Hill + Knowlton Strategies

Challenge

Like lots of communications professionals, Roxana Tintea, Planning and Insights Manager at Hill+Knowlton Strategies wears many hats. "On a day to day basis, my role ranges from bringing on new business, to educating stakeholders, to crafting bespoke media monitoring services for clients and helping them achieve their strategic goals." Roxana required a solution that would help facilitate her daily tasks.

"Many PR teams are having to fight for their budget and justify their existence through ROI. However, they struggle to demonstrate their value internally without visual, easy-to-understand data. Before Meltwater, I found it difficult to help clients understand how they were performing. Many of them used Google Alerts, which just isn't ideal due to the small source base, meaning they only saw a small snapshot of the wider picture."

Roxana has used a number of different media intelligence platforms. Before switching to Meltwater, she found it time-consuming having to set up new searches. "Other platforms are not always user-friendly and involve contacting support to change simple things." With so many tasks to juggle as it is, Roxana didn't have time to waste on administrative tasks and so searched for a more intuitive solution.  

Solution

An easy to use, customizable media intelligence tool  

Roxana appreciates how user-friendly Meltwater is. "Many of my clients have the perception that media monitoring is scary. The benefits of Meltwater are obvious. It's really easy to use, quick, and I can easily make changes to my keyword searches without having to speak to technical support. The help section within the platform has loads of 'how-to' guides and videos." Roxana feels from an agency perspective that Meltwater is the best choice to suit her needs. "It's visually appealing, allows backdating of content and offers the most flexibility out of all the other media monitoring platforms I've used." 

Roxana uses Meltwater as a business development research tool. To ensure their company has the best chance of being chosen, Roxana uses the media intelligence platform to get a better understanding of the potential client, their competitors and the full media landscape. "I'll look at their online media coverage over a 6-12 month period and analyze what media they've been featured in, the tone of conversations, whether they've had any big spikes around launches or crises and then do the same around their key competitors. I'll then benchmark the brands analyzed to understand who's most positively discussed, how much of a share of voice they have in their industry and more." This helps H+KStrategies to personalize their pitch. The data can also be used when bringing the potential client onboard, ensuring they create a more effective strategy. 

Another way Roxana uses Meltwater's media intelligence solution is to 1) show her clients the value of what H+KStrategies is doing for them 2) help her clients justify their existence internally. "Measurement is crucial for brands to justify why their campaigns are effective. Media monitoring helps my clients understand whether they are meeting their business goals. Using a range of metrics, I get a bigger picture of how the brands are performing. The more data sets the better as I can spot patterns and potential opportunities and threats."