Reputica Launch Event

The launch for Reputica took place to great success last Thursday. Already we've had over 60 enquiries from all over the world and they keep coming.

So, for those that want to know what I said in my launch speech, here goes:

"Good evening, and welcome to the launch of Reputica

Let me start with an anecdotal story that hopefully describes the reason why we believe Reputica is so important.

Blogging, for those not yet affiliated with the new wave that is hitting the internet, is the process of effectively capturing one’s thoughts, opinions, views and stories online for others to see. It is the modern day equivalent of writing a diary, but with each diary entry being exposed to literally millions of readers.

In September 2005 a posting appeared on a popular blog site in America giving a demonstration of someone picking a bicycle lock with a Bic biro. Within 10 days of the posting appearing, the manufacturer of the locks, a company called Kryptonite, had lost over $10m through having to conduct a worldwide product recall. Why ? Quite simply because the blog generated a reputation of its own almost instantaneously, fuelled by human interest and in turn creating thousands more blog postings containing reference to the original story. The effect of this so-called “blog storm” was to bring the name of Kryptonite, previously viewed as the world’s most secure locks, into disrepute. And all within the space of a few days.

The online world is undergoing a revolution, fuelled by consumer-driven content sites like MySpace and YouTube, which allow everyman to post their videos, pictures, opinions, thoughts, views and beliefs for the world to see. Everyone has always had an opinion but now those opinions are being captured online, for all to see, and for all time. The internet was once all about downloading : downloading of useful (and not so useful !!) information, downloading of music, downloading of news. What we are undergoing now is a culture shift from download to upload. People want to create data online like never before.

And this isn’t limited to the under-25’s. It is estimated, according to one survey, that by the end of 2006, 70% of large companies in the US had an official blog, often contributed to, if not owned by, their CEO.

These online opinions explode around the world faster than ever before too. In 2001, 9/11 took 1.5 minutes to appear on the internet. In 2005, the blog about Kryptonite had had 60,000 hits in the first hour – that’s 1000 every minute, or 16 per second.

This new world of online opinion – so-called “Citizen Journalism” – is changing the face of how individuals interract with companies and their brands, how they purchase and how they form their perceptions. Traditional PR and formal marketing is having to rapidly adapt to this emerging trend. A recent survey showed that 94% of people value opinion as being just as valuable as advertising in selecting products for purchase.

And ultimately, this complex web of human interraction is shaping how reputations are built, altered, improved or destroyed. Reputation is becoming a de facto currency, as real as cash, in valuing corporations in today’s world. The online viral effect of public opinion can create world fame and notoriety in a matter of minutes, and can destroy brands in a matter of days. So, even if you don’t ‘live’ in the world of blogs, or have never seen a chat room, you can’t afford to ignore them. There is no ‘truth checker’. Blogs can be anonymous. And dangerous.

Today we are launching a new service to assist both companies and individuals in enbracing the new challenges posed by citizen journalism in managing reputation. Reputica trawls the online world, in real-time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, looking for material that could change the reputation of a company, brand or individual. It then checks that it’s got the right ‘John Smith’, from the right company, and gives the article a positive or negative score depending on how it could impact reputation. This is the so-called ReputicaRating.

As this is what it looks like. Imagine a share price tracker for reputation. You can watch your ‘stock’ go up and down, compare it with your competitors, and see which articles have affected it. You now only need to go to one place for this information.

Reputica acts as an “early warning” system to alert you of a potentially damaging story breaking, inherently valuable in itself. But we don’t stop there. Reputica’s heritage is built on a deep understanding of data. And, by analysing the data that is being captured, we are able to build predictive or propensity models to plan how, where and when the story will unfold. In other words, if a negative blog about your or your product comes out one day, we will aim to predict where that story will go in the next 24, 48 hours, giving you the chance to get involved, and make your point. You are no longer just watching it happen. You’re participating.

So Reputation Management has suddenly moved from being reactive to being proactive. And THAT is powerful.

“But why do I need this ?”, I hear you say. “I already have a PR agency who looks after this for me. They manage all my corporate PR and that includes managing my reputation.”

We are not a PR Agency, nor do we aspire to be. What we have built is a service that will become invaluable to the PR Agencies that you already employ. It is an information source, a test bed for PR strategies, and a powerful tool to assist in the real-time challenges presented by citizen journalism. It is the service PR Agencies and Departments cannot risk NOT having. For consumers of the services of these agencies, it also acts as an objective measure of success – “I want you to raise my ReputicaRating by 10 points”. The esoteric world of PR has suddenly become measurable and predictable.

But our service is not only of use to PR Agencies and Corporate Communication Departments. ANYONE who relies on having a particular perception of them in the public domain can benefit from our service. CEOs who are seeking the next board appointment or who are courting the City for investment; politicians seeking election or re-election to parliament; music and film artists who rely on their reputation for work; companies who take a moral or ethical stance; business start-ups who want to know whether they’re getting traction in the market (like us !!). The list goes on.

Your Reputation is your most valuable asset, but has never been more under threat. It can take years to build and seconds to destroy. Don’t let citizen journalism put it at risk. Take control.

Reputica."


Makes you think, doesn't it ?