Precise Newsletter Customization. When sending newsletters from Newsdesk, choose to show or hide paragraph breaks in the article text to get the exact look you want.
New Custom Topics Make Finding Data Easier than Ever. We now offer powerful custom news categorization created by our editorial staff, with news topics designed to customer specifications. This custom taxonomy service lets you define your media universe more accurately than ever before.
More Thumbnail Images. We have more than doubled the number of pictures we are serving alongside articles, offering users a more engaging reader experience. Brighten up the news shown to users on your intranet and websites with these images from Newsdesk’s RSS feeds.
More Article Data in Rich Atom Exports. The Rich Atom feed now provides additional metadata about the source and the article. Build up a client-side index of articles for more detailed media analytics or offer a richer experience to your end-users by displaying more information alongside article headlines, such as the country of a source.
More Data Than Ever. We have been increasing our news available for searching. Newsdesk now covers more than 55,000 news sources with peaks of over 1.6 million new articles added daily. To our knowledge, Moreover presides over the most extensive database of searchable news available in the marketplace today.
A feature article by Moreover’s Senior Product Manager, Brian Mackie, appears in the latest issue of IntranetsToday explaining how companies can find and exploit opportunities within the challenges of Big Data.
His article, “Actionable Media Intelligence: Delivering a Competitive Edge”, argues that companies should be using the proper tools to turn unwieldy “mass media” into actionable “meaningful media”.
Great companies make decisions driven by data, not by gut feelings alone. The problem is that available “big data” is increasing very quickly. How does an organization make sense of it all and get it to the relevant people?
Employees are going to talk- to each other and to people outside the company. Are they informed? They should be reading targeted and relevant news every day without spending too much time seeking it out. Do you know how to get them there?
In the feature, Mr. Mackie gives a checklist of points to consider while evaluating tools for internal communication to solve these problems.
What media sources does the service cover, does it match your particular industry needs, and can new ones be added on request?
Check the news filtering options to make sure they will support the precisely tuned results you need (test with real-life news requirements)
Look for flexible media distribution options: A user portal, newsletters, RSS feeds, possibly an API to integrate news search directly into an intranet
Ensure it includes editorial control features to manage the content that flows out to the organization (e.g. the ability to quickly remove articles from an RSS feed on the intranet)
Confirm whether customer service includes editorial support for building out searches
Ask about their software development processes and how often they roll out new features (ideally at least monthly)
Know the pricing – avoid ballooning content licensing costs, and beware the sweet entry level deal that is followed by a sudden not-quite-explained price hike in year two!
Lastly, always run a trial and push the vendor to prove, not just promise, targeted business news that demonstrates value. If they can’t provide this during a trial, it’s probably because they can’t provide it full stop.
Companies can leverage their internal communication to gain an advantage in the marketplace. It is difficult, but there is opportunity in this challenge to rise above the competition:
Turning mass media it into meaningful media intelligence is a fascinating challenge – it is for vendors, publishers, and especially for the companies chasing productivity gains and competitive advantage. And therein lies the good business news: It is not too late to be an early mover and gain that edge.
The 2012 London Olympic Games have come to a close and so has this blog series, looking at which of the Top 11 Corporate Sponsors received the most news coverage.
Newsdesk played the leading role in our ability to quickly find and understand the news coverage for each of these sponsors. It is clear from our data that Visa (Gold), McDonald’s (Silver), and Coca-Cola (Bronze) were the winners in terms of highest volume of news mentions.
The coverage was not always positive. Each day there was backlash against the International Olympic Committee for allowing the sponsors to dictate the food, payment methods, and even logos that appeared on clothing worn by spectators and athletes at the Olympic Games.
It wasn’t all negative, though. Visa’s series of real-time congratulatory commercials for medalists were quite popular. Also, several athletes had their victory celebrations at McDonald’s after winning their medals, which was widely covered.
The primary goal of this blog series was to quickly find and report relevant data . To this end Newsdesk performed very well.
We built searches beforehand for each top sponsor and included variations on their brand names (e.g. Coca-Cola and Coke). The search results automatically fed into dynamic charts, which helped us visualize the leaders for the previous day. Creating these searches took a little time and thought up-front, but after that it was “set it and forget it”.
Each day we used our charts to identify the day’s leaders. Then we scanned the headlines to see which topics were driving coverage. This took us just a minute or two. From there, it was simple to see trends and find single articles that typified them.
We wrote the blog posts and were done. All-in-all, it was a very quick process and easily repeatable every day.
This is something you could do for your own blog. Tell us in the comments if you would like someone to show you how.
