Demand Grows For Media Intelligence and PR Information and Software

But new players are forcing change - going well beyond media monitoring - in the PR industry

A new report was recently issued by Burton-Taylor International Consulting indicating that in 2016, global spend on Media Intelligence and PR information & software was up 6.55%, as demand topped USD3b in the industry, for the first time.

The Holmes Group did a write up on the report, interestingly pointing out that new players are emerging in the market, offering alternatives to industry traditional media intelligence vendors such as Cision and Meltwater. Of course, as one of those new players (but not contacted for this report), we were happy to read this sentiment. It is duly noted, however, that many new and growing vendors were not included in this report, which could have provided some compelling insights into the market direction, and why new vendors saw opportunity to innovate in this market in the first place.

We were also interested in Burton-Taylor’s expectations that heavy competition will arise, and that they foresee various mergers and integrations to shake up the market in the near future.

“New firms are pressing forward with alternatives. We expect significant changes in market dynamics over the coming year.”

At SeeDepth, we’ve been saying this for a while - the PR industry is beginning to realize that they need more than just media monitoring software. (Of course that belief is the genesis of our existence.) Now, corporate communications teams and PR agencies have choices of everything from CRM systems and contact management to distribution services, social media monitoring, to PR-specific analytics and more. Building a brand’s PR Stack can be tedious and expensive, and demand for one vendor that integrates several - if not all - of these solutions will continue to grow. That should make for some interesting market activity in the coming years.

You can download a sample or buy the report, here.