Public Relations: A New CRM Market?

It has yet to show up on CRM industry reports, but according to MediaMap, the corporate communication market is large and ripe for some picking. "Public relations is all about relationships, but the tools have not been around to track relationships," says Peter Granat, senior vice president at MediaMap Inc. Ruth Habbe, executive vice president at MediaMap takes it a step further by questioning the value of existing PR tools: "What is corporate communication delivering to the bottom line?" The answer becomes even more nebulous when an organization has several different public relations (PR) agencies working independently of each other. Without tools that can measure effectiveness, an organization with several PR agencies cannot get an accurate view of their performance, return on investment, or their ability to generate impressions in the marketplace, Habbe says. And what better company to provide them? The Watertown, MA-based company has the largest database of North American media contact information and areas of coverage. The company is bringing forth a Web-based solution, dubbed MediaMap Performa, early next year delivered as an application service provider (ASP). The solution uses Siebel's eChannel and call center product. The solution will be in beta at the end of next month. Performa combines collaboration and campaign management tools with MediaMaps's exclusive up-to-date media contact information for North American journalists, analysts, and news outlets, spanning the technology, business & finance, consumer, and health and science markets. With Siebel's relationship-driven platform, Performa can identify story opportunities, manage interactions, and share data. Additionally, the solution offers real-time tracking, analysis, and reporting of media activities, projects, and real-time analysis of on-the-fly campaign changes. Some of the desktop functions include campaign management, activity management, list management, editorial calendar management, private contact management, power searching, and reporting tools. As for the reason to go to a hosted model, Granat says, "We found that PR is the lowest on the totem pole to get new technology." A Web-hosted solution, he adds, requires no additional technology or maintenance to use it. The expected annual pricing for the MediaMap Performa solution is $4,900 per seat, per vertical. David Myron also writes for Line56.com