Wednesday 21 February 2007

Talking heads

Kim Horner from the AR agency CustomerClix publishes a newsletter for AR professionals. In the the July edition, she provides some analyst ranking in the UK media, thanks to Apollo Surveys:

1. Clive Longbottom, Quocirca
2. Andrew Kellett, Butler Group
3. Joe Wilcox, Jupiter Research
4. Keith Humphries, euroLAN
5. Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research
6. Mike Davis, Butler Group
7. Rob Bamforth, Quocirca
8. David Bradshaw, Ovum
9. Mark Blowers, Butler Group
10. Andrew Jaquith, Yankee Group
11. Graham Titterington, Ovum
12. Gary Barnett, Ovum
13. Michael A Silver, Gartner
14. Nigel Montgomery, AMR Research
15. Gordon Haff, Illuminata
16. Carolina Milanesi, Gartner
17. Pierre Audoin, Pierre Audoin Consultants
18. Robert Enderle, The Enderle Group

The study is from May 2006 but it's nevertheless interesting and contains a few surprises. The list is actually counter-intuitive to a certain extent. The explanation is that journalists get their quotes from several sources: vendor press releases (see AR 101: Analysts and press quotes), research firms press releases (announcing new reports), personal relationships with analysts and finally proactive outreach from analysts. From a reporter standpoint, a great analyst is one that's always available (especially 5mn before a filing deadline) to talk about anything and everything, preferably with some numerical data (market share, index or else).

Bottom line: talking heads are not necessary those influencing deals (actually, it's quite the opposite) but they can help improving your firms' media profile (and make you best friend with your PR department).

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Are these really Apollo's numbers? For example, the UK media cites Pierre Audoin very rarely: less than once a month. How can he be in the top 20?

marcduke said...

Thanks for flagging the list, I like to use the term 'noisy tier two' for analysts with a high press profile that are in firms that by their very size limits their sphere of influence - assuming that size is directly linked to influece. Its a nice metric but not something I am going to soley base an AR strategy on.

Anonymous said...

Hey Marc, I doubt if you would base an AR strategy on a single metric. You're correct that how often an analyst is quoted in the press is one of several factors that should be borne in mind in identifying 'influential' analysts.

Anonymous said...

Small dogs bark louder...

Anonymous said...

I don't see a problem with basing an AR strategy on a single metric -- if it's the right one. Media coverage is certainly not the right one for most AR managers but, for example, tracking analysts' sales recommendations seems highly strategic.