Weekly magazines, monthly magazines, newspapers, radio, television, websites, blogs – media comes in so many different forms that it can sometimes seem a little daunting trying to keep track of everything that is being said about your brand across the various mediums. But before you get bewildered, there are a number of different ways you can keep on top of your brand’s media coverage.
Why is media monitoring important?
There are a few reasons why it is important to know how your brand is being portrayed in the media. Firstly, to remain competitive – it is a good idea for you to know whether a particular campaign or send out has provided maximum value and impact. Secondly, to accurately manage your reputation – you must first be aware of what is being circulated in the media and then ensure it is being properly reflected.
"It’s vital. After-all, coverage in any form is the reason our clients are with us,” says Maxted Thomas senior PR manager Claire Obeid. They want to understand where their dollars are being spent and see a return on that investment. Whether their brief was to engage consumers via social media, to generate interest amongst the beauty media or drive sales through strong editorial coverage – ultimately, being able to understand where their brand sits in the media landscape and how visible it is makes the difference in evaluating the success of the campaign/project.”
What are the others doing?
It’s common practice for major companies and corporations to subscribe to a media monitoring service to help them to keep track of any reports or coverage in the media. Most PR agencies outsource their media monitoring, reporting and intelligence in order to focus their attention on image building and relationship management, however, every company adopts different monitoring measures.
A popular choice for many Australian beauty brands is the Slice Media service offered by Media Monitors. It delivers effective, low-cost media tracking of press, broadcast and internet content. This minimal cost service provides a simple, straightforward online, pre-paid media tracking solution. Slice packages start from $271.70 for 90 days.
Here we look at the different media monitoring options favoured by some Australian beauty companies.
IN-HOUSE PR
Alpha-H public relations and media Tess Stolarchuk.
How does Alpha-H monitor media coverage?
We subscribe to Slice Media.com (a sub sect of Media Monitors) to track where Alpha-H has received editorial mention. This service covers magazines, newspapers, radio, television and online. I also utilise Google Alerts to monitor online forums and blogs. We subscribe to key trade publications such as Professional Beauty, Spa Australasia and INSTYLE as these publications are sometimes missed by the media service.
I will often peruse the weekly magazines on a Monday or Tuesday at the newsagent in case Alpha-H is featured so that we can take full advantage of the exposure by promoting it on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.”
How often do you have to look into whether your brand has been featured?
I receive email notification when a new clipping has been detected on our media monitor, same for Google Alerts, however, I usually check twice a week going over key websites and blogs as no system is fail proof.”
MULTI-BRAND IN-HOUSE PR
Cosmax PR Manager Kate Gildea.
How do you track media coverage?
We receive most of the glossy magazines, so we check these regularly and then make a trip into the newsagents once a week to check the magazines that we don’t receive. We also have an account with Media Monitors and they send us clippings when our brands have appeared in print. For newspapers, we rely on Media Monitors.
Any radio or television publicity is normally generated by ourselves, e.g. interviews with brand spokespeople etc, so we know to listen out for this and we then obtain a copy either directly from the radio station or through Media Monitors. We generally learn of any incidental coverage through team members hearing it and letting us know.
We have a number of websites that we work with and generally check these daily. Every couple of weeks we then do a more comprehensive search for any coverage through Google.”
How often do you check for brand mentions?
It depends on the medium, we look at online every day and magazines tend to be either on a weekly basis or ad hoc as they arrive in the office.”
What do you do with the information once you have collected it?
Once we have collected all our press clippings, they are sent to a company called Mediascape to be evaluated for our quarterly reports. These reports allow us to see the value of the PR that we have generated, which brands have received the most coverage and the value of the press that each publication has given us.”
PR AGENCY
Maxted Thomas senior PR manager Claire Obeid.
How does the gency keep track of its clients’ media coverage?
As a team we each receive a selection of magazines, newspapers, industry titles and street publications to scan. Each of us are responsible for reading the title cover to cover and clip any coverage from our client stable. We also have media monitoring services that pick up on coverage within traditional and new media outlets. Depending on the project, we’ll arrange monitoring for radio and TV.”
How often do you check for brand mentions?
We are always looking! We receive media monitoring emails regularly and scour mags daily.”
How are media monitoring responsibilities shared among the team?
Ultimately the account executive that manages our press office (collating coverage and compiling reports) is responsible for ensuring all relevant coverage has been received. But, it’s also the account managers and senior account managers responsibility to ensure the team is making it happen – so really, we are all very invested in it. After all, editorial coverage (in traditional and new media) is the bread and butter of any PR business.”
What do you do with the information once you have collected it?
We collate detailed coverage reports and also send weekly emails to clients, including daily emails if the coverage is worth a little song and dance.”