Publicis Expands Influencer Marketing Capabilities
Publicis Groupe has acquired Captiv8, in a deal reportedly worth $USD 150 million. The acquisition, complements Publicis’s purchase of Influential last July, brings a network of 15 million creators and proprietary technology for social commerce, listening, and measurement. Captiv8, operates in 120 countries and processes over 2.5 billion social posts annually. It will be integrated into Publicis Connected Media. The move reflects a broader industry trend, with major brands like Unilever planning to shift up to 50% of marketing budgets to social media and dramatically increase creator partnerships.
Crowdfire Abruptly Ceases Operations
Social media management platform Crowdfire announced its unexpected shutdown, with services ending on May 15 after 15 years of operation. The company cited significant challenges in the evolving social media landscape, including rising API costs, increased infrastructure expenses, and the growing prevalence of native publishing tools within social media platforms. Crowdfire’s closure highlights the mounting pressures faced by third-party social media management tools. Crowdfire is now referring customers to Social Bee.
NTM launches in India
News That Matters (NTM), an AI-powered media monitoring mobile app, has launched in India. The app offers real-time tracking from over 4,000 Indian news sources, delivering updates every 15 minutes and is aiming to reduce media monitoring costs by up to 90% compared to traditional services. NTM introduces a freemium model with a mobile-first, keyword-driven approach that leverages AI to provide customisable alerts and sector-based summaries. It is available on Google Play.
SI Lab: State of Social Listening
The SI Lab has released the State of Social Intelligence report, based on a survey of over 300 SI practitioners. Social intelligence professionals face significant challenges in demonstrating strategic value, with 56% of in-house practitioners reporting difficulty in showing the impact of their work on the bottom line. The survey reveals a pressing need for training and shared analytical approaches, with only 48% of practitioners having a consistent methodology for analyzing social data. Leadership buy-in remains a key challenge, particularly for brand-side professionals where only 10% report social listening being considered in every decision (versus 30% in agencies).
Media Intelligence Product Updates
Here are some of the product announcements that caught our attention this month:
Meltwater unveiled Mira, an innovative AI teammate that transforms media intelligence by delivering instant insights through a conversational interface. The platform leverages AI agents to simplify complex workflows, analysing over a billion conversations daily and providing strategic recommendations that collapse days of analysis into seconds.
Cision has launched a comprehensive suite of AI-driven features in CisionOne, targeting the pressing needs of PR professionals struggling with resource constraints. The platform introduces an AI Assistant with capabilities including a conversational interface, smart search, real-time coverage summaries, and personalized pitch writing tools, designed to automate routine tasks and enhance strategic communications.
Brandwatch has added Bluesky as a source and, like Cision and Meltwater, has added a conversational interface for automated insights. Looking ahead, the company plans to integrate Gemini AI capabilities across their platform and enhance their content set.
Muck Rack has introduced a new suite of AI-powered media monitoring and reporting solutions designed to help communications teams streamline their workflows and deliver strategic insights. The service combines proprietary AI technology with human expertise, offering customised coverage, executive digests, and measurement reports that aim to reduce costs while enhancing communication capabilities.
CARMA has introduced Widget Studio, a flexible dashboard builder that empowers PR and communications teams to create customised data visualisations. The company has also expanded into a new market, opening an office in Spain.
Pressrelations has expanded to France. Christophe Dickès will lead the market, and introduce ‘NewsRadar’, an integrated cross-media monitoring platform combining traditional and social media channels, to France.
Brand24 has rolled out a series of product updates designed to improve user experience and collaboration, including a new Microsoft Teams integration, exportable PowerPoint reports, and enhanced QuickShare capabilities.