APCO Launches New Data-Driven Services, Building on Decades of Research Experience

Washington – April 27, 2021: APCO Worldwide launched several new offers provided by APCO Insight—the company’s full-service global research, analytics and measurement consultancy—that will better provide clients the audience-centered, data-first intelligence they need to identify and manage emerging issues and harness new opportunities. The expanded capabilities infuse data science with next generation opinion and digital research technology and will further tap into APCO’s deep advocacy and stakeholder expertise, Founder and Executive Chairman Margery Kraus announced today.

“At APCO, we believe insights can come from anywhere,” Kraus said. “By unifying a cross-functional global team of research and data science professionals—and teaming them up with APCO’s communication and subject matter experts around the world—we’ve enhanced our ability to provide clients with actionable intelligence that allows them to gain an unrivaled edge in the marketplace and find an enlightened path forward.”

Building on more than two decades of research experience, APCO Insight is expanding its team to analyze information from across the firm’s primary opinion research, secondary research, digital analytics and social listening, client data and third-party audience data. This expansion also further embeds APCO’s growing global data science team into its client teams to bring advanced analytics and predictive modeling directly into client strategy and execution.

Recently launched capabilities include:

• Digital Reputation Index, which can forecast the impact of an event or issue on reputation. This expands on APCO’s signature reputation research methodology, Return on Reputation, which delivers actionable intelligence to help clients protect and build reputation, deepen stakeholder relationships, seize new opportunities and propel the organization forward—ultimately delivering a return on reputation to the business.
• Predictive issues management, a data-driven communication response model for crisis communication. It leverages multiple data sources to forecast the key trends and topics that will affect a client’s reputation and other business key performance indicators (KPIs). Our clients can evaluate which issues will be increasingly covered by the media and talked about online—and which audiences and stakeholders are most likely to engage—so they can engage in near-real-time in a more targeted and effective way.
• Path to advocacy, an analysis of the conversations in a decision journey to reveal whether a communication effort has changed stakeholder attitudes about a client, brand, or issue. Clients gain intelligence on which target audiences are more likely to engage with content at the right moment and channel.

“From day one, APCO Insight has been focused on bringing the voice and perceptions of our clients’ diverse stakeholders—and a deep understanding of what they are thinking, feeling, saying and doing—directly into every facet of a client’s communication strategy, programming and proof of progress,” APCO Insight Managing Director Bill Dalbec said. “This integrated approach enables our teams to build and implement data-driven strategies on behalf of our clients that can change audience perceptions, motivate behaviors and provide measurable outcomes and reputational impact.”

This expansion of capabilities strengthens APCO’s embedded digital strategists’ abilities to apply data science to social listening data and audience research to shape client strategy. APCO’s evolving artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities power new core client offerings, including:

• Telescope, APCO’s proprietary influencer selection methodology. Telescope combines data science techniques with human intelligence and subject matter expertise to identify, categorize and prioritize influencers. Our clients derive a deeper understanding of the issues and opportunities available to them to achieve strategic business and communication objectives.
• Trend-sensing, a forecast of the sustained trends in a client’s world that will be increasingly covered by the media and talked about by target audiences and influencers. APCO’s clients can develop thought leadership content related to the trends with the greatest impact to better position themselves as an expert partner.
• Word-of-mouth equity, a measure of the impact of earned media and online influencer activity in the organic conversations related to a client or issue. Our analysis provides clients with insight on the channels, messengers, content and tone associated with the earned media and influencer activity. Clients receive a score against which to benchmarks themselves and track over time as they execute their communication strategy.

As part of APCO Insight’s expansion, the firm is investing in the creation of an industry-leading, proprietary, integrated and searchable intelligence platform to quickly uncover deep insights from our extensive data warehouse, which will deliver client insights previously unavailable. The platform will benefit clients by using AI and machine learning to bring together APCO’s bespoke sources of primary, secondary and third-party data, enabling our research professionals, client teams and subject matter experts to put insight more easily at the forefront of our client strategies and programs. Clients will be able to efficiently move from observation to activation, gaining an unrivaled edge.

At APCO, curiosity is a deeply engrained part of our culture and is integral to uncovering insights to inform work for clients. More closely integrating its research and data science professionals with the deep bench of communication consultants and digital experts is a natural next step for APCO and positions the firm to better help clients uncover hidden truths, act with conviction and validate the impact of their efforts.