We are continuing a series of blog posts where we use Newsdesk to research corporate sponsorship for the 2012 Olympic Games. Today we are looking at non-sponsors and how they also benefit from the games.
There is a growing backlash against the International Olympic Committee and their chosen corporate sponsors. The IOC has locked down the Olympic Village and the surrounding area in order to prevent unauthorized sponsors from getting publicity. Looking back to the Atlanta Games, you might see why:
The classic case of “ambush marketing” was in Atlanta, Georgia for the 1996 Summer Games. Nike plastered the city with billboards and handed out Nike flags for attendees to wave at the games. When all was said and done, many people thought Nike was the official sponsor, when in fact, it was Reebok.
We’ve already seen how the choice to exclude all credit cards except Visa backfired at Wembley Stadium, when the system went down and caused long lines and unhappy spectators. Now the story of the day is the ominous-sounding and 18 page long Rule 40, which does not allow Olympic athletes to appear in advertising during the Olympics. Writes BrandChannel:
Beats, the headphones brand of musician Dr. Dre, set up a special brand center inside the a [sic] private club and invited athletes to get a free pair. Soon, Beats products were showing up on TV on Olympians heads as they amped themselves up for competition. One British soccer team member even Tweeted “Loving my new GB Beats by Dre #TeamGB #Beats.” Well, the IOC wasn’t going to let that fly. The IOC immediately warned the British contingent to knock it off. If the athletes wanted to listen to music pre-game, the IOC noted that “Olympians were welcome to wear Panasonic headphones.”
Uniforms and equipment are not the only place logos and slogans are coming under scrutiny. German gymnast Marcel Nguyen has brought special sweat-proof makeup to apply to his chest to cover tattoos. US star runner and the “Brad Pitt of track,” Nick Symmonds, has been forced to run with tape on his shoulder covering a temporary tattoo advertising the Twitter handle of Hanson Dodge Creative, a Milwaukee ad agency with which he has a one-year sponsorship deal.
Nike is also turning their lack of Olympic sponsorship into a plus, portraying themselves on the side of the little guy. Take this commercial, for example, set in London, OH (home of the cheapest gas between Dayton and Columbus):
How is it possible to strike a balance between protecting the value of an Olympic sponsorship with respecting the individual athletes and their sponsors?
We are continuingour coverage of the Olympics using Newsdesk to understand how the top Olympic sponsors at the London Games are benefiting from their advertising dollars and pounds.
The majority of our focus has been on how commercials or negative publicity have been resyndicated and have contributed to the coverage of the top 11 Olympic Sponsors. Proctor & Gamble became a bronze medalist yesterday by a different method.
Tonight at the P&G Family Home dads of Team USA were saluted with a guest appearance by Tyson Chandler, a center for the U.S. basketball team and a father of three. Chandler talked about how his grandfather helped him become the man he is today.
P&G helped Canadian athletes remember that they are not alone as they compete for the gold:
At the mid-way mark of the Olympics, Canadian Olympian and Secret brand ambassador Clara Hughes, along with Pantene brand ambassador Annamay Pierse today joined Procter & Gamble at Canada Olympic House in London for a “Home Away from Home” celebration. Hughes and Pierse spoke to fellow Canadian athletes and their families about the impact family support has had on their careers, and guests were treated to a surprise video of heartfelt messages from family, friends and fans back home. Classic Canadian treats, like poutine with a British twist, were on the menu.
Proctor & Gamble has also benefited from housing the families of athletes by being the site of interviews:
“When Dana didn’t qualify for the Beijing Olympics it was so disappointing but we all learnt from every disappointment and every injury,” Vollmer told Reuters at the P&G House, a centre set up in London for athletes’ families.
The other Top Finishers today were Visa and Coke, with Gold and Silver respectively.
What do you think of P&G’s family-centric approach to sponsorship? They seem to have dodged much of the negative publicity endured by the other top sponsors. Will this continue?
Since the Olympics kicked off on July 27th, we have been usingNewsdesk to track the news coverage of the Big 11 corporate sponsors to see who is getting the most coverage for their money. Today we discuss “News Monitoring: Important and Illuminating, but What’s Next?”.
Monitoring media coverage volume, market, source, etc… is part of a larger process of determining the value of marketing campaigns. More coverage can be great, but does it contribute to the bottom line?
The Motley Fool weighs in with a somewhat pessimistic view of the value of Olympic sponsorship. They give several reasons:
The Games are dominating media coverage today, but that will change shortly.
Chief executives love the pomp and circumstance, but it’s unclear whether shareholders really benefit from their investment.
