Geely

Meet Geely Holding Group

Founded in 1997 in Hangzhou, China, Geely Holding Group is the company behind brands like Geely Auto, Volvo Cars, Polestar, smart, Lynk & Co, Proton Cars and Geometry.

The group has the biggest global presence among all Chinese auto group in terms of its global R&D network, the global design network and the global manufacturing network. Geely Automobile Holding, which is the subsidiary of the group, has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2005.

In 2021, Geely Holding Group's brands sold more than 2.2 million units globally, a new record for the group. For the fourth consecutive year, Geely Holding recorded more than 2 million units in aggregate sales. 

The challenge Geely Holding Group faced

Geely's international commercial footprint means its customers - both business and consumer - could be anywhere from Asia to Europe. While the expansion into European markets is a tremendous opportunity, it also brought with it some challenges.

Kevin Chen, Geely Holding Group's Global Public Relations Manager, said: "Back in 2017 we didn't have a really effective way of monitoring news about our company or our brands. It was particularly important to us, as we embarked on a global expansion, to be able to track the public conversation around our brands and products all over the world. If you don't know what people are saying about you, how can you correct an incorrect perception? We needed a communications tool that could help us manage our brand image. So, Meltwater has been an important partner to us these past five years."

Kevin said Geely was also looking for a one-stop-shop solution that allowed it to reach out to journalists, for pitching and media opportunities, and allowed it to track the success of various campaigns and products.

"Ideally, we needed real-time analytics, on-demand, and excellent reporting tools - because having the right, accurate data at your fingertips is the best way of informing good decision-making."

Geely Holding Group's priorities were:

• Tracking and managing Geely's global image and brand presence
• Monitoring sentiment in media and on social in different markets
• Outreaching to media and pitching capabilities
• Tracking the success of campaigns and brands in global markets 

The solution Meltwater provided to Geely Holding Group

Geely Holding Group invested in Meltwater's software-as-a-service media monitoring tool within Meltwater for Automotive.

Rey Ye, from Geely Global PR team, said Meltwater meant Geely now had excellent visibility on everything from media mentions to social media sentiment about the company and its brands.

"If it's being said online or in the media about Geely and our products, we know about it," he said. "That's so powerful for us. It means, for example, if we run a seasonal event or launch a new product, we're able to track how it's being received in the marketplace, even if that marketplace is Germany or Britain.

"What's more, we're able to track it in real time - producing reports whenever we need them. The reporting function is incredible, as we can use it to really drill down on any data point we're interested in. We can compare the results for different products and different markets, and even compare our results against those of our competitors. That's useful to us, in our team, but it also means we can create impressive and definitive reports for our executive team."

Geely Holding Group is also able to use Meltwater for media outreach, identifying and contacting relevant journalists with story ideas, updates or corrections. It's allowing them to build stronger relationships with the most relevant and influential reporters and media organisations.