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A World Of Information Without Noise 

Big data is more than just a buzzword. It’s one of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing almost every industry, business and brand today. With the potential value that it holds, investment in big data, machine learning and AI will be crucial for any business that wants to remain relevant through the ages.

Big Data

noun : extremely large data sets that may be analysed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behaviour and interactions.

Each day 2.5 quintillion bytes of data is generated – a number that continues to grow exponentially. While we have seen improvements in the collection of data over recent years, the ability to synthesize meaning from this data is demanding more from engineers and their technology than ever before.

The problem that we face is sorting through these huge chunks of data to separate the noise from what is important to individuals and their organisation. While automation has offered speed, simplicity and efficiency, the ‘why’ is where the untapped value and excitement lies.

“Contextualisation is key. It's not about just collecting data, it’s about how that data can provide clear information that enables and inspires action”

Richard Spencer, Chief Marketing Officer at Isentia.

Rather than reflecting on past performance, answering the ‘why’ has the potential to lead action that focuses on influencing the tomorrow.
Beyond big data, the 'why' behind AI and machine learning may raise new questions. For instance the wider interplay behind machine learnings ability to  translate to a language without any knowledge or assumptions about that language.

As teams start to ask these questions, the data starts to be reimagined. The perception of a data point transforms into breadcrumbs of a narrative that can tell a bigger story, and ultimately influence our thinking.

The question is, when big data becomes manageable and meaningful – how fast will it move into being predictive? And even beyond this, be able to simulate what is ‘likely’ to happen.

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Tis’ the season to be jolly, but before we get into the holiday spirit here’s a few things that we’ve heard bring joy to our clients…

A portal to your media data, made easy.

The volume of chatter and news coverage has increased and diversified with the introduction of new distribution channels almost daily. The task of capturing all relevant data is incredibly important, but often overwhelming and difficult to manage. Our Mediaportal clients love that while the technology is complex, the solution is simple.

Wherever a story appears – from Twitter to the weekend press – our technology picks it up, and delivers it directly to Mediaportal. It doesn’t matter when or where that story breaks, our clients get 24/7 access to their data via our intuitive online portal and app. They can customise how they would like to view their coverage, or zero in on a slice of data with flexible filtering tools. Most importantly, it is now even easier for our clients to sit back and take a look at the bigger picture, all from the one platform.

Have it your way.

One of the most loved features of Mediaportal is the ability to create Personal Folders. Mediaportal can automatically organise media items into folders based on criteria set by you. These folders can be organised by search terms, locations or media outlets, with the added feature of being able to manually add content to a folder if desired. This makes managing topics or key themes much easier – once created, folders can be shared with colleagues too, so they automatically appear under their Mediaportal login too.

Trust us with no fuss notifications.

Who sits at their desk from 9am-5pm nowadays? Our clients need to be kept informed and provided with timely updates no matter whether they’re in a meeting, dropping kids off to school, or presenting at a conference. Isentia’s media alerting system utilises all platforms and devices, supported by our news-hungry, market-leading account management teams who distribute information via email, RSS feeds or Isentia App notifications. The ability to receive information anywhere, anytime is a huge advantage for many of our clients who need relevant, accurate and manageable updates in a timely fashion.

Reporting that matters.

Regular reporting is nothing new for our clients – it is imperative in demonstrating sentiment and success relative to outputs. We know how important this is; in fact, we know that more than 5,000 reports are built in Mediaportal every week! Our Custom Reports tool is designed to suit a range of needs, allowing Mediaportal users to create, brand and share reports via a simple web link in under 2 minutes.

Analytics to help develop understanding.

With Mediaportal Analytics you can create visually engaging charts to measure the success of your media coverage and efforts. Many of our clients add relevant charts to their Mediaportal dashboard for repeat use – both saving time and allowing the delivery of a consistent picture of activity across every report.

Confidence in coverage.

Everyday our technology ingests millions of media items, and adds hundreds of millions of additional data points from other sources. Our team works hard to capture coverage that matters most to our clients, while also ensuring that the content captured meets the brief. It’s what gives our clients confidence in communicating this activity out to their wider teams, internal stakeholders and sometimes even with industry peers. 

There when you need us most.

We’re no strangers to a crisis. We’re there when our clients need us – whether the news is good, or not so good. One of the key reasons why many of our clients choose Isentia is because we know technology is great, but people are still critical to success. We have some fantastic, longstanding relationships and dedicated teams ready to assist at any time of day whether that is to simply help compile a report, or deal with an urgent crisis. Our clients lean on us, on the days when it really matters.

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Is content marketing an art or a science?

It’s not a new debate but an increasingly relevant one. As technology continues to improve, the C-Suite is demanding a clearer measurement into impact. Marketing and communications professionals responsible for curating content are no longer governed by ‘gut feeling’ and instead, are increasingly driven by engagement metrics to demonstrate ROI.

These professionals are well aware how their role requires a mix of art and science thinking. They both draw from the left brain and the right brain, using data and reason to guide the creativity that fuels it.

But this relationship is less rigorously applied to content marketing – an emerging discipline that straddles both marketing and communications objectives.

