Trendkite founder raises $USD 6.4 million for new start-up
Trendkite’s founder Matt Allison has announced plans to launch a new AI-powered PR technology platform called Handraise. Allison has raised $USD 6.4 million and, together with his team of seven employees (largely from Trendkite), intends to launch the platform at the end of the year. Handraise is a news content amplifier, connecting the right content to the right audience using social advertising. As a reminder, Trendkite was acquired by Cision for $USD 225 million back in 2019.
Muck Rack partners on social
Muck Rack has announced a strategic partnership with social listening provider Keyhole. Muck Rack customers can choose to add Keyhole’s social listening capabilities to their Muck Rack subscription, which will monitor direct and indirect brand mentions across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, blogs and forum feeds, including Reddit. It’s another signal that Muck Rackis expanding its product offering to support the complete PR workflow.
InsightHQ brings together thought leaders
InsightHQ has launched. The new global insights and evaluation provider has been founded by Catriona Oldershaw and Rayna De Lange. The company combines the strengths of both De Lange Analytics and The Insights Distillery to provide insights and recommendations to PR & marketing functions.
AMEC takes over November
November has become one of my favourite months of the year, largely thanks to AMEC’s Measurement Month. It’s an annual jamboree of knowledge sharing and education, and the ideal time to learn what’s new in the market. November is also when AMEC holds its annual awards. This year’s big winner was Golin, which picked up both platinum awards, as well as winning the Large AMEC Communication, Research and Measurement Team of the year award. Congratulations to Golin and all of the winners this year.
AMEC has also announced the Scholarship for Academic Research in Evaluation of Communication (SAREC). The scholarship is based on the submission of a research paper to be reviewed by academics and industry leaders. The recipient of the scholarship will be invited to give a 30-minute main hall presentation to the AMEC Global Summit and will receive US$5,000 towards travel and accommodation costs. The entry deadline is 12 January.
AI in Media Intelligence
Generative AI is reshaping media intelligence at speed, and we have been looking at it over the past couple of months. Here are some of the stories that caught our attention in the past month:
For its 2024 Relevance Report, USC Annenberg’s Center for Public Relations has partnered with Microsoft to provide the definitive guide to AI (at least for the moment). I would highly recommend that you read it.
Quid, has launched Quid Predict, which uses generative artificial intelligence to help users surface insights and gain a deeper understanding of their customers.
