March 2, 2021: You’ve heard the news. Cision acquired Brandwatch. Consolidation in the social software and media monitoring space has been happening for several years. Two software giants are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack–Cision and Meltwater.
Cision brand monitoring and analytics suite are probably one of the best platforms on the market, right next to Meltwater. So the next logical question is, “Cision vs Meltwater?” You’ll have to decide, but I did start curating the top media monitoring platforms to track the legacy PR systems and highlight new startups coming onto the scene.
Cision Monitoring & Analytics
As you will see below, Cision has acquired many companies over the last decade, and they have focused on providing a full suite of communications and media monitoring services for their customers. I would say that the strongest acquisitions over the last few years have been Trendkite and Brandwatch. Not only does Cision now provide strong media analytics, but it also has really strong social media monitoring.
I also want to add that Cision has stellar customer care and account management teams. I know this by first-hand experience. Their teams are quick to respond, they are really smart and understand the platform, and they work diligently to solve your problems.
List of Cision Acquisitions
Below is a summary of Cision acquisitions over the last decade. In my research, I came across several conflicting dates, but I found this helpful blog post by Frank Strong summarizing the Cision acquisitions over the last decade.
| Year | Acquisition Details |
|---|---|
| 2014 | Cision AB acquired Visible Technologies, a social analytics company. |
| A merger between Cision AB and Vocus, which then became Cision. | |
| Notable Vocus Acquisitions: | |
| – 2006: Acquired PRWeb (press release distribution service). | |
| – 2006: Acquired HARO (marketplace connecting journalists and expert sources). | |
| – 2006: Acquired iContact (email marketing platform). | |
| 2015 | Cision acquired Gorkana, a media monitoring and journalist database. |
| Cision acquired Viralheat, a social media management firm. | |
| Cision acquired PRNewswire, a press release distribution service. | |
| 2017 | Cision acquired PRIME Research, a media monitoring research firm. |
| Cision acquired Bulletin Intelligence, a provider of briefings for corporate and government executives. | |
| Cision acquired Paris-based L’Argus de la Presse, a French media monitoring service. | |
| Cision acquired CEDROM-SNi, a Canadian provider of digital media monitoring solutions. | |
| 2018 | Cision acquired ShareIQ, a platform that discovers, analyzes, and indexes original pieces of visual content. |
| 2019 | Cision acquired Falcon.io, a Copenhagen-based social media platform. |
| Cision acquired Trendkite, a media analysis software application. | |
| 2021 | Cision acquired Brandwatch, a social listening platform. |
| Notable Brandwatch Acquisitions: | |
| – 2014: PeerIndex, an influencer analytics platform. | |
| – 2017: BuzzSumo, a content and influencer research tool. | |
| – 2018: Merged with Crimson Hexagon, a social media intelligence platform. | |
| – 2019: Qriously, a service for measuring real-time, location-based public sentiment. |
Meltwater Media Monitoring & Social Listening Platform
Meltwater has also made some strategic acquisitions over the last several years. The last four acquisitions have been the strongest. They are trying to create a fully integrated PR analytics software solution encompassing social media listening, media monitoring, and influencer tracking. I should also add that Meltwater’s language translation is the strongest, which is critical for PR and media relations teams.
List of Meltwater Acquisitions
Meltwater has been on a similar path with company acquisitions, but their journey started over 10 years ago.
| Year | Acquisition Details |
|---|---|
| 2010 | Meltwater acquired BuzzGain, a social media monitoring software. |
| Meltwater acquired JitterJam, a CRM software. | |
| 2011 | Meltwater acquired IceRocket, a real-time social search engine. |
| 2016 | Meltwater acquired Encore Alerts, a US-based media monitoring company. |
| 2017 | Meltwater acquired Cosmify, a data analysis platform. |
| Meltwater acquired Klarity, a Hong Kong-based data analytics platform. | |
| Meltwater acquired Wrapidity, a data extraction and automation platform. | |
| Meltwater acquired Algo, a real-time data analytics company. | |
| 2018 | Meltwater acquired Sysomos, a social listening platform. |
| Meltwater acquired Datasift, a social media analytics company. | |
| 2021 | Meltwater acquired Linkfluence. |
| Meltwater acquired Klear, an influencer marketing software platform. |
On the media coverage and monitoring side, there are several other players in the space that have innovative and/or easy to use solutions-Muck Rack, Memo, Newswhip, and Onclusive.
On the social intelligence side, platforms like Synthesio, Pulsar Platform, Digimind, and Infegy are social listening platforms to keep a close eye on. I recorded a video last year in 2020 talking about the Forrester Wave’s Top Social Listening Platforms. Unfortunately, not all social listening platforms made it onto the report, but they all have featured functionality worthy of enterprise deployment. I’ll be tracking the social listening space as new companies merge and/or get acquired.
