November 2010: Sister company Durrants invests in Brandwatch

Durrants – the UK’s leading media monitoring 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 investment signals the company’s commitment to the social media space, an increasingly important channel for managing client and brand conversations and reputation.

Durrants, Metrica, the global media analysis and evaluation specialist and Gorkana, the UK’s most trusted media/journalist database and community network 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.

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.”

“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.

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.

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.”

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.**

For more information about the investment or any of the services mentioned above please email us at enquiries@gorkana.com. Alternatively, please contact your dedicated account manager we will happily answer any of your questions.

*Gorkana survey of 205 Social Media Panel Event attendees, June 2010
**Forrester Research