Bill Hanifin
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Cision has launched the Cision Communication Cloud which bundles seven products into a single solution to bring efficiency and power to marketing communications. The platform streamlines many different functions which will increase efficiency for CCOs and allows users to monitor media and social channels, connect with media and influencers, create an earned media and content strategy, engage stakeholders, and analyze data.
This all-in-one communications platform will integrate paid and owned media. CEO Kevin Akeroyd said, “All we’re doing right now is helping the CCO play catch up. This idea of a unified platform instead of individual point solutions is super mature everywhere else except for comms. This is about data, content, applications, and media all coming together.”
Cision formed the new product through a series of acquisitions over recent years and includes iContact, Gorkana, PR Newswire, Visible Intelligence, PRWeb, Vocus, Viralheat. Cision plans to integrate Help a Reporter Out sometime in November.
Akeroyd is a seasoned business development executive with a track-record of success. His vision for the Cision Communication Cloud was well articulated in the company’s press release. “Earned media has been more important and never will be more important than now,” he said. “The reason I came [to Cision] is because I had this vision and I knew this what the earned media and communications industry needed.”
Behind Cision’s push for an integrated platform is an embrace of data, a trend Akeroyd witnessed when he was SVP and GM of Oracle Marketing Cloud. He said he believes data is the reason the CMO became one of the most important executives at a company. “Quite frankly, we just allowed ourselves to lag in the communications industry,” he said. “When we lean into data and the platform, we can drive for the comms side of the house what’s already been driven over there in the advertising, e-commerce, and owned media side of the house.”
Photo Credit: Cision
