Likelihood to Recommend For a small start-up, the cost-benefit to add lift to press releases [and] particular milestone accomplishments is definitely there with the Cision [Communications] Cloud. Much of what we do, by necessity, is done internally without the benefit of outsourced press folks, so the Cision [Communications] Cloud ease of use and reporting is very important.
Read full review Dataxu is great for running multiple campaigns at the same time. It's reporting features are great as well as the exchanges it has to offer. For a company just wanting to run one campaign, I don't think it would be worth their time learning how to navigate Dataxu; however, for a company running to run multiple campaigns, Dataxu makes the process easier. Dataxu has great customer service representatives that provide superior training whenever needed.
Read full review Pros Their upgraded press release templates and ability [to] pull in an entire, completed release makes the [process] faster and easier, and allows for more graphics, such as company mastheads, [are done well]. The media tracking offers the ability to find relevant placements across the entire country. The journalist database streamlines the process of finding relevant reporters to directly connect [to] on news releases that are relevant to their beats. The process of setting up, creating, and distributing a release is seamless, easy to use, and not labor-intensive. Read full review The platform's mobile serving capacity is great; spending is always consistent and the impression numbers are some of the highest we've seen. We can always depend on this method of ad serving to get us the results that we and our clients expect. The intelligence and audience information (found under the Reports tab) is helpful when writing a "story" for the client; it assists us in determining future targeting strategies. Custom Queries are also available under the Reports tab and these are extremely helpful when we need to view specific details about the campaign. The dashboard's spend-to-date graphic helps us to immediately recognize what campaigns are falling behind so that we may adjust the budgets accordingly. Read full review Cons In the media influencer database, the classic Cision allowed us to do a zip code radius search to really drill down to the neighborhood level. That's because we do localized media advisories and press releases for events at neighborhood schools. One part of a big city like Chicago really doesn't care what's happening in another part of Chicago that's too far away. The zip code radius search was a feature in the classic Cision but not with the current Cision Communications Cloud. We've asked for this to be restored several times, but nothing's happened. In fact, we were told to use DMA — which actually goes wider in a search (bigger than a city), not more narrow as needed. This reflects a basic misunderstanding of what we need. Another missing feature involves a merge field when sending out an email press release through Cision. This is the "select insert field" button in the upper right that's used to personalize a release with the media contact's name and other information. This is key for localization of the release. Many media outlets won't run a release unless it's local. While "county" is a feature in the influencer database when putting together a media list in Cision, "county" is not available to insert into a press release as a merge field. Counties are important because this is how many newspapers and health departments are organized and identify themselves. I've asked for this to be implemented, to no avail. As a workaround, we've had to use "contact city" or "outlet city." After refining a media list in Cision using filters, I've had to download the list and take it offline to see the big picture, screen for duplicates, etc. While there is a button on the bottom left intended to help with this, it doesn't do the trick. That's because there may be multiple contacts with the same email address. In addition, one media contact may represent numerous media outlets, so this same contact could show up several times. It would be nice to have a better way to see the whole list online and eliminate both duplicates as well as those who previously opted out. Read full review Website blacklisting Flagging problems. For example, if a campaign has been running a week and hasn't spent any of the budgets, there could be a setting enabling it from doing so. When you have multiple campaigns running, it's hard to track this. Read full review Likelihood to Renew While I am happy with the product performance overall, TrendKite's recent merger with Cision is cause for concern. When we first signed on with TrendKite, I spoke with several users and the best response I received was that the company was a startup and we could expect there to be hiccups along the way as the company grew and the platform got more robust. That has certainly been the case. However, now that they have merged with Cision — a company that has grown too fast, has not focused on improving its product and has poor customer service — I have concerns that TrendKite will lose some of the qualities that have made it a great company and great product to work with.
Read full review It is not in my jurisdiction to renew or end contracts with DataXu. I know that the high cost to maintain a contract with DataXu can be off-putting
Read full review Usability The flexibility and customization of Cision Communications Cloud (TrendKite)* is among its most important features. Changing the dashboards, using keywords in the saved searches to pull out the best stories and the integration with marketing automation tools gives me confidence that I will able to continue using this tool well into the future. The future implementation and integration of the media contact database will complete the suite, making list management and email marketing programs much smoother. *This review was written before Cision acquired TrendKite. TrendKite is now part of Cision Communications Cloud.
Read full review Reliability and Availability Easily accessible 24/7.
Read full review Performance Generally, Cision performs well day to day, but it's got some annoying bugs that slow down usage/require user workarounds which is inefficient. More seriously, a few months ago, as a result of a major system upgrade, certain critical functionality was not working and I was unable to use the service for more than a day when I had time-sensitive work to execute
Read full review Support Rating For Cision TrendKite in particilar, support always responded, but it was sometimes slow. For some of our booleans and search queries, we would need help refining and excluding terms/phrases that weren't relevant to our client or campaign. This sometimes took 1-2 days just to get a response back, which sometimes was too late when a last-minute report was due. This was only with the support staff, not necessarily our customer success manager or sales rep.
Read full review At Haberfeld, we had our own customer service representative out of Boston. He provided superior and timely support for all of our questions and needs. He also ran test campaigns to show us what our potential impact could be before we put dollars towards anything. He even came all the way down to Nebraska to visit with us at one point. Whenever we needed something, he was quick to respond and provide appropriate resources and training.
Read full review Online Training The online training sessions available for the Cision Communications Cloud are helpful and informative. There's more than one option - initially, I signed up for the live webinar classes on basic functions and that is what I recommend other new users do as well. If I have specific questions or something I want to learn more about, I can search the online database and find article or online training videos to get the information I need.
Cindy Arco Public Relations Manager, Florida Region
Read full review Implementation Rating There is no implementation at the customer's end so this doesn't really apply to my instance of Cision (possibly to all instances of it).
Read full review Alternatives Considered It's a similar product. I think Meltwater sells itself as being a bit more niche, but I have not found many significant differences between Meltwater and Cision. Meltwater's sales process is a very high pressure and their prices are inflated.
Read full review We work with multiple platforms, not solely DataXu. As of late, AdWords has proven more beneficial to us. AdWords is very user-friendly and they are easy to contact. If we need a question answered, we can simply hop onto a Google Chat and get the responses we need to move forward. DataXu is much harder to get in contact with and their Help Beta tab is not especially informative. If we need to serve impressions, DataXu is certainly the server to utilize
Read full review Scalability Easy to use, but still room for improvement.
Read full review Return on Investment Cision has a net positive impact on time savings for staff so we can be quicker to market Cision has a positive impact on internal savings as it is used internally across multiple accounts and with the internal PR team Cision is extremely useful when it comes to resourcing and conducting outreach in those DMA's where our agency doesn't have a physical presence Read full review Provided us with accurate and timely data to provide to clients. Enabled us to streamline our process for running PPC ads for over 80 clients. Allowed us to show our ads to households across multiple devices and relevant exchanges. Read full review ScreenShots Cision Communications Cloud Screenshots