Using TVEyes' media-monitoring suite, clients can monitor and search TV and radio coverage in all 210 US markets, as well as Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Broadcasts are searchable by keyword, phrase, or topic and content is delivered in real time. Other features include unlimited, full-length transcripts, monitoring reports, and clip-editing capability.
Cost
Typically runs at $500 per month per user. Volume discounts for multiple users are available.
Ownership
Privately held.
User Ruben Pulido, assistant VP of corporate communications at Wells Fargo, has been using TVEyes for 14 months.
How do you use it?
You just log on. It's a very easy and intuitive setup process.
When you open your account, the first thing you should do is activate your alerts. You can set up unlimited search terms and choose what markets you want to track them in. Then you decide the clips you want sent directly to you via email and which ones you want to reside on TVEyes' website for you to look at whenever you feel the need to. It's as easy as that.
For the search terms I really care about, I receive email alerts that give me instant access to basic information about the station and a portion of the transcript. I can read it on my BlackBerry or on my computer.
You can also do your own power searching for various topics, either ones you've already chosen or new ones, save clips, create links to share with your team or executives, and run reports.
If there's a problem I call our account representative. He's very accessible, responds quickly, and always solves any problem that may occur.
I feel as though I have a 24/7 ally that helps me keep up to date on what's happening in the media.
Real-time monitoring allows me to respond rapidly. On occasion, I've been at a public venue and I've seen the Wells Fargo logo appear on a TV screen. I can just pick up my BlackBerry and two seconds later I have the clip and the transcript – so it's really providing instant access to information. There's no better way to stay on top of what's happening than to have that information right in your pocket.
There have also been times when I've gotten an alert for an evening news broadcast, and I've felt that the information in the story wasn't accurate or that it really required a Wells Fargo response. So I've been able to call the TV station and send a statement, so by the time the late night news airs, the story includes the company's response.
Personally, I like to analyze what's happening in the media locally. I want to see what types of events are covered and how they're covered. I use a service that posts press events into a date book and I read it every morning so I have an idea of what might be covered. Then I use TVEyes to see what gets picked up. This helps me know what will have a better chance of coverage success when planning for future events.
We donate to different nonprofits. Each event is different but when another organization is doing something similar, I like to see what type of success they have in obtaining media coverage. As PR pros we already have a good idea about what gets coverage, but it's nice to verify that.
You also have the ability to make reports, which are very important, especially for large media campaigns. You can group all your clips together, create a report, and then just click to export it into Excel with all pertinent details, such as time, date, media outlet, and viewership information.
How does it integrate with your existing infrastructure from and IT standpoint?
It is Web-based.
What are the main benefits?
Real-time access to broadcast clips, instant transcripts, and the ability to make reports.
The ability to set your own search terms – as many as you want. You can decide which search terms you want directly sent to you and which ones you want saved to the system. I have secondary searches saved. All I have to do is click one button to see what's been covered on those whenever I want or need to.
Having the ability to do a date and time search is beneficial. For example, if you're looking for a radio clip that might be hard to find, you can do a date and time search and listen to a block of airtime to find what you need.
What are the main drawbacks?
The only thing I can think of is sometimes the transcripts are a little off. There might be typos or a couple of words missing. It's easy to fix. You can just listen to the clip and add the words that are missing and you are good to go.
What would you like to see improved / added?
When we first started using TVEyes it monitored many of the mainstream stations but were missing an important Spanish language station. In time, they added it and more radio stations. We have good radio coverage now. I'd like to see them continue to add stations, especially in diverse media.
Competitors
Critical Mention: provides real-time global broadcast monitoring that includes searching, alerts, editing, viewing, sharing, reporting and self-service downloads in Web and broadcast quality.
Cision: provides a media database, press release distribution, media monitoring, and media analysis
