Signal AI Unveils Leaders and Hopefuls in Corporate Reputation with The Signal AI 500 Global Reputation Ranking

NEW YORK / LONDON  –  September 21, 2022 – Today, Signal AI announces the launch of The Signal AI 500, a global reputation ranking of some of the world’s largest organizations - revealing which companies are renowned, which are under fire, and which elicit a shoulder shrug.

The Signal AI 500 is powered by Signal AI x Kelp, Signal AI’s new corporate reputation offering – powered by a reputation framework and scoring algorithm which digests two billion data points annually to dive deep into what drives positive reputation across 500 companies, spanning more than 40 industries. Signal AI x Kelp fuses a variety of metrics to craft actionable reputation insights – quantifying the aggregate impact of all company actions and communications. This provides an unprecedented view into the corporate reputation landscape.

 The debut ranking includes a variety of insights such as: 

• Brass Tacks Still Matter: Doing business well is the biggest reputation differentiator. Running your company well, operating profitably, and consistently earning shareholders’ trust generates more positivity overall than Purpose initiatives like sustainability investments.
• Partnerships Fuel Reputation: To win in Innovation, team up. Partnerships boost positivity more than any other topic. Companies renowned for partnerships have higher reputation scores and are seen as game-changers in Innovation.
• The Purpose Conundrum: Purpose is often seen as a reputation booster, yet Purpose topics make up only 18% of all corporate conversation and earn less positivity than Innovation or Performance areas–pointing  to heightened scrutiny of ESG, greenwashing and more. To win in Purpose, pursue Ethical Supply Chains, Philanthropy and Environment & Climate storytelling. 
• Tech Struggles to Stay on Top: Tech’s scores show that dominating the conversation isn’t everything. Despite being home to the most talked-about companies, controversy and negativity associated with the big players dropped the industry’s overall reputation ranking to #4, revealing vulnerabilities among the Goliaths.
• Automotives are a Reputation Engine: Across 45 sectors, Automotives ranked as the most reputable overall. Tesla is talked about more than any company other than Apple, showing once again its ability to capture attention (without spending a single dollar on traditional marketing). Yet Tesla’s reputation ranks among the lowest in its industry, in no small part due to controversy and negativity surrounding Elon Musk.

This initiative comes from Signal AI’s acquisition of Kelp, the AI-powered GPS for corporate reputation. Combining Kelp’s expertise in data-driven reputation measurement with Signal AI’s External Intelligence graph data.

Shann Biglione, Co-founder and Head of Product, Signal AI x Kelp says: “The Signal AI 500 is harnessing the power of AI and billions of data points to challenge our assumptions about the most reputable companies. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the unprecedented scale and depth of insights we're now able to uncover.”  

Dan Gaynor, Co-founder and Head of Commercial, Signal AI x Kelp says: “Corporate reputation comprises up to 80% of market value, making it a company’s best asset. But only what gets measured can be improved. Together, Signal AI x Kelp empowers executives to quantify the impact of all communications and actions – and learn precisely what to do about it.”  

 David Benigson, CEO, Signal AI, says: “The Signal AI 500 is built on top of our External Intelligence Graph, a comprehensive view of an organization's environment built on real-time data and content.  This entirely new kind of data, making sense of the huge amounts of unstructured content now available, sits at the heart of the Signal AI x Kelp offering and powers a new kind of reputation insight.”

Kelp was founded by Dan Gaynor, formerly at Nike and founder of Weber Shandwick’s narrative strategy practice and Shann Biglione, former Chief Strategy Officer at Publicis Media, who both transitioned to Signal AI as full-time executives.  

About Signal AI

Signal AI, the External Intelligence company, helps businesses make sense of the outside world. Using the Signal AI External Intelligence platform for Decision Augmentation, organizations can spot critical signals in the external noise, allowing them to get ahead of risk and opportunity, and make confident decisions. Powered by Signal AI’s External Intelligence Graph, the platform crunches huge amounts of information from the world’s content, and provides timely insight on trends, patterns and unknown unknowns to augment critical business decisions. Signal AI serves over 40% of the Fortune 500 including Deloitte, Bank of America and Google, and is building an innovative, inclusive and enduring company to transform the way businesses make decisions.

www.signal-ai.com