Brand-building through newsjacking for The Social Collective

The Social Collective, a data monitoring and evaluation company, appointed DUO Marketing + Communications to assist with raising their brand visibility in the broader South African market, as well as to potential customers in various sectors, including technology and government.

The Social Collective is a purpose-driven software company driving sustainable impact with clients across Africa and globally (USA). They provide the solutions companies need to extract value from their data, through monitoring and evaluation, to ultimately quantify the impact of programmes and efforts in the fields of sustainability and transformation.

Their cloud-based solutions assist organisations to effectively reflect client data for CSI (corporate social investment), CSR (corporate social responsibility), sustainability, social impact reporting and transformation reporting for JSE-listed companies, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), universities, NGOs and even individuals (through initiatives such as Do-Nation).

Solution

DUO suggested a PR campaign with a series of media releases highlighting current solutions as well as thought leadership articles to highlight The Social Collective’s expertise and insights into the industry and technology. The campaign included participation in key features as well as securing media interviews with key media. The account team featured an Account Director, a specialist writer, and a media relations professional.

Results

Three articles were drafted over the 4-month period and this resulted in 22 pieces of coverage. 50% of coverage obtained was secured in business/ finance media and 18% in technology-focused publications.

94% of coverage achieved appeared in Tier 1 publications, with the remaining 6% in Tier 2 highlighting that DUO Marketing + Communications targeted the right media, with the right messaging and to the right audience.

Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE): The AVE of coverage obtained over this period is R974,472.00. This is what it would cost to buy the same amount of media space based on the coverage achieved.

Audience and reach: The coverage obtained potentially reached over 15 million people based on the daily/ weekly/ monthly circulation for print publications, the daily unique browsers for online articles as well as the audience for a particular broadcast channel.

Prominence: 71% of the coverage secured mentioned The Social Collective in the lead paragraph or as the byline of the article.

Coverage drivers: The main coverage driver was from thought leadership articles, followed by interviews and media releases.

Highlights

A key highlight during the campaign was newsjacking the current South African news of the day. This was done through a thought leadership article that focused on the Covid-19 pandemic and how funds and donations will be managed through the various governmental institutions in South Africa, including the Solidarity Fund. By hooking onto the current news agenda, and providing highly relevant commentary, a number of interviews and pieces of coverage in Tier 1 business and finance publications were secured.