Marketers and communications professionals have varying levels of social media sophistication – particularly with LinkedIn, which is often a core channel for content. With LinkedIn estimating more than 130, 000 posts are made on its newsfeed every week, organisations are increasingly turning to it as a distribution channel for thought leadership.

Far fewer, however, understand how to draw insight from the platform to ensure their content connects with their target audience.

Marketers and communications practitioners will often speak to me with this challenge solely in mind. Most are able to gauge the success of content on Facebook and Instagram to some level. Plenty of tools exist which measure various social aspects of content marketing, such as ‘likes’ or ‘shares’. But real engagement isn’t buzz. Determining whether content is connecting with a target audience is a key challenge.

Content marketers are struggling to understand whether their current LinkedIn strategy is working – whether it’s reaching the right audience and whether a piece of content is being actively engaged on the platform.

Other times, they will want to target a particular demographic; millennials for example. But they don’t have the understanding of what this group is looking for when they log onto this social networking site.

In short, what content marketers want to do is debunk the myths surrounding their own activity and drill down into strategy to make their dollars work harder.

How can data help?

Data is pivotal. Armed with information, marketers and communications professionals have a window into the opinions, passions and motivations of their audience.

At Isentia we’ve seen this in our own business. The Research & Insights stream has grown by 25 per cent in the last year, as this market recognises the importance of data. I’m often told by clients that they’re just at the start of their measurement journey, but still desperately rely on data to convince the C-Suite to spend money on content marketing.

Research & Insights can be used to help inform content marketing strategy by highlighting what brand-relevant topics an organisation’s audience is engaging with. It can also help content marketers understand where their brand sits against those their competitors, by measuring their share of voice on a particular topic.

But most importantly, data can help marketing and communications practitioners build out content itself. By understanding what type of content receives the most engagement on the platform, they can tailor their content strategies and measure their success at the same time.

Data is the key to debunking the myths of what does or doesn’t work in a content marketing strategy. It gives marketers and communications professionals the opportunity to ensure they understand their audience first and foremost, in order to communicate in a way that connects.

This is where science can help inform the art in content marketing.

Asha Oberoi
Head of Insights, Australia 

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The dividing lines between the communications and marketing function are starting to blur as more companies rely on the insights derived from data and analysis to build an integrated marcomms strategy. Across the globe, we’re seeing these once siloed teams come together to create more impactful and measurable campaigns - and we only have data and Insights to thank.

How and when did this happen? We know that customers do not distinguish between channels; to them, all brand communications are equal whether it’s a PR program, a TV ad or an advertorial. We also know that technology platforms that can provide real time metrics, allow more content driven activity to be measurable. Fusing marketing and communications helps provide a single focus and strategy into how an organization is reaching and communicating with their customers.

Communications has not traditionally had to showcase the customer journey – from the event or campaign, to the purchase – whereas marketers are accustomed to providing hardline metrics. However, as measurable data becomes more accessible through technology, communications professionals are becoming more conscious of learning from their proactive and reactive activity and gaining insights into how this can be improved. The onus is now on communicators to provide solid metrics and prove their impact, as marketers have, directly to the c-suite.

Without data and insights, communication professionals in the long term will struggle to continuously contribute to the business goals and objectives of the organization and more crucially in the shorter term, for budget.

From a ‘hug’ to a measurable ROI driven strategy

A corporate comms director that I recently spoke too describes PR as “the hug a brand gives the consumers”. But as technology improves, reliance on traditional ways of working will no longer suffice. It’s becoming necessary to measure the hug.

Originally the gulf between communications and marketing was originally so dispersed they were seen as two separate departments with two separate budgets, but this set to change forever.

Integrated marketing and communications teams now need to prove their worth across the entire gamut of activity in order to receive on going and increasing budget for their activities.

Why integrated marketing is more successful

But data doesn’t just help prove the worth of strategies. The right data provides insights and shapes future strategies to lead to better success.

The integration of these two disciplines is a win-win for the consumer, the employee and the brand. Add data and you have an even more powerful outcome.

These professionals can map out cohesive strategies that map the entire customer journey and all outcomes. Adding data means activity can be tweaked in real-time to increase success.

For instance, much of today’s measurable consumer engagement comes from social media. For me social is absolutely in the heartland of the communicator but today the social media strategy is almost exclusively managed by marketing. That is such a missed opportunity for comms professionals and I urge anyone in this role to immerse themselves in the world of social media.

Social listening tools are collecting data that can not only provide Insight before a campaign or strategic move but social media analysis can also offer metrics for communication practitioners to showcase their value to their peers and bosses. This insight is best used when translated to inform strategy, guide content and create a deeper relationship with the target market.

In today’s fragmented media landscape, it no longer makes business sense to separate marketing and communications activities. Data is helping to fuse all consumer touch points into one single holistic approach to communicating, marketing and selling to the customer.

Not only will technology help integrated marketing and communications professionals prove the effectiveness of their work, but it will help brands speak to their customers is one united voice, where ultimately the consumer benefits.

Here in Australia we are still very much at the beginning of this journey – I’d love to hear your opinions or predictions of how these two disciplines are coming closer together through data and Insights.

Asha Oberoi
Head of Insights, Australia 

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