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CLIENT CASE STUDY

World Coal Association

When Christopher Demetriou, Digital and Communications Campaign Lead at the WCA was tasked with a comparative analysis of PR technology vendors, he was looking for a reliable monitoring platform and a global media database—not a strategic media insights partner. And yet, that’s exactly what he found. 

In 2021, as Christopher was doing his research to find an alternative to their current vendor—media monitoring results were missing essential coverage and the database was inadequate for the WCA’s global needs—he came across Agility on trusted software review site G2. After a call with Agility, in which Christopher got to see the integrated platform’s functionality firsthand and the Agility team ensured they fully understood the WCA’s needs and objectives, the WCA selected Agility as their new vendor. 

“They jumped on a call with me straight away and helped me with the keywords to try and get the most relevant content.”

Right away, Christopher worked with his account managers to ensure the AI-powered media monitoring platform was pulling in essential coverage. “They jumped on a call with me straight away and helped me with the keywords to try and get the most relevant content,” says Christopher.  

To stay on top of the news now being reliably pulled in, Christopher set up a daily media briefing in the platform. “Media briefings are really useful for us to keep abreast of any news alerts that we need to be aware of, and also helps with social media content or any other content that we create,” says Christopher. Often, he will select a piece of relevant coverage from the daily briefing and share it on the WCA’s social media channels. 

In addition to the media monitoring platform, the quality of the media database stood out to Christopher. “Agility has a global database that’s unlike others we’ve seen,” says Christopher. He has found the database easy to use and perfect for building comprehensive media lists. Another significant benefit: Agility’s top-rated customer service. “Very useful, very knowledgeable, and always willing to help,” says Christopher. The Agility support representatives are available via email, phone, and in-platform chat 24 hours a day, five days a week. Agility clients regularly praise customer support for its responsiveness and problem-solving. 

“Agility has a global database that’s unlike others we’ve seen.”

Pleased with their outcomes so far, that same year, the WCA expanded its relationship with Agility, moving from just platform into partnership. The WCA was preparing for a communications strategy refresh and required a report that would break down its media coverage from over the past year and help them understand their positioning within the coal industry.  

“It started off with an email,” says Christopher. “We told our account manager what we wanted and then jumped on a call. Our AM told us what was feasible, what it would look like, and the turnaround time.” This initial collaboration allowed Agility to understand the WCA’s expectations of the report—interpret the specific trends in its media coverage—and pushed the WCA to consider what they were looking to achieve strategically in the next year. 

After this important step, Agility developed a solution: a custom Media Coverage Report that would break down a year’s worth of global coverage by region, media sentiment, and key themes. “They produced a really great comprehensive report very quickly,” says Christopher. 

Agility’s Media Insights Group combined the high-quality data retrieved from Agility’s AI-powered media monitoring platform with expert human validation, curation, and analysis to give a clear and nuanced view of the WCA’s performance and perception in the media globally and regionally. 

Elements of the report included: 

  • Coverage trend: High level overview of mentions and impressions over the year. 
  • Media sentiment (globally): Total sentiment by volume along with sentiment drivers. 
  • Key themes (globally): Three major key themes across global coverage with links to related mentions. 
  • Coverage breakdown by top 10 publications by potential impressions and top 10 journalists by number of mentions. 
  • Regional breakdown: Exploration of coverage by region, including total sentiment by volume, total mentions, total impressions and key themes with links to related mentions. 

“It’s helped put some credibility in the bank for us as organization.”

“The report shows the impact of our narrative on a global scale,” says Christopher. “It’s helped put some credibility in the bank for us as an organization.” The report was shared with the WCA board, who, Christopher says, “were very impressed with our communications results.” Other members of the WCA team called the final report, “exactly what the doctor ordered” and that the report “will help hugely in our forthcoming strategy session.” 

The WCA communications team also used the report to measure their annual KPIs and make sure they were achieving their goals. The quality and depth of the Media Coverage Report allowed WCA to focus their media approach for the coming year and provided them with improved insight for better business strategy and in turn, better business outcomes.  

Since then, the WCA has partnered with Agility on several more reports, which are now a streamlined process.

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Company

The World Coal Association (WCA) is a global association committed to building a sustainable future for global coal through clean coal usage, technology, and innovation. Their workon behalf of members across the coal value chainincludes government advocacy, policy, media, and industry representation.

Industry

Association

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