U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Time-saving media monitoring and distribution

Since 2019, the USPTO’s chief communications office has used the Meltwater Suite to ensure the agency is well represented on the national stage. It uses our media intelligence platform to stay on top of every media mention. 

With the ability to monitor unlimited keywords across hundreds of thousands of sources — including print, digital, podcast, and broadcast media —, the USPTO can track content about the agency, as well as countless relevant topics like commerce and AI. 

“Trying to sift and weed through media clips is labor intensive,” says Deputy Press Secretary Mandy Kraft. “But being able to use Meltwater to pull them from one place — and see articles that have been either redistributed or reused or re-amplified — is a huge relief.”

Meltwater’s media intelligence platform has also improved and expanded the communications office’s ability to keep executives in the loop. The team relies on the platform’s easy-to-use recurring reporting tools to dispatch regular summaries of media coverage and top news clips to the agency’s executives. With them, the USPTO cuts down the time it takes to go from gaining insights to using them to inform their communications decisions. 

“We can pick and choose which clips are going to be the most beneficial for different stakeholders,” Kraft says. “Having a super organized way to go through things and share our information has been really well received by our executives.”

Building media relationships at scale

In PR today, bringing stories to media contacts — not hoping they come to you — is key to securing coverage and building public trust. But as a federal agency with a scope that spans industries and markets, the USPTO has a large network of local and national press contacts. Getting the agency’s stories out to the right audiences requires a strategic stream of communications that keep the USPTO top of mind for its press lists. It uses our media relations platform to build effective relationships, amplify its news, and land coverage at scale without relying on a “spray and pray” approach. 

Our platform’s media contact profiles feature lets Kraft and her team easily vet journalists and add them to interest-specific media lists to ensure their outputs are always of high value and relevant to each recipient. Customizable templates for each type of communication lets them create professional-looking communications instantly, ensuring that their messages are engaging and clear.

“Whenever we issue a press release, news brief, or media advisory, we get feedback asking questions or saying, ‘Thanks for sharing this news. We're going to write a piece on it. Can we get a quote?’“ Kraft says. “They're thankful for us sending this out to them using Meltwater because they're able to actually receive that news in a timely manner right to their inbox, and then they're able to sign up to get that news from us.”

The USPTO’s strengthened media relationships aren’t just a hunch. The team can see the ROI of its outputs from multiple angles. Our platform’s outreach statistics keep track of which pitches were successful by measuring click and open rates. At the same time, PR dashboards and Insights Reports track the progress and sentiment of their media exposure over time via easy-to-read, shareable charts.

With the media relations platform in its Meltwater Suite, the USPTO spends less time hunting for contacts and more time refining its communications strategies. 

Quick, responsive customer support

As the USPTO adapts to new challenges, our education resources keep the chief communications office’s onboarding times to a minimum. Live and recorded training resources, along with a dedicated customer success point of contact, make Meltwater an added support member of the agency’s team. These benefits are especially valuable when the office welcomes new hires or prepares to execute new communications campaigns. 

“The entire Meltwater onboarding team was super receptive, jumping right in to help us as an agency figure out and navigate the platform,” Kraft says. “Having people that we can reach out to, either through instant message, email, phone calls, and having a full team that's ready there to help us is super helpful. Having those things makes for a better experience for everyone.”

And as the capabilities within our suite evolve, our customer support team is proactive in fast-tracking the USPTO team to reap the value of new platform features. “Before Meltwater, I used Cision, which was fine. It was just a little bit more of an antiquated feel to it,” Kraft remembers. “What I really like about Meltwater is that it's very sleek and constantly updating, keeping it fresh. I find that to be a lot more appealing and a good draw. I much prefer the simplicity and the way everything is organized in Meltwater.”