AMEC 2016: Predictions from media intelligence leaders
As the AMEC International Summit continues, three leaders from Kantar, Cision and Isentia predict what changes are coming in the media intelligence industry.
During a panel discussion at day two of the AMEC International Summit, the leaders agreed that although the industry is in a strong position it needs to further consolidate with other businesses and regions to keep up with technological and behavioural changes worldwide. The three executives made these key predictions:
Data will break down the silos between PR and marketing
Walter Patanella, global CEO, reputation intelligence at Kantar Media, says that clients are more frequently requiring that the industry changes the way that it works. They want to see a breakdown of the silos that PR, marketing and market research exist in.
Clients increasingly expect PR agencies to act ‘horizontally’ and change their practices so that they connect with data sets from other industries. Patanella adds: “They want to converge them more and provide them with more insight which gives them more power and decision-making capabilities.”
The Asian market holds big opportunities for consolidation
John Croll, CEO at Isentia, says that the larger organisations in the industry are all pursuing a similar strategy of moving from being a business that helps clients to make decisions through good data to becoming “much more a part of the decision-making process”.
Croll says that this is why we are seeing more consolidation in the marketplace and that Asia offers a number of opportunities to continue this and grow the industry.
“We’re down in Asia-Pacific with more than 5,000 clients and we have more than 29% of the market share in Asia, with Meltwater as our largest competitor at about 5% market share and a very good company out of Hong Kong called Wisers, which is about 3.5% of the market share down there,” he said.
He added that as market leader, with only 29% of the market share, it leaves a lot of opportunity to work with small companies in that region that do a “good job” and need scale. This provides further opportunities for consolidation.
Five trends will impact the industry
Jeremy Thompson, AMEC chairman and EMEA MD at Cision, lists five trends the industry will experience as it moves towards “much more integrated solutions”:
- Increased demand for real-time access to contextual insight
- Multimedia storytelling becomes more important
- Micro-moments of content engagement become more significant
- Digital influencers will grow in importance
- Predictive analytics will drive content strategies.
