The Challenge
Missing critical coverage and a lack of global reach prompted a search for a more capable partner.
When Christopher Demetriou, Digital and Communications Campaign Lead at Future Coal, was tasked with reviewing PR technology vendors, he was seeking a reliable media monitoring platform and a robust global media database. Their current vendor was missing essential coverage and lacked the international scope the organization required.
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 Future Coal’s global needs.
He came across Agility on trusted software review site G2. Following a call with Agility, during which Christopher was able to see the integrated platform’s functionality firsthand, the Agility team ensured that they fully understood the organization’s needs and objectives. As a result, Future Coal selected Agility as its 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.”
The Solution
From daily monitoring to strategic analysis, Agility delivered end-to-end PR support
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. Often, he selects a relevant piece of coverage from the daily briefing and shares it on Future Coal’s social media channels.
In addition to the media monitoring platform, the quality of the media database stood out to 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.
Pleased with their outcomes so far, that same year, Future Coal expanded its relationship with Agility, moving from just platform into partnership. Future Coal was preparing for a communications strategy refresh and required a report that would break down its media coverage over the past year, helping 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 enabled Agility to understand Future Coal’s expectations for the report—interpret the specific trends in its media coverage—and prompted Future Coal to consider what it was 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.
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 Future Coal’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.
“They produced a really great comprehensive report very quickly.” – Christopher Demetriou
The Outcome
A powerful insights report validated communications success and informed future strategy
The report was shared with the Future Coal board, who, Christopher says, “were very impressed with our communications results.” Other members of the Future Coal team called the final report, “exactly what the doctor ordered” and that the report “will help hugely in our forthcoming strategy session.”
“The report shows the impact of our narrative on a global scale. It’s helped put some credibility in the bank for us as an organization.” – Christopher Demetriou
The Future Coal 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 Future Coal 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, Future Coal has partnered with Agility on several additional reports, which have become a streamlined process.
