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Marketwire’s NIRI spin machine in overdrive

By Dominic Jones on June 7, 2007

AS ALMOST 1,500 members of the IR profession were headed home from the NIRI Annual Conference yesterday, the re-energized and almost-giddy folks at newly re-branded Marketwire were taking one last spin in the PR machine with what is hands-down the oddest release of the week.

Thom Brodeur, the newswire company’s almost-new senior vice president of global strategy and development, said his firm was “going right to the source” to survey the “investor relations professionals who actively use blogs in their day-to-day communication or who seek to use blogs.”

At this point I laughed so hard I spilt coffee all over my Blackberry. (This didn’t really happen, but you’ll soon learn why I’m claiming it did. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)
A blackberry

Marketwire’s survey of IR professionals who are using blogs is going to be one slim survey. If you watch IR practices as closely as us, you know that almost no IR departments are actively using blogs in their day-to-day communication. And while some might be monitoring the blogosphere for mentions of their company, few are paying the chatter much attention.

I’m not saying anything about whether IR departments should or shouldn’t be using or paying attention to blogs. You know where I am on that. I’m just stating facts. The IR community as a whole is blog averse.

So Marketwire is going to be surveying almost no none. And here’s the kicker: one of those invisible people is going to win “a new BlackBerry® mobile device enabled with Dashboard Mobile Financial(TM)” for participating and giving Marketwire their contact details.

Given the pool of qualified participants, odds are good you could win.

This was Marketwire’s fourth news release linked to the NIRI Annual Conference this week. It started on Monday with an announcement that the company had a new logo. Marketwire is forged by a union between CCNMatthews of Canada and Market Wire in the U.S. Since last December, it has been majority owned by OMERS Capital Partners, the private equity arm of one of Canada’s largest pension funds.

Marketwirelogo

Also on Monday, the company issued a release about becoming the exclusive newswire feed on Dashboard Mobile Financial which distributes financial content to Blackberry devices.

Then on Tuesday, Marketwire and Ilios Partners announced a partnership that will see Marketwire services bundled with Ilios’ IR Navigator targetting, CRM and emailing application. That was probably the best the company had to announce all week, except that it “will be available “in the US “this summer” and in the UK and Canada “shortly thereafter.” So it also doesn’t exist just yet.

I can’t help feeling that Marketwire is just a tad aggressive in its use of its own product — news releases. But this may not be all bad because we need more spunk and enterprising spirit like Marketwire’s in the IR industry — even if it is polling people who don’t exist.


Dominic Jones

Dominic (bio & disclosures) is IR Web Report‘s founder and an online investor relations consultant. He advises leading public companies and investor relations service providers worldwide on using the web for disclosure, engagement and profile building. You can contact him via the contacts page.

Posted in | Tagged , , | 6 Responses

  • JayCo

    I just got off the phone with a rep, named Gail, from Marketwire. It was the most unpleasant experience I’ve ever had with a vendor. She saw my name on a press release and decided to follow up on an email she sent after the release was issued two months ago. I explained to her that I was not prepared to recommend to my client that they switch from BusinessWire. As I’m more focused on reaching media, my experience is that journos look at BusinessWire, PRNewswire and PRWeb. I’ve never heard anybody say they are monitoring Marketwire for stories. It’s not on their radar.

    In any event, Gail launched into a barrage of rude rheotorcal questions and even had the gall to make the Target/Wal-Mart analogy between BusinessWire and Marketwire. As if! When I asked her why she was yelling at me, she clained she was “very calm” and made a sarcastic apology for “hurting my little feelings.” I then suggested she looks for somebody else to call and she told me she was going to call somebody “higher up”.

    My suggestion to Marketwire: At best, you’re sitting in fouth place. If you want to get in the game, lose the cheesy telemarketers who assume you didn’t immediately delete the email they sent two months ago and become beligerent and insulting when you tell them you aren’t interested. I’d be fired in 5 minutes if that was my approach to pitching media. I’ve had better experiences with Sprint reps fresh from the clink.

  • http://www.irwebreport.com/daily/ Dominic Jones

    Since JayCo above is anonymous, I should explain that I verified that the above comment is not from one of Marketwire’s competitors. It is from a legitimate communications firm employee.

  • Sara Parker

    In response to JayCo’s comment I have a couple of truths to point out.

    #1) I called Marketwire today and asked for Gail. I was transferred to 2 people- one was a kind customer service rep who said no one by that name worked for Marketwire and another was a sales person located in the LA office who had never heard of Gail but was willing to help me with any question I had.

    #2) It’s evident that JayCo is making up a story just to make the competition (Business Wire per his example) look good.

    Overall, as a potential client of BW, PRN and MW- I think it is very sad to see the competition reaching this low.

    I was at NIRI 2007 and I spoke with a rep at each of the “Major” newswire’s, and I must say that the Marketwire team was very friendly and not at all pushy, overwhelming, or even bashing. Even when I asked one of them to tell me how they match up against the competition! The sales approach they took was very smooth and customer friendly. Not once did they talk negatively about any of the newswires (unlike the Business Wire rep I spoke with who seemed uninterested in me when I said I was just shopping around!).

    Lastly, I have yet to choose a newswire for my company (as I am still shopping) and I will clearly not be choosing those who bash the competition to me, a prospect. But I do salute Marketwire on their new brand, their customer friendly approach and their willingness to stay mature in such a cut throat industry.

    Good luck Marketwire and I look forward to watching how far your brand will take you in the future!

  • http://www.irwebreport.com/daily/ Dominic Jones

    Unfortunately, without more information, I cannot verify “Sara Parker” is legit because the email she gave is a hotmail one. The IP address from which the comment was made is a residential one, which means I can’t see if it’s from a legitimate business and not from Market Wire.

    NIRI’s who’s who membership list does not have a Sara Parker listed. That’s a bit odd for someone who says they attended the NIRI conference, but not impossible.

    So until I have further info from Sara, consider the possibility that Sara’s comment is not authentic.

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  • http://www.comunique-se.com.br Rodrigo Azevedo

    Hi Dominic and everyone else:
    - I can attest: IR community as a whole is blog averse.

    We are an online communication company in Brazil, with a specific division for IR (WWW.RIWEB.COM.BR). And although we try very much to stimulate our clients to take advantage of all web 2.0 possibilities, including blogs, it´s almost an “impossible mission” to convince anyone about it.

    But we have a success case to share. We have a client, a multibillion Brazilian company. It’s a very lucky because they have an innovative IR manager with enough courage to move forward and be the first one. This company is CAMARGO CORREA and they are the first and so far, the only one, to have launched an IR Blog.

    The experience is been amazing, since their investors can read updated texts and comment them freely, receiving fast replies from the IR staff. One first advantage of having an IR Blog, is that you are able to attend a much larger number of investors with the same kind of doubt. Not to mention the higher level of transparency.

    ccdi.blog-se.com.br

    Regads,
    Rodrigo Azevedo