Australian Federal Government: Saving the communications budget

Challenge
A newly merged Australian federal department that integrated three former departments faced the need to develop a new communications strategy to cope with a substantially broadened media policy portfolio. To complicate matters, the aggregated media being tracked by the former departments was so voluminous that it threatened to overwhelm normal media analysis and response procedures.

Solution
Mediascape retrospectively studied the media data for relevance then analytically matched departmental policy priorities with weighted aggregations of media items, turning a haystack of media clippings into concise issues intelligence. Item weighting quickly identified issue priorities linked to stakeholders, providing the department with a road map through an initially impenetrable media relations challenge.

Return On Investment (ROI)
The department gained easy to follow analysis, enabling it to quickly identify issue management priorities. Analysis was delivered as an updatable interactive file, allowing communications strategists to track potential media risks and evaluate differing media strategies. The analysis data audit identified substantial streams of irrelevant media monitoring data. Mediascape’s amended monitoring brief offered substantial budget savings each year. In addition to an interactive media strategy system, the department had access to significant cost savings – which more than covered the cost of the media analysis. Cost-benefit ROI is estimated at 6:1.