Tim Baxter and Susanna Robinson work within the Communications team at Allen & Overy, the global law firm headquartered in London. We spoke to Tim and Susanna about their experiences working with Signal AI.
Allen & Overy needed a media monitoring and PR measurement solution to enable them to track share of voice, measure campaign success, and alert them when their company and partners were mentioned in the press. The A&O Communications Team wanted a service that would give them quick and easy access to relevant news stories as they happened and didn’t give them inaccurate coverage that they’d still have to pay for and sift through.
They were also keen to monitor key topics such as Brexit and diversity, news related to competitors and clients, and surface M&A activity that could help the team, and broader business, find and capitalize on new opportunities. A&O are also committed to being the world’s most advanced law firm and actively seek out ways to support and adopt technology that digitizes the legal sector.
“We wanted media monitoring software that met all our requirements and critically wouldn’t give us irrelevant coverage that we’d be charged for.” –Susanna Robinson, Senior PR Manager, Allen & Overy
Having both worked agency-side, Susanna and Tim had seen and used lots of media monitoring solutions in the past and were keen to try something different. They liked the idea of a tool powered by artificial intelligence that could be trained to give them up-to-the-minute news on a range of chosen topics and organizations with tailored alerts and reporting.
Getting set-up on Signal AI’s platform was quick and straightforward, and the customer support team was knowledgeable, responsive, and friendly. The search functionality and dashboard have made it easy to discover articles related to topics, events, and companies of interest to A&O in the legal press or beyond. The UK team can monitor key international publications via a global reading list that’s been created for them and in-platform translations. Email alerts go to the relevant overseas colleague based on source location and language.
“The customer support team at Signal AI is amazing. They are always happy and willing to help.”
The Communications Team at A&O has been successfully tracking mentions of their partners, initiatives, and company. They’ve been able to track their overall share of voice as well as break it down by topics, spokespeople, and targeted media. Signal AI is providing them with actionable insights via the platform as well as through tailored quarterly and annual reports that enable the team to dig further into the metrics.
A&O is now equipped with data that helps them make informed decisions about content topics and outreach plans. They can see exactly where in the world they are getting coverage, how they are faring in terms of sentiment, what the key stories related to their company, people and competitors have been, and can slice the data by practice area. Signal AI has been open and receptive to the feedback from A&O and used it to develop their platform further and improve their services which have been a win-win for both businesses.
“Using Signal AI, we are able to slice the results in various ways to give us more insight into our past performance and inform our future plans.”
Tim Baxter is the Global Head of Communications at Allen & Overy. Tim’s remit includes public relations, internal comms, digital, social media, content marketing, and brand with a focus on digitizing A&O’s content strategy and communications. Tim has had a long and illustrious career in corporate communications, strategy, and marketing working for the likes of Standard Chartered, McKinsey, PwC, and Barclays.
Susanna Robinson is a Senior PR Manager at Allen & Overy heading up the UK PR team. Susanna has been at A&O since 2014 and specializes in communications and reputation for the Banking and Finance practice. Before working at A&O, Susanna has held a number of senior PR positions, in-house and agency, in London and Hong Kong.
Allen & Overy is a global law firm with a network of 44 offices in 31 countries and approximately 550 partners. Founded in London in 1930, A&O advises and represents some of the world’s largest and best-known organisations.
In October 2018, A&O was named the Most Innovative Law Firm in Europe by the FT for the sixth time, more than any other firm.
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