The UKAEA (the Unnited Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority) has a challenging role. Its main task is to decommission nuclear facilities that have come to the end of their lives. This involves taking the social and political environment into account - a sensitive enterprise as Andy Munn, Deputy Communications Manager at UKAEA, explains:

In today's competitive climate, communication professionals need to be able to react to and be accontable for all PR activity. What is your principle objective: to reassure the public or to be informed about the underlying issues affecting the industry?
Andrew Munn: Given the sensitive nature of our business both points are equally important because our communication is so strategic. We are working on five sites in Great Britain and as everything Nuclear is sensitive. It's crucial to establish an atmosphere of confidence with the people who live near our facilities as well as other stakeholders without whom we could not do our work.
Consequently, we spend a lot of time communicating with the regional and local media in these areas. At the same time we have to take into account the effectiveness of our operations on a national level. On top of this, we are entering a very competitive domain where we will have to fight to keep the contracts for the sites we are decommissioning. In addition to our local strategy, therefore, we also have to communicate in both the professional press and the national media.
The media industry has never known such a proliferation of communication vehicles. In your opinion, which of the traditional methods do you find most effective : press or television?
We use both of course, but on a national level, television is more effective if you are live on air at the right moment. Currently, The Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 is without a doubt the best single outlet to get a message across. This programme not only boasts significantly large viewing figures but also counts politicians and key decision makers amongst its listeners.
How do TNS media intelligence's services help fulfil your media monitoring requirements?
We have been using TNS media intelligence's online media management tool 'Morethannews' for three years and we now rely on the platform because it allows us to simultaneously access local and national press and broadcast media coverage instantly. With sites across the UK, it is just as important for us to know what's being said in a very small local paper distributed near our site in Northern Scotland as it is to know how the BBC interprets a situation. From 7:30am and with updates throughout the day, we can get an overall view of the news that concerns us thanks to Morethannews.
News distribution via the Internet has increased significantly. Do you intend to monitor it ?
We have already begun to consider the increasing use of this method by monitoring the web and blogs, the latter in fact becoming an important channel for distributing news and influence particularly amongst the younger audiences.

The 12 experts of the Beauty Editorial Barometer scan a whole range of publications which embraces 90% of the total readership of the general press (women magazines, daillies, news magazines) and record the selected news according to an identical classification. "We monitor all beauty brands without exception "explains Sabine Desmarquets, Director Editorial Barometers. An exhaustiveness which is fundamental to explain this crowded market and to analyse the strategies brands have put in place to hold on to their share of publicity with the arrival of competitors.
88 % of editorial beauty space is devoted to products
The Beauty Editorial Barometer records the information on three levels: the brand, the product line and the products themselves. By not limiting itself solely to the product, it explains everything about a brand's media approach. "Corporate" communications actions account for about 12% of a brand's overall media impact. They reveal the latest news about the stars, the creators or the events and the prize giving ceremonies that are organised in their behalf.
However, journalists write mainly about products and they write a lot! In the 1er half of 2006 alone, 2,960 different care products were mentioned in France. "Clearly they are not all new products, underlines Sabine Desmarquets but we invariably notice that each launch stimulates journalists to talk about older products. For example : for the same period and sector, it is DIOR PLASTICITY which heads the products with the most media attention with only 1.03% of media coverage".
A benchmarking Tool
The monitoring service allows brands to review their own PR strategy and to evaluate how a launch fits into a competitor's market. "It is clearly a benchmarking tool whose usefulness really becomes apparent with time" explains Sabine Desmarquets. Thanks to the monitoring service, brands analyse how to maintain media pressure, outside a launch period, by betting on the corporate aspect.
Beauty: a very fragmented market
Health products dominate editorial media coverage in both France and Germany (28% and 30% respectively) far ahead of makeup (20% and 24%). In canada, it is the reverse where the mediatization of makeup comes to 34% of the total. Perfume gets 14% of the media coverage in germany while Canada attains a total of 11%.
One thing does not change : national brands are, above all else, stars at home.
"While most beauty brands strive to be international, their appeal is significantly stronger in their own country" confirms Sabine Desmarquets ; an observation which implies that the work of press attachés remains well and truly work done on the ground.

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