PR Tech Leader Cision Acquires Visual Content Technology from ShareIQ

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By Sudipto Ghosh On Jul 30, 2018

PR Tech Leader Cision Acquires Visual Content Technology from ShareIQ

Cision Communications Cloud Becomes First Earned Media Platform to Measure, Analyze and Optimize Performance of Visual Content Across All Channels

After completing the acquisition of PRIME Research in January this year, leading media intelligence and PR tech company, Cision has announced it has acquired the technical assets of Berlin-based ShareIQ. The ShareIQ platform is based on patent-pending technology that discovers, analyzes and indexes original pieces of visual content, as well as shared and republished copies of specific images. With the addition of ShareIQ technology to the Cision Communications Cloud, Cision becomes the first earned media platform in the industry to monitor, analyze and attribute value to both text and visual content.

At the time of this announcement, Kevin Akeroyd, Cision CEO, said, “Cision Comms Cloud™ is the technology enabler for earned media management, a new discipline in which professional communicators are able to combine the art of storytelling with the power and science of data to establish communications as a critical driver of business value.”

Kevin added, “With more than three billion images uploaded to the web each day and more than 95 million images added to channels like Instagram daily, earned media is becoming increasingly visual. ShareIQ is the latest of our carefully curated technology acquisitions designed to make the Cision Comms Cloud the most robust in the industry – and the first to provide comms professionals with a way to harness the true business impact of the visual content market.”

Conventional monitoring methods rely on text and hashtag capture to track images and logos. But because the bulk of internet-based images are not associated with text or hashtags, conventional systems lack the ability to truly track and measure the impact of visual content. ShareIQ technology is the first to recognize brand images and logos independent of text and hashtags across all social, the web, and digital channels.

The ShareIQ solution maps the history and path of each image to provide reach and engagement, as well as insight into where the image is being shared and by whom – a publisher or an individual influencer.

Additionally, ShareIQ provides the ability to create custom audiences of individuals who have viewed, liked, or shared specific visual content. When used in conjunction with Cision’s established partnerships like LiveRamp and MediaMath, these audiences can be uploaded to any Data Management Platform to facilitate targeted digital advertising.

ShareIQ can track brand-generated, user-generated, and influencer-generated images as well as track and analyze the brand’s competitive visual content.

ShareIQ technology will be immediately available to current Cision Comms Cloud customers. It is the company’s aim to integrate ShareIQ technology into our platform workflow by the end of this year for seamless targeting, distribution, and analysis of visual earned media marketing efforts.

Currently, Cision is a leading global provider of earned media software and services to public relations and marketing communications professionals. Cision’s software allows users to identify key influencers, craft and distribute strategic content, and measure meaningful impact.