Durrants Invests in Brandwatch
LONDON/PRNewswire/ -- Durrants, the UK's leading media intelligence business, has
taken a stake in Brighton-based social media monitoring company Brandwatch
after being "blown away" by the company during a trial to find a social media
monitoring partner.
The deal will enable Brandwatch, which already operates in 10
languages, to expand its current offer in the US and extend its service to
cover Russia and China.
The investment in Brandwatch is the latest in a series of big
deals in the social media monitoring space as companies gear up to tackle the
challenges of monitoring brand conversations and reputation online. The
social media marketing industry is growing by 34% a year and is expected to
be worth $3.1bn a year by 2014.*
The investment comes after Durrants went to the market looking
for a specialist social media monitoring company and Brandwatch came out on
top following a rigorous trial period alongside several other leading
international monitoring firms.
Jeremy Thompson, Durrants MD, said: "During the trial it
quickly became clear that Brandwatch was head and shoulders above the
competition. We were blown away by their relevant and timely coverage, strong
account management and technical support, robust platform and user friendly
service. It really was a case of liking the company so much we wanted to
invest in it."
As well as the investment, Brandwatch's social media
monitoring data will be used by Durrants' sister company Metrica, the
award-winning global media analysis and evaluation company to track brands
and conversations online and offer an enhanced social media service.
"There is a baffling amount of choice for PRs when it comes to tracking
brand or client conversations online and our own research tells us that most
PRs find social media monitoring one of their biggest challenges.** We're
confident that Brandwatch, working alongside Metrica, will help PRs cut
through the confusion and provide meaningful analytics," Thompson said.
Giles Palmer, Brandwatch CEO, said: "When it comes to
monitoring social media it is important to find a supplier and data you
trust. We've always been confident about what we provide but this move by
Durrants provides a ringing endorsement of our service."
"We operate in a competitive space and I'm very proud that we
were able to beat off stiff competition from several North American providers
and managed to impress Durrants so much they wanted to invest in the company.
The investment comes at an explosive time in the social media monitoring
market and will help us push our product to the very top of the global pile."
Notes to Editors:
About Brandwatch:
Brandwatch (http://www.brandwatch.com) is one the world's leading
tools for monitoring and capturing social media. Today, social networks are a
massive indicator of consumer influence and brand positioning online. So for
companies to know what and where discussions are taking place surrounding
their brand online is imperative. Brandwatch captures, digests and translates
this data into meaningful and useful information; armed with this
information, Marketers and PR professionals can structure and track the
direction and focus of their social media campaigns. Launched in August 2007
Brandwatch is used by customers around the world to monitor, capture and
analyse trends in social media.
About Durrants, Metrica and Gorkana:
Durrants, the market leader in media monitoring
(http://www.durrants.com), Metrica (www.metrica.net), the global media
analysis and evaluation specialist and Gorkana, the UK's most trusted
media/journalist database and community network (www.gorkana.com) are part
of Discovery Group. This latest investment in Brandwatch supports Discovery
Group's ambition to deliver greater insight to the PR and Marketing
communities. The integration of intelligence from these services will deliver
unique insights to help companies plan, monitor and analyse their PR more
effectively than ever before.
Discovery Group is based on Old Street near the Silicon
Roundabout, an area of East London where more than 100 tech and design
companies have set up over the last five years. Prime Minister David Cameron
recently announced that he wants to establish an East London Technology City
and lure Google, Facebook and Microsoft to new offices in Olympic Park, a few
tube stops from the Silicon Roundabout.
Metrica was acquired by Durrants in October 2009 and Gorkana
was acquired by Durrants in April 2010.
*Forrester Research
**Gorkana survey of 205 Social Media Panel Event attendees,
June 2010
For more information and interviews please contact:
Giles Palmer
giles@brandwatch.com
+44-1273-234290
Richard Bagnall
Richard@metrica.net
+44-20-7664-0800
Source: Durrants
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