American Wind Energy Association
Challenge
Lack of Insight into Progress
AWEA represents an industry whose core product- wind energy- receives support from a large number of Americans, and yet they struggled to track the media coverage their members and policy advocates were generating. Industry news was monitored manually, which meant many stories escaped notice and sharing latest industry trends with members was spotty at best. AWEA couldn't identify and reach out to qualified reporters, determine whether press releases were being opened, gauge sentiment among their readers, or measure their overall effectiveness as communicators.
"We wanted to focus our attention on states with negative coverage so we could determine where we need to control the conversation around our brand," says David Ward AWEA?s Director of Public Affairs. "Meltwater's heatmap gives us complete visibility into sentiment across the U.S., we can now quickly pinpoint and act upon negative coverage."
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"The ability to pinpoint coverage on a heat map with a single click, show year-over-year analysis, and benchmark sentiment from state to state was just the tip of the iceberg, Meltwater is really at the forefront and continues to evolve with the ever-changing needs of the media market."
David Ward, Director of Public Affairs, AWEA
Solution
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Meltwater's comprehensive monitoring provides AWEA with complete visibility into print and online media coverage. The mobile app allows them to find and forward newsworthy articles and video clips to the small team that compiles their daily newsletter.
AWEA finds the influencer database particularly helpful in unfamiliar markets, as it enables the PR team to identify relevant media outlets and journalists with whom they can build relationships. They generate reports directly from the dashboard to show press release open rates and readership and measure their effectiveness in reaching new audiences. Heat maps reveal public sentiment across regions.
Summary
Meltwater Helps AWEA
Create daily communications that ensure consistency
"We have a team that uses Meltwater every morning to identify the top industry-related news from the previous day. We insert that into an e-newsletter that we send to hundreds of wind industry executives and communication reps to keep everyone on the same page, combatting industry myths and communicating the positives."
Identify communication partners in unfamiliar markets
"The influencer database helps us identify top publications in states and regions where we have a smaller footprint. Now we can find relevant journalists and then track the success of our outreach to them."
— David Ward, Director of Public Affairs
Measure impact and progress over time
"We compile dashboard coverage reports with greater speed to measure success, demonstrate our progress, and show the impact of our efforts over time."
— Evan Vaughan, Media Relations and Outreach Coordinator
