Summary
A leading biotechnology company sought to transform its earned media coverage analysis for quarterly earnings reports to better understand and communicate internally the impact that comms activities were having on sentiment and audience out-take.
These scheduled events, when both media and investor sentiment can impact intra-day share price, are moments when earned media outputs receive significantly higher scrutiny by the C-suite than normal.
In partnership with Commetric, the more sophisticated, multi-dimensional analysis, enhanced media evaluation workflow and media intelligence shared thus far has already (within six months) led to changes in the biotech’s communications strategy and tactics during earnings. season.

Objective/Brief
Quarterly financial results bring increased senior level focus on media evaluation reports; C-suites and communicators typically give journalist and investor reaction to earnings announcements greater scrutiny than normal; executive remuneration can sometimes be incentivised by earned media sentiment.
A leading biotech company had previously relied on quantitative media monitoring from a SaaS platform. The reporting was limited to basic metrics with automated sentiment, lacking depth in detailed narrative analysis. The media sample for consideration was limited to key traditional media outlets, potentially exposing the brand to a blind spot in its horizon scanning.

Further, the information was not presented in a format ready to share with senior management so required time investment by the comms team to interpret and reformat the data. The biotech company partnered with Commetric to deliver on these objectives:

• Introduce more detailed qualitative analysis of earned media results
• Extend the scope of reporting beyond top tier media, explore how media outlets, journalists and investors react on social media also
• Include actionable textual insights
• Assess impact of communications team’s activities (journalist call, wording of media release) on media outputs and outcomes (messaging, sentiment)
• Produce enhanced media intelligence report in a timely manner to share with board members.

Strategy
To deliver on the objectives above and provide enhanced media intelligence to the client Commetric proposed a solution which would include:

• Focus: from measurement to evaluation supplemented by additional tactical written insights for communicators.
• Scope of coverage: from top tier media only to broader earned media context plus social media snapshot.
• Sentiment: from automated three-point sentiment to human powered four-point favourability tagging including balanced sentiment, allowing for mixed sentiment messaging within an article.
• Quotes: from basic tracking of CEO quotes and analyst commentary to improved tracking of CEO quotes with a focus on how they influenced sentiment.
• New metrics introduced: brand salience (eg headline mentions); article type (original editorial versus syndicated content; also news / commentary / passing mention), estimated article level readership, readership by key media outlet, headline mentions with the most social shares, media type (newswires, pharma trades etc), detailed message analysis, themes and presence of company branded products, reaction from third party commentators beyond journalists (eg industry or financial analysts) to provide more granular insights into media narratives and stakeholder engagement.

Execution/Implementation
The new reporting strategy involved a step-by-step rollout of enhanced analytics, starting with more detailed media tracking and gradually integrating more complex metrics to provide a comprehensive view of media performance.
Firstly, the account team worked collaboratively with the client to ensure that the new sentiment methodology was communicated to stakeholders, ensuring buy-in to the four-point sentiment scale. Commetric’s methodology also allowed for sentiment tagging and data visualisation beyond article level:

• sentiment of articles which included a CEO quote (to assess how their inclusion affected sentiment overall)
• sentiment by media type, to explore if particular outlets required targeted media outreach
• exploring sentiment of comments by third parties cited in earned media
• social media sentiment – how it diverged or aligned with earned media

Secondly, Commetric liaised with the client to explore how targeted media relations activities (inviting selected journalists to a conference call) impacted their media outputs by:

• sharing a list of journalists attending the CEO conference call
• inviting Commetric analysts to listen in to the call, asking them to share timely notes on the questions asked by the key journalists
• exploring the interplay of original editorial produced by these key journalists and key media attending the call and how their content is syndicated to other outlets
• exploring the strength of message pull-though from the media release and the CEO’s comments on the results (both in the media release and on the call)
• Lastly, Commetric used the narrative processing power of its suite of AI workflow tools, to understand the extent to which journalists reproduced the CEO’s quote from the media release, or whether they were more likely to run with narrative points raised during the earnings call, to explore the extent to which this media relations activity (the call) had an impact on earned media outcomes.

Effectiveness of Assignment
The transformation in the biotech company’s media analysis provides a more accurate and nuanced understanding of how company earnings and key messages are being received by the media and external stakeholders.
The media analysis results don’t receive the same level of pushback as in the past, because the mix of smart humans and smart technology have elevated the quality of the insight returned.
The four-point sentiment scale has been well received, given the complex and often more detailed nature of financial results reporting, which may lead on a positive or negative headline, but which typically go on to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses revealed through the financial data announced.
The ability of a CEO or spokesperson’s quote to mitigate overall article negativity has been well received and elevates the value of the media training counsel that communicators give to senior leaders. This insight became clear,

1. via the balanced sentiment metric
2. through the ability to compare overall sentiment against sentiment when the CEO was quoted, and
3. evident in the granular human powered message pull-through analysis contained in the report.

The new framework enables better decision-making and has already led to strategic adjustments, resulting in more efficient and effective communication efforts. The most notable outcome and iteration to the client’s communications workflow during earnings season, was the decision to cease the early morning call with journalists, armed with the data that it was having little impact on earned media sentiment or messaging.

Achievements in first six months of new reporting programme:

• Improved sentiment and perception tracking.
• Enhanced ability to benchmark performance over time.
• More actionable insights for strategic planning.
• Better alignment of communication activities with business objectives.
• Increased curiosity from senior leaders into how media intelligence can inform future activities.
• Greater ability to demonstrate the impact of PR efforts on overall business performance.
• Clearer understanding of way in which earned media headlines affect social media sentiment and how the two channels for communication don’t operate in silos. This has facilitated more integrated planning and measurement across the media relations and social media teams.