responsibility Excellence
- CEO Investor Excellence
Contents
December 2021 CEO Echo rankings
December 2021 CEO Echo rankings
35% less CEO mentions
Last month, the .companion CEO metrics bot found 35% fewer CEO mentions than the average of the previous months. Overall, 57% of mentions captured by the CEO Echo were generated by editorial online content, while social media generated 43%. In December, CEO Echo content saw engagement drop by 64%. 51% of all CEO mentions were related to financial news, meaning they simply referred to company figures that are often required to be disclosed by law. In contrast, the context of 49% of mentions was linked to corporate agendas. Overall, the tonality of mentions was equally positive and negative.
Total Digital Footprint
Herbert Diess, Volkswagen CEO, dominates with 9% CEO Echo coverage
What role does a CEO play in a company's overall corporate messaging, whether voluntary or involuntary? The CEO Digital Footprint aims to answer this question.
In December, Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, received the highest amount of media coverage. His share of voice totaled 8.6%, the largest footprint of all top board members. In second place was Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel, with 6.8%, and Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, took the third spot with 4.5% share of all mentions. 64% of conversations around Diess’ echo were not related to company financials and thus were above average for agenda-driving topics and content. 53% of the Volkswagen CEO's echo came from editorial media and 47% from social media. Content that mentioned Diess generated 38 interactions (clicks, shares, likes) per mention. This shows that audiences are highly engaged and made Diess the 56th most engaged CEO in the ranking. In total, mentions for Herbert Diess were equally positive and negative. We can assume this had a corresponding impact on his overall reputation.
Communication Excellence
OTP Bank’s CEO, Sándor Csányi, takes the number 1 spot
Two common goals widely shared by media teams are communicating key messages and building a favorable reputation, both of which rely heavily on editorial mentions. The Communication Excellence ranking analyses and aggregates media volume (removing financial report listings).
Sándor Csányi, CEO of OTP Bank, was ranked first in December. Outside of the paywall, 84% of his digital echo discussed the CEO in stories beyond financial figures. Stories generated 281 engagements per mention, signifying readers are highly interested. Furthermore, coverage was as much positive as it was negative. As a result, the response to OTP Bank’s CEO received 5.5 points. Ferran Soriano, CEO of City Football Group came in second place with a score of 3.1, and Alessandro Profumo, CEO of Leonardo, took third place with a Communication Excellence score of 3.1 points.
Social Excellence
Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony’s CEO, wins first place
These days, simply having a social media profile is not enough. If you want to have an impact on opinion leaders outside of editorial offices, or on consumers and digital elites who are not easily accessible through the mass media, you have to be mentioned frequently on social media. The Social Excellence Index answers whether a company's attempts at this have been successful.
Last month, Kenichiro Yoshida, CEO of Sony, topped the ranking with a Social Excellence score of 6.1 points. 65% of the conversation came from social media and his engagement was high with 13 interactions per mention. Moreover, the sentiment of his mentions were 13% positive, meaning Yoshida was well ahead of runners-up Detlef Trefzger, CEO of Kühne + Nagel, with 4.4 points and Jens Henriksson, CEO of Swedbank, who placed third with 3.1 points.