Cision Completes Acquisition of Social Listening Company Brandwatch

“Social listening” may sound like an old concept, but in today’s customer environment, it’s a high-tech process driven by artificial intelligence. Social listening uses AI to “listen in” for mentions of their brand across social media, giving them an opportunity to to track, analyze, and respond to conversations about them. In a customer environment that moves at the speed of light – no customer today would accept the dated “We will respond to you in 10 days by email” – it helps companies keep up.

Cision, a provider of public relations, marketing and social media management technology and intelligence, recently announced the finalization of its acquisition of Brandwatch, a provider of AI and machine learning technology and deep social listening. With the announcement, Cision marked the occasion with the launch of a new embedded Brandwatch app on Cision's platforms and enhanced social media analysis across its offerings. The features the full Brandwatch data platform with over 100 million data sources and will soon include Brandwatch's patent-pending AI Search.

As the deal closes, Cision said it is combining the capabilities of Brandwatch and Falcon.io, a Cision company known for its strong social media management capabilities. The integrated social business will be a “1,000-person social media powerhouse with a mission to deliver exciting new capabilities in this fast-evolving space,” according to the companies.

"Uniting our companies will bring more innovation, more comprehensive data and more real-time insights to our customers," said Abel Clark, CEO of Cision, in a statement. "Our investments in data science and AI will help marketers, communicators and researchers better understand conversations taking place on digital channels worldwide and apply those insights to deliver better outcomes for their business."

Brandwatch, which is located in Brighton, England, includes the content marketing platform BuzzSumo in its portfolio.

“We have the opportunity to create an extraordinary company that is seen by our customers as critical to their overall business success," said Giles Palmer, CEO of Brandwatch, in a statement. "That is an exciting thing to be part of and I'm looking forward to joining the Cision team and making it happen over the coming months and years."