News media monitoring and strategy: North ‘POV’
News media monitoring and strategy: North ‘POV’ https://northstrategic.com/wp-content/uploads/pexels-cottonbro-3944417-1024x682.jpg 1024 682 Jonathan Forani https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/0224c5ae9357da0ca0dcbe96be87c430?s=96&d=mm&r=gBy Fabiola Vani, Sr. Account Director; and Jonathan Forani, Sr. Editorial and Media Strategist
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Every year, there are news stories that capture attention and quickly fade.
There are also news stories and developments that warrant close consideration for our clients and their brands, from Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter and the brief TikTok ban to the Queen’s passing and recent U.S. trade war. Whether social media upheaval or major political moves, these stories present both risks and reputational opportunities.
How brands navigate evolving news events is a sensitive task—and we’re up for it at North Strategic, each year guiding clients through various developing news events as their trusted advisor. Whenever a significant news story breaks, our team jumps into action. Beyond following every development across various sources, we begin drafting our free-of-charge “North POV,” a custom-built media monitoring, analysis and strategy package that provides an overview of the news and the necessary context, plus social listening data on public sentiment, a summary of potential implications, and the key ingredient: strategic recommended actions.
Curated media monitoring and analysis: News You Can Use
When significant stories break, our team is there to think of every question and every likely answer, while following the burning questions of consumers that define the social media discourse. These questions and conversations are key to informing our strategic recommendations.
Following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, questions resurfaced about the future of the Monarchy and Canada’s place in it. When Musk bought Twitter, consumers questioned the ethics of being active on the platform. Before quickly coming back online, TikTok went dark in the U.S. and had Canadians wondering about their own app access. And more recently, in the wake of the “Trump tariffs,” a swell of pride for Canadian-made products took over conversation around the trade war.
In the North POV for any given news event, our team has an eye for safeguarding the client brand and any active campaigns or planned launches and is ready to act when a development means a brand should pull back, or equally if it means a brand should double down.
Trump tariffs example: Pivoting to ‘buy local’
For some our clients, the pride for Canadian products that has emerged this year provided an opportunity to reestablish commitments to the Canadian consumer that were already in place. Our North POV on the tariff story outlined the complexities around what constitutes a “made in Canada” product, including Competition Bureau guidance on the matter.
With the implications established, our North POV team outlined our strategic guidance for PR and marketing activities, including the need to understand the origins of good and the recommendation to pivot to a “buy local” message if appropriate for the brand considering the conditions for what constitutes a local Canadian product.
During the first week of February, at the height of the tariff news, the North POV team provided daily updates to the POV, including the latest news developments, changes in consumer sentiment, and region-specific guidance such as for the Quebec market.
The Publicis Groupe advantage
As part of what we call our “newsroom approach” to PR, North has a finger on the pulse every day to understand how various events and developments can impact our clients. This newsroom approach extends across our Publicis Groupe network of agencies, with whom we often collaborate on POVs, pooling together resources and leadership teams to monitor and analyze the news story and its consequences.
While these POVs are first shared internally to our own teams, they are done with our clients in mind and are adapted by individual account teams to serve the needs of that account. In many cases, clients have come to anticipate our POVs, sharing them broadly between teams in their own offices.
To learn more about how North Strategic acts as a trusted advisor for clients, contact us today.