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How The Brand Guild uses Muck Rack to track clients’ impressions, SOV and sentiment
Learn how The Brand Guild, a fully integrated communications and marketing agency, uses Muck Rack to:
- Create and develop comprehensive PR reporting, including competitor analysis
- Build relationships with relevant reporters
The Brand Guild
The Brand Guild is a fully-integrated communications and marketing agency that builds the most dynamic brands in food & beverage, consumer lifestyle, commercial real estate, and the tech-enabled new economy. Founded in 2010 by Barbara Martin and Jayne Sandman, the company grew from a shared belief that dynamic brands need a collaborative communications and marketing strategy to succeed in today's ever-changing landscape. The Brand Guild has offices in Washington, D.C. and New York.
Maddie Caywood, public relations manager at The Brand Guild, says:
Maddie Caywood
Public Relations Manager
Muck Rack goes above and beyond just finding reporters’ names. There are a lot of other software tools out there that can just spit out names. But Muck Rack offers so many different ways to expand our reach and expertise.
—Maddie Caywood, Public Relations Manager at The Brand Guild
In their own words: The Brand Guild’s favorite Muck Rack features
When I joined The Brand Guild in July 2021, the team was transitioning from Cision to Muck Rack. The goal in switching was to use Muck Rack in a similar fashion to find journalists but also explore the other parts of the tool Muck Rack had to offer. Now, everyone on the PR and research teams use Muck Rack.
Tracking media and conducting competitor analysis
We use Muck Rack for monthly and yearly reporting for our clients based on the earned media we secure them.
Once a story goes live, we add the published link into Muck Rack’s coverage reporting. This allows us to see media impressions, which is incredibly important to showcase to clients.
Taking it one step further, we also use the Share of Voice function to showcase where our clients stand against their competitors. Month over month, it’s always interesting to see the increase or decrease based on when a competitor or our client launches certain campaigns. We also set KPIs year over year based on share of voice, usually recommending between a 3% to 5% increase. We wouldn’t be able to track that without using a tool like Muck Rack.
Muck Rack also shows us the media value of a placement (or AVE for Ad Value Equivalency), which is one way to help back up how important our work is. For example, before Muck Rack, we could land a client in a national publication, but we couldn’t equate that coverage to dollars or show the increase in brand awareness. Now, we can say, “If you had paid for a half-page ad, it would have been $20,000.”
We also use Muck Rack to look at sentiment. Let’s say a client only has a 10% share of voice amongst its competitors, and there are three competitors with a higher share of voice. We’ll then look at sentiment; just because a competitor has a higher share of voice doesn’t necessarily mean they have a more positive sentiment.
For example, we used this reporting for one of our clients following a major campaign moment. Utilizing Share of Voice, we were able to show them exactly where they stood against their competitors within their respective industry. During this specific campaign, we could all use the sentiment tool on MuckRack and show that more than 90% of their coverage from this campaign skewed positive and that their share of voice, month over month throughout the campaign, increased around 10%, which was pretty impressive!
Internally, this data really helps us see our work in a different way, too. We can read articles all day long. We can recite feedback we get from reporters. But to see results is really key.
All the data we can access through Muck Rack really helps our clients get a full picture of where they stand in the industry. It also shows our expertise—that we can use these tools and resources to really dive deep and provide important analysis.
—Maddie Caywood, Public Relations Manager at The Brand Guild
Building relationships with relevant reporters
Muck Rack’s Share of Voice tool also has another use: We can find relevant publications and reporters to add to media lists. The Share of Voice widget lets us see every article that contributes to that competitor’s coverage. If I see a publication one of my client’s wants coverage in, I’ll see who the reporter was and add them to our media list to pitch.
Muck Rack acts as a master Rolodex, and includes reporters’ names, emails, recent coverage and more. We appreciate that Muck Rack updates reporters’ information in real time, too. Muck Rack’s Job Updates email each morning lists reporters that have changed publications or titles, which is really helpful. It’s important for us to keep an eye on those changes, especially with all the media companies sadly shuttering.
For PR people, we’re only as good as our lists. Muck Rack gives us the foundation to find the right people to build and foster relationships with.
—Maddie Caywood, Public Relations Manager at The Brand Guild
Fast questions with Maddie
1. How has it been working with Muck Rack’s team?
Our account representative helped walk me through Muck Rack and the tutorials.
I also use the tutorials on Muck Rack to teach myself different skills. There is just so much information on there that’s really helpful. You could probably spend a whole month going through all of them and becoming a master.
2. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?
Muck Rack has incredible value for us, and without it, it’d take us a lot more time to do our jobs and the information probably wouldn’t be as accurate.
For example, finding reporters’ names would definitely not be as easy. Reporting would look very different, too.
3. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?
Muck Rack is most powerful when you use it to its max capacity. It’s not just this black book of reporters' names. There are so many other functions that are incredibly valuable for monitoring and reporting.
4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?
Convenient, accurate and helpful
