For global organizations, brand management can easily become a mess of standalone PR and marketing solutions. Meltwater’s suite of data-rich solutions lets organizations consolidate and streamline their PR and marketing operations, saving more time and money for strategizing and reaching their business goals.
With the challenges of global brand management in mind, we commissioned Forrester Consulting, a leading independent research firm, to study the business impacts of using the Meltwater Suite. We’re proud to share the results of the 2023 study in The Total Economic Impact™ Of Meltwater For Brand Management. Read on for a brief overview of the study’s findings.
Table of Contents:
Forrester TEI Study Framework and Methodology
Global Brand Management Challenges
Forrester TEI Study of Meltwater for Brand Management Findings
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Forrester TEI Study Framework and Methodology
Forrester interviewed seven representatives of global organizations in the high-tech, healthcare, and retail sectors as well as one representative from a financial services organization based in the United States. Forrester used those interviews to create an ROI analysis, a composite company reflecting the characteristics of the interviewees’ organizations, and used its Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) framework to evaluate Meltwater’s business impact.
The composite company — a multinational organization with $500 million in annual revenue, 5,000 employees, and 30 Meltwater users — models the potential risks and benefits of using Meltwater’s suite of solutions for global brand management activities.
Global Brand Management Challenges
Interviewees for this study represent enterprise Meltwater clients with many brand management challenges in common, including:
- High costs, partially due to a lack of ROI measurement of promotional activities and expensive social listening solutions
- Lack of actionable insights from competitive brand management tools with poor user experience and superficial KPI tracking
Because of these challenges, interviewees looked for a new solution that could offer:
- Cost-effective global media intelligence
- Collaborative capabilities for global teams
- User experience that enables deeper data analysis and actionable insights
Forrester TEI Study of Meltwater for Brand Management Findings
Previously, interviewees’ organizations relied on time-intensive manual reporting processes and costly third-party vendors to get data on their global media coverage. After implementing Meltwater, they were better able to analyze that data — instead of just counting it — to uncover strategic business insights. One director of global communications at a high-tech company told Forrester:
Many of the PR results I saw [before Meltwater] were reporting sound bites and listing out the links of all the published stories. We didn’t track quantitative metrics in our nearly 200 markets, across different languages, online media, plus audio podcasts. We lacked the combined view. That motivated us to look at cost-effective options to run as a pilot. When we compared Meltwater with some of the other tools in the market in terms of the scale and the ease of use, they were by far at the time ahead of everyone else.
Let’s take a closer look at the study’s key findings.
Employee productivity gains
Forrester found that the composite organization could see employee productivity gains worth $309,545 annually by replacing manual data collection, analysis, and reporting with Meltwater. Our platform's automated data analysis, dashboards, and reporting capabilities would save employees 32 hours of reporting time each month. And, by making it easier for employees to access information and insights, Meltwater would also improve employee satisfaction.
Influencer marketing spend reallocation
With the Meltwater Influencer Marketing Suite, the composite organization would be better able to identify relevant influencers for specific marketing needs and track their campaign impacts (through influencer marketing reporting & analytics). Marketers at the organization could then focus their marketing efforts on partnerships with influencers that provide the highest influencer ROI for their campaigns. Those capabilities could help the composite organization reallocate $895,300 of its influencer marketing budget over the course of three years.
Tangible brand impact
Meltwater's social listening suite and Meltwater media intelligence platforms let the composite organization easily identify content with negative sentiment about its brand and respond quickly. That efficiency allows it to save on PR costs and gain consumer insights that can then inform its business decisions. As a result, Meltwater’s brand impact could have a three-year present value of $660,259.
Unquantified Benefits
Forrester’s interviews with enterprise organizations also uncovered the unquantified benefits they saw as a result of using Meltwater for brand management. Along with improved employee satisfaction, these benefits included:
- Improved campaign performance thanks to Meltwater insights
- Flexible reporting to support more efficient and better-informed decision making
- Better business outcomes due to Meltwater insights identifying opportunities for cost savings
One VP of global corporate media relations at a healthcare organization spoke about their positive experience working with the Meltwater team:
Meltwater’s service is phenomenal. We meet quarterly to learn about new enhancements, our usage, and to discuss any challenges we have. I have a person dedicated to my team that we can contact daily if we need to. The Meltwater team is very accessible.
Tip: Read more about how Meltwater helps clients tackle their PR and communications challenges on our customer stories page.
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Overall, Forrester’s TEI study of brand management with Meltwater found that our suite provided the composite organization with a three-year ROI of 242% with a payback period of less than six months.
Access the full study, The Total Economic Impact™ Of Meltwater For Brand Management, for an in-depth examination of the business benefits of using the Meltwater Suite for global brand management. Then, learn more about how our solutions can help your organization with its own specific challenges by scheduling a demo today.
