Cision’s acquisition of PRIME Research and CEDROM-SNi says far more than their press release implies. PRIME has long dominated the high end of the communications evaluation and measurement offerings, particularly in the global arena. While Cision has the former Gorkana team managing their international analysis accounts, they can clearly use the global infrastructure that PRIME brings to the table. With human coders and numerous in-country offices, clearly they bring unrivaled strength to the global measurement party. CEDROM-SNi is an international provider of digital content and monitoring services that many other firms rely on for content.
A strategic shift for Cision?
Given that Cision’s CEO came from Oracle, most of us assumed that the company was pursuing an automation-centric strategy. We predicted the imminent demise of the labor-intensive human coding that was being done by their analysis group (many of whom started with Delahaye and Gorkana).
But the investment in PRIME and the continuation of the Gorkana team tells me that they see more value in the human coding side of things than previously suspected. Perhaps because some of their larger accounts require human analysis. For whatever reason, we welcome their endorsement of what many of us believe is an essential component to good measurement systems.
When the dust settles…
The real question will be, as it is with all mergers, how much of the talent – most importantly their developers and engineers – will remain? PRIME’s platform is complex, elegant, and much-beloved by the likes of Mastercard, Honda, Jaguar, and CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Cision’s, in contrast, is utilitarian and still largely unproven, (at least according to many former Vocus customers.)
Many clients have resisted switching from their beloved Vocus and Gorkana systems to the new Cision platform because they were turned off by early demos of the revamped system. So PRIME’s developers and technology may be as important as its resources to its new owners.
What will it mean for data, prices, and service?
The reality is that large international monitoring and analysis systems are far beyond the budgets of most communications professionals. “Who cares? It doesn’t have anything to do with me,” is what they are probably saying right about now.
But they should care. Monopolies tend to drive up prices and reduce customer service. And there is little doubt that Cision wants to dominate the market for PR services. While there’s no good data on how many healthy independent monitoring and analysis firms exist on the planet, the number of firms to choose from seems to shrink every quarter, since few have the financial wherewithal to compete on the same playing field with Cision. (For more information on the capabilities of measurement vendors, take a look at “Katie Paine’s PR Measurement Vendor Selection Chart: 9 Typical Problems & the Vendors to Solve Them”)
What is of greater concern for communications professionals is the impact that Cision’s dominance will have on their ability to collect data. Cision has traditionally denied its rivals access to its clipping services. As they gobble up more and more monitoring companies there will be fewer alternatives from which to get clips.
Are fewer choices a good thing or a terrible thing? There are many that would argue that the selection process is already overwhelming, and so fewer might be better. All we’re sure of is that 2018 will bring continued consolidation in the monitoring and measurement space. ∞
In the interest of full transparency, many of my former colleagues at the Delahaye Group continue to work for Cision. I did not, however, speak to any of them for this column.
