Meltwater

Outstanding Enterprises

2

HONG KONG BUSINESSES TO GROW MORE DIGITAL, DATA-DRIVEN

Since 2020, the business landscape has vastly changed as organisations worked feverishly to expedite their digital transformation journeys with the aim of providing online support to their remote workers and continuing to reach their audiences amidst the lockdowns.

Amongst the business functions greatly impacted by the trend was marketing. As customers flocked online to access products and services, businesses boosted their digital marketing efforts through digital advertising, e-marketplaces, e-commerce-enabled websites, and social media.

“COVID-19 drove so many people online,” Ewan Ross, the VP of North Asia, Meltwater, an all-in-one media intelligence platform company in Hong Kong, told Hong Kong Business. “Transactions and discussions were happening online. If brands weren’t part of that discussion or if it wasn’t online, then they were really losing out.”

To flow with the times, Meltwater, which was established in 2001 in Oslo, Norway, saw this as an opportunity to expand its offerings to better serve clients as online activities intensified. Currently, the company offers a wide spectrum of marketing and communications services, including Media Monitoring, Social Listening, Journalist Database & PR Outreach, Social Publishing & Engagement, Newsletter & Newsfeeds, Consumer & Audience Insights, Social Influencer Management, and Reporting & Analytics.

Being a one-stop solution, he said, enables brands to harness the digital marketplace. “We acquired cutting-edge technologies and it’s become a wider suite of technologies,” Ross said. “From being very focused on social listening and helping companies understand what’s being said about their brand online, we’ve broadened to help them understand what their consumers are seeing, who their consumers are, and who their potential consumers could be. We’re also helping companies identify and work with influencers that are a good match to their brand.”

Digital signs of the times

As Hong Kong’s business landscape shifted in the past two years, Ross considers the acceleration of Hong Kong towards the digital economy as the most important recent takeaway.

“Marketing will be a lot more digital and data-driven. It will be much more about understanding data, gaining insights online, and positioning yourself very carefully and very clinically,” he said, confident that it will have the capability to grow its 27,000 global clients and 400 corporate clients in Hong Kong.“Our philosophy is to be the best possible partner. We’re not just a vendor. We’re here to educate, support, and help companies make that transition.”

Top Strengths

Whilst Meltwater is characterised by a strong global presence, with a presence in 50 offices globally across six continents, each local operation is run with a culture-focused approach, said Ross. An imperative is being in the business of understanding brands and how they compare to competitors.

PHILOSOPHY

With such a competitive business landscape in Hong Kong, brands need every possible advantage to stay one step ahead of competitors and reach their audience in ways that are genuine and delightful, and that prompt an online conversation. Meltwater’s pioneering tech stack allows all units across a business to access rich media and social data, audience insights, and owned channel performance indicators.

FAST FACTS

• Meltwater was founded in Oslo,

Norway • The company started with only two men, a coffee machine, and $15,000 in startup capital • Meltwater sponsors a yearly champion chess tournament • Meltwater founded an

Entrepreneurial School of

Technology (MEST) in Africa offering incubation for technology startups in Africa • Meltwater won the HKB

Technology Excellence awards in 2022!

This page: Meltwater Hong Kong Office

Opposite page: Ewan Ross, the VP of North Asia, Meltwater

This focus is supported by adapting to new technologies that boost its offerings. “We are constantly iterating and improving that technology over time. We invest a huge amount of our annual budget in research and development, and in acquisitions as well as in adjacent technologies.” The company recently acquired artificial intelligence and data science companies that enable clients to understand consumer insights and identify the right influencers.

Amongst its top strengths, Meltwater places high value on its people, without whom it cannot attain success. “We invest in developing our people to be extremely strong consultants to our clients. We want to develop people who can help our clients navigate the transition from the old world of going through a digital transformation into the digital-first world.”

Today, over 150 of the company’s employees worldwide have worked for Meltwater for over 10 years, a retention rate that reveals the high value the company places on its 2300+ employee workforce globally. Employees are distributed across client success, client acquisition, marketing, and product teams. The company projects a 50% increase in headcount to respond to the growing demand for its services.

“We are proud of having a very vibrant and vivid idea of what culture should be. We focus on employee wellness, ensuring that we’re a fair and equitable employer,” Ross said, whose career at Meltwater spans 14 years, starting in the UK. He was next assigned to South Africa, launched the company in India, and is now based in Hong Kong.

“The pandemic just underlines to me still how important human connection is and how important company culture is if you want to have a vibrant and growing business. As a company, we would like to make sure we are reflecting the issues and causes that our employees care about to be an attractive employer: sustainability, CSR, charity.”

High Flyers Award

For its remarkable resilience during the recent challenging period, Meltwater was recognised in the Hong Kong Business High Flyers Award 2022. Now in its 19th year, the awards programme lauds enterprises for their innovative spirit, outstanding service, and relentless effort to contribute to social progress and business growth.

“We’re happy to be recognised by the High Flyers awards. You have a huge amount of effort and energy that goes into developing our technology and making that technology relevant for our clients.”

“Looking ahead, the company’s mission is to be the very best partner that we can be to help marketing and help communications adapt to a new digital Hong Kong,” Ross added. This will be done by acquiring new businesses and technologies that can support the marketing and communications functions.

“It’s about making sure we’ve got a fantastic place for people to work where they can be developed to be the best possible partners. And it all comes back to the people that help our clients to use that technology.”