For the next couple weeks, the Olympics will dominate our airwaves and brainwaves. Come September, though, the presidential election will be back in the spotlight.
Cost-benefit analysis may not bear out the wisdom of sponsorship:
Economist Alexander Molchanov found that expensive sponsorship bids erase almost all the benefit for Olympic partners. In other words, corporations are spending so much money winning sponsorships that they can’t benefit financially from the extra exposure. Perhaps companies like Lenovo (OTC: LNVGY.PK) and Eastman Kodak, which both bowed out in 2010, realized something that Coca-Cola and McDonald’s have not.
Sponsors may actually be helping their competition.
After the 1994 Winter Olympics, a team of researchers conducted a survey to find out if the average Joe knew who sponsored the Olympics that year. A mere 37% of respondents correctly identified McDonald’s and only 18% ID’d Coca-Cola. More astonishing, though, is that 57% incorrectly believed that Wendy’s (Nasdaq: WEN) was a sponsor and 7.5% thought that PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) was doling out the drinks.
Do you think that the sponsors are getting their money’s worth out at the London Games?
Spending categories that experienced the greatest activity include “Services” (US$133.7 million) – including items such as shoe and jewelry repair and spas; “Entertainment” (US$95.5 million) – including theater tickets and other attractions; “Airlines” (US$82.9 million); “Other Retailers” (US$71.8 million) – including bike shops, book stores, antique shops, and drug stores and more; and “Hotels” (US$69.3 million).
Top Ten Contributors to Spend on Visa Accounts by Country/Territory During Week One of the Games (Throughout the United Kingdom)
Ranking
Country/Territory
Total Spend (USD)
% of Total
1
United States
$85.5 million
12%
2
Japan
$50.9 million
7%
3
France
$41.5 million
6%
4
Italy
$39.5 million
6%
5
Australia
$35.3 million
5%
6
Republic of Ireland
$32.4 million
5%
7
Spain
$31.1 million
4%
8
Germany
$30.9 million
4%
9
Canada
$24.1 million
3%
10
Sweden
$23.4 million
3%
The top 10 contributing countries accounted for 57 per cent of the total amount spent on Visa accounts in the United Kingdom during this time period.
This story has been widely distributed. Combined with another successful real-time congratulatory commercial, this lead to Visa having the largest news coverage of the Top Olympic sponsors.
The Medalists for yesterday are:
Gold: Visa
Silver: Coke
Bronze: McDonald’s
Will Visa, Coke, and McDonald’s continue to dominate the news coverage, or will another sponsor take the spotlight week 2? Check back Monday !
This week we have been exploringhow the top Olympic sponsors having been benefiting from their advertising budget using Newsdesk.
Yesterday, McDonald’s came out on top again with the lion’s share of Olympic coverage. Conor Dwyer and Ricky Berens, 2 Gold medalists from the US men’s relay swim team, made McDonald’s their go-to restaurant after their victory:
Swimmers normally eat very healthy stuff, Dwyer said, but a gold medal hanging around your neck leads you to venture into new caloric neighborhoods.
Dwyer ordered a Quarter Pounder, two six-piece chicken nuggets, french fries and a McFlurry ice cream sundae. Berens, according to his Twitter photo, went even bigger: Two Quarter Pounders, a Big Mac, a six-piece nugget order, two french fries and a McFlurry.
Adding to McDonald’s Olympic coverage in the Canadian media was the story of Brittany Rogers and the national gymnastics team placing 5th, their best finish ever. Brittany’s mother, Gina, wrote about the story which was re-syndicated across Canada:
After the competition, the team was whisked away in a CTV van taking them straight to the TV London studios. There, they all sat on the white couch and had a spotlight interview. From there, they quickly wolfed down a McDonalds salad as a 10:00 p.m. dinner, and were taken to the Canada House to finally celebrate with their family and friends.
The top sponsors for the day were:
Gold: McDonald’s
Silver: Visa
Bronze: Coke
Honorable Mention: Panasonic
Coke and Panasonic were neck-and-neck, but the soft drink giant’s numbers were just a bit higher.
Will going to McDonald’s after a victory catch on in popular culture?
After tallying yesterday’s news coverage, the results are in:
Gold: McDonald’s
Silver: Coke
Bronze: Visa
McDonald’s had the most coverage, driven largely by their being the official restaurant of the Olympics. All 3 of today’s medalist received negative coverage due to continuing public outcry over their monopolistic sponsorship agreements.
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Yesterday it was announced that visitors at the London Games have spent almost 
