Case Study - AON Ltd
Mediatrack originally started working with Aon Ltd in the UK, a relationship which
has now spanned some four years. Our knowledge and understanding of the organisation
enabled us to recommend undertaking a similar analysis for Aon in the US, as we
felt there would be great benefit from sharing of information between the UK and
US. Aon US was particularly interested in our evaluation of key areas
such as financial performance, intellectual capital and CSR, as well as our ability
to provide independent and objective information about the effectiveness
of message communication, and we were tasked with developing the brief to specifically
meet Aon’s objectives in the US.
One of Aon’s core values is to always maintain a client focus
and the company has built broad global resources to create innovative solutions
to help their clients. This core value is central to everything they do and is clearly
reflected in their corporate brand messages. The ability to evaluate these inferred
messages was therefore a key requirement, as well as evaluating which journalists
or titles were particularly receptive to the messages.
Our evaluation of Aon Corporation’s coverage would enable them to:
- Benchmark themselves over time against key competitors
and peers
- Monitor the company’s Corporate reputation
- Track the frequency and quality of key
message penetration
- Focus specifically on journalistsand spokespeople
and identify their impact on the overall profile
- See if they are being represented as the authority on industry
issues
Strategy:
Since October 2004, Mediatrack has provided Aon with quarterly
reports, benchmarking the organisation against four key competitors. At the start
of 2006, the remit was extended to reflect the profile of the company’s three main
divisions: Corporate, ACW (Aon Consulting Worldwide), and Reinsurance.
Specific themes and messages were then developed and agreed for each.
Working alongside Aon’s Public Relations team, we also expanded
the list of key titles that were being monitored to ensure that accurate and relevant
information of the key opinion formers in the US was being captured. Furthermore,
the selected group of competitors included in the evaluation was expanded and we
suggested categorising by business division and industry sector to provide deeper
analysis and understanding of key competitors.
The key requirement was to provide Aon with regular reporting that would demonstrate
the effectiveness of their communications activities by focusing on:
- Total number of stories delivered for each company and share of voice
- Publication analysis - which titles are writing most often about
Aon and, importantly, which are not
- Evaluation of the topics covered by frequency and tone
- The effectiveness of message communication
- Spokesperson and journalist analysis
Achieving the objective
On the client’s behalf, we liaised directly with their US cuttings agency to ensure
they could accommodate the revised and complex brief. We then coordinated retrieval
of the coverage via a MediaSource portal, which enabled quick access to the coverage.
We were able to draw on our experience of working with Aon in the UK and Europe
(Netherlands) to provide advice on which issues and themes would be most pertinent
to the client. Our team of experienced analysts then evaluated the coverage against
these parameters. All coverage was also given a favourability rating, enabling direct
comparisons to be made between competitors, both in terms of share of voice and
company profile.
Our analysts instinctively group together articles where new themes or events, which
have not been predefined by the client, can be monitored. This enables us to report
back to the client on the impact of these events and helps us to gauge how each
competitor is fairing in relation to unpredicted, sector-wide issues.
Regular contact with the client enables us to fully understand their PR objectives
and, in line with this, we have developed bespoke analysis for the Consulting and
Reinsurance divisions and now provide three detailed reports each quarter compared
to one overall report as we had done previously. In addition, our online search
facilities allow all members of the team to access data and reports quickly and
easily, and to drill down in to the data to find key information on their particular
section of the business.
Conclusions:
Our analysis has enabled Aon to focus more closely on their business divisions and
to monitor key competitors in these areas. This provides invaluable insight and
demonstrates trends and developments over time on a consistent basis. The results
have highlighted where more effort is needed to raise the profile of certain business
divisions and to focus on the issues and themes which most frequently result in
favourable coverage for Aon.
The findings allow us to asess Aon’s overall reputation and enables comparison with
that of key competitors, offering the opportunity to understand where Aon is more
successful in fighting the media battle as well as areas for development. Our analysis
also ensures we can report to Aon on those publications and journalists who are
more positively disposed towards the company and those who are not - vital information
in difficult times.
The quarterly competitor reports are widely distributed internally and used by the
communications team for future strategy planning and our findings also provide valuable
input in to Aon’s Competitive Research Division. In addition, we
have enabled a coherent and consistent information sharing system between the UK
and US, and one which can be quickly and effectively rolled out to more countries.
"Mediatrack’s flexible approach has enabled us to develop the evaluation to
provide a much more detailed and targeted overview of competitor activity in the
key areas in which we operate. It is also an invaluable tool for focusing the team’s
efforts and helping to measure performance." Thaddeus
Woosley, Aon Public Relations