Media Analysis Trends for 2018 – and Predictions for 2019

Mediaverse Insights and Analysis Manager Sally Chadwick looks back at 2018 media analysis trends, and what she thinks we can expect in 2019.

What were the top 3 media analysis trends & requests in 2018?

1. Clients are increasingly asking for “Snapshot Reports” that provide media insights in a short and shareable format.
2. Increased focus on reputational insights and metrics beyond simple sentiment tracking. This appears to have been driven by the impact of the royal commission and a greater emphasis on reputation management.
3. Continuing the trend seen for a number of years now, social media insights are increasingly reported alongside traditional media. Social media is now more than ever recognised as not just a marketing function, but also a central way to understand and measure the public’s view of an organisation or issue from a media and comms perspective. We have been working with clients to integrate social reporting with their existing traditional media reporting, therefore, providing a more complete picture of their media output and impact.

What media analysis trends do you predict in 2019?

• Reputational fallout from the royal commission, not just from banks but the broader private sector. It will be interesting to see how big corporations not only conduct business but also how that informs their external communications and reputation management?
• Aged Care royal commission looks set to dominate next year’s headlines following on the focus of responsible conduct and reputational damage.
• Obviously, there’s been some big changes in the Australian media landscape with the merger of Nine and Fairfax – we will wait to see how that impacts the broader media and communications industry.
• 2018 was a controversial year for Facebook regarding data privacy and manipulation. Facebook has since tightened access to user data, but we would expect to see a greater focus on the social responsibility of social media platforms to ensure that activity on their platforms is ‘above board’. This is a marked shift from the Facebook of yesteryear that could do no wrong. We’re also becoming more accustomed to viewing social media, particularly Facebook, as a news platform in addition to a social platform – but with that comes responsibility!
• The federal election will be held in May next year and is already attracting media attention. We are watching closely as, depending on the nature of political campaigning and policy announcements, we could see clients wanting to focus on particular topics and how policies and public sentiment impacts their organisation.

Let’s talk about industry body AMEC (the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communications). What was our involvement with them this year?

Mediaverse is a proud member of AMEC. AMEC is a key resource and industry leader that we draw on to ensure our approach to media analysis meets industry standards.

AMEC membership provides a unique opportunity to connect with industry leaders from around the world. We’re often so focused on our own context and our own market but the AMEC events including measurement month and the annual summit offer an excellent forum to network and learn from practitioners from around the world.

AMEC introduces us to new ways of doing things, new ways to draw insights.

AMEC is committed to establishing rigorous principles of best practice and has been a great resource for critically looking at the way we conduct measurement, and enhancing our strategies on the quest for valuable actionable insights. AMEC frequently debates and scrutinises measurement practices, identifying metrics that no longer bring any value to an organisation. Most importantly, AMEC introduces us to new ways of doing things, new ways to draw insights. Without exposure to these kinds of developments, we may still be promoting AVEs to our clients! Our AMEC membership keeps us in the know when it comes to these refinements, pushing us to improve and innovate with new media analysis trends to ensure our insights are actually useful and valued by our clients.  

We were excited to have won an award for Plain English reporting this year which recognises excellence in providing clients with clear and actionable insights on highly complex communications issues. While the analysis we undertake is often complicated and ‘data heavy’ if we aren’t able to provide our clients with simple insights reports then we don’t believe we’ve done our job properly!

All photos are supplied by AAP or are from AAP Photos image library. 

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