START UP NATION: O'LEARY ANALYTICS:ONLINE MEDIA monitoring and analysis company O'Leary Analytics tracks and reports on coverage from more than 100,000 news-producing sources globally.
The company, which was founded by Cork entrepreneur Stephen O’Leary, uses a range of monitoring and analytical tools to track online coverage of brands, events and competitors for client companies.
Among the items the company has monitored was the global reaction to the now infamous Brian Cowen interview on Morning Ireland. The company found 457 articles had been published globally about the interview in less than 24 hours.
The coverage represented a 692 per cent increase on the average daily coverage for the former taoiseach over the preceding five days, with 1,738 mentions of Cowen in social media sources on the day.
The company also researched the global response to Enda Kenny’s speech on the Cloyne Report. It found more than 1,000 articles had been published in 48 hours in over 800 publications across 64 countries worldwide.
The company first came to prominence just two months after launching in November 2009 when it monitored and analysed the coverage of the potential new name for Apple’s forthcoming tablet, now the iPad.
“We tracked the amount of media coverage each of the 10 potential names got around the world. Our analysis was picked up by a number of news outlets including the BBC and the Washington Post.”
At that stage the product was expected to be named the iTab and had been mentioned in 25,000 articles in January 2010 according to research by O’Leary.
O’Leary set up the company after he noticed a gap in the market for online media monitoring.
The self-confessed news junkie worked as a copy editor for the Irish Examiner for a year following college, before going on to work with Norwegian software company Meltwater, which offers solutions for reputation management, web-based collaboration and online marketing campaigns.
It was while working for Meltwater that he discovered companies were looking for easier and quicker ways of monitoring coverage of their business online.
Trying to monitor mentions of your company/event/sponsor online can be as difficult as looking for a needle in a haystack, according to O’Leary. While companies recognise the importance of media monitoring, knowing how to get the information is another matter, he says.
“They knew their company was receiving coverage online, but they said they didn’t have time to make sense of the coverage and information. I heard this so many times and so knew there was a gap in the market.
O’Leary took a year out from Meltwater to work as a sports agent representing pro golfers on the European tour.
“It was during this year I decided to set up a media monitoring company. I knew if I didn’t set one up, someone else would.”
The company acquired the licence software from two companies, one in the US and one in the UK, to monitor information online. One of the licences was for a social media monitoring tool that opens up a source listing of more than 220 million including message forums, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
The business now has 10 clients on a retainer basis to whom it provides daily and weekly reports. It also has other clients that come on a bespoke basis, to have a particular event, marketing campaign or competitor monitored.
“I never applied for any grants or went to Enterprise Ireland. I just set the company up with my savings. Needless to say the first while was difficult and I questioned whether I was doing the right thing. After six months I had to go to my parents for help paying my rent.”
The company has since taken off, and now employs four staff, two full-time and two part-time.
“The part-time employees are dedicating their time solely to coming up with better ways of presenting the data.
“We don’t just want it in bar graphs and pie charts. We’re excellent at locating information, but now we need to get better at presenting it.”
