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 2023 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
May 2023 CEO Echo rankings
CEO Echo for May 2023: 3% less CEO mentions
Last month, the .companion CEO metrics bot found 3% less CEO mentions than the average of the previous months. Overall, 65% of mentions captured by the CEO Echo were generated by editorial online content, while social media generated 35%. In May, CEO Echo content saw engagement jump by 94%.
55% 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 45% of mentions was linked to corporate agendas. Overall, the tonality of mentions was equally positive and negative.
Total Digital Footprint
Björn Gulden, Adidas CEO, dominates with 6% CEO Echo coverage
What role does a CEO play in a company's overall corporate messaging, whether voluntary or involuntary? The CEO Footprint aims to answer this question.
In May, Björn Gulden, CEO of Adidas, received the highest amount of media coverage. His share of voice totalled 6.4%, the largest footprint of all top board members. In second place was Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, with 5.4%, and Bernard Arnault, CEO of LVMH, took the third spot with 4.6% share of all mentions. 17% of conversations around Gulden’s echo were not related to company financials, and thus were below average for agenda-driving topics and content. 61% of the Adidas CEO's echo came from editorial media and 39% from social media. Content that mentioned Gulden generated 19 interactions (clicks, shares, likes) per mention. This shows that audiences are highly engaged and made Gulden the 37th most engaged CEO in the ranking. In total, mentions for Björn Gulden were more often negative than positive. We can assume this had a corresponding impact on his overall reputation.
Communication Excellence
Etihad Airways’ CEO, Tony Douglas, 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).
Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Airways, was ranked first in May. Outside of the paywall, 46% of his digital echo discussed the CEO in stories beyond financial figures. Stories generated 426 engagements per mention, signifying readers are highly interested. Furthermore, coverage was significantly more positive than negative. As a result, the response to Etihad Airways’ CEO received 9.7 points. Peter Ndegwa, CEO of Safaricom came in second place with a score of 4.0 and Rolf Eberhard Buch, CEO of Vonovia, took third place with a Communication Excellence score of 3.2 points.
Social Excellence
Philipp Gmür, Helvetia Holding’s CEO, wins first place
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, Philipp Gmür, CEO of Helvetia Holding, topped the ranking with a Social Excellence score of 3.4 points. 91% of the conversation came from social media and his engagement was highly engaged with 14 interactions per mention. Moreover, the sentiments of his mentions were 0% positive, meaning Gmür was ahead of runners-up Gerd Chrzanowski, CEO of Lidl, with 3.1 points and Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, who placed third with 2.7 points.
Responsibility Excellence
Andrea Orcel, CEO of Unicredit, has the highest number of mentions surrounding social responsibility
The .companion metrics bot also determines whether CEOs appear in the digital media echo as leaders in the context of the UN's sustainable development goals, e.g. in the context of social responsibility or climate and environmental protection. Our Responsibility Index shows how well this has been achieved. For this index, the metrics bot only analyses mentions related to this topic.
In May, Andrea Orcel, CEO of Unicredit, saluted us from first place in the responsibility ranking, with 21% of Unicredit CEO's mentions related to social responsibility topics. His engagement rate was 3725 which can be considered highly engaged. The tonality of media conversations was significantly more positive than negative. Overall, Orcel’s Responsibility Index came to 29.2 points. Roland Krueger, CEO of Dyson, followed in second place with 1.4 points, and Dolf van den Brink, CEO of Heineken, in third place with 1.4 points.
Investor Excellence
Christian Sewing, CEO of Deutsche Bank, takes the number 1 spot for the financial echo
CEO mentions in the context of balance sheet figures offer little scope for setting content-related agendas but are crucial for building investor confidence. In this environment, the metrics bot determines which CEOs were mentioned from a financial standpoint, forming an index for investor communication.
In May, the .companion metrics bot identified Unicredit's CEO, Andrea Orcel, as the top communicator for investors after he achieved 28.7 points. 82% of his mentions were related to the financial environment, which is 1.3 times this month's average. His readership was highly interested, indicated by an engagement rate of 994.3, and he experienced significantly more positive than negative comments. He is followed in second and third place by Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara International, with 8.9 points and Alberto Nicola Nagel, CEO of Mediobanca (3.9 points).
Source Information
- Media conversations were tracked and analyzed globally with the help of the market-leading monitoring tool, Meltwater
- All content is in German and/or English and publicly accessible across websites, forums, and social media
- The text and content of the CEO Echo are generated automatically by the .companion metrics bot
- All Excellence index values are based on three criteria:
1. How often the respective CEO is mentioned in a certain context
2. How many of those mentions were positive
3. How many engagements did those posts and articles received - While it is necessary to have an above-average share of mentions in the respective category it's still possible to score high on a certain index despite one of the sub-criteria receiving results that are somewhat sub-par
_______________________
For individual evaluation or questions about the KPI bot, please email contact@companion.de
For a customized report involving any given CEO, please email contact@companion.de.
For further information on Meltwater's brand and reputation management services, including 1-1 advice for your business or the creation of a more advanced brand/CEO media analysis report, simply fill out the form below.
Previous 2023 CEO Echo results
Interactive CEO Dashboard
Gain insight into which CEO's are leading today's conversation. Access the dashboard here and filter for CEO, industry, company, or country and get direct get powerful insights visualized in mentions and hashtags.
