On any given day, analyst relations (AR) pros juggle a lot of projects: managing details, deadlines and deliverables related to vendor evaluations, general research reports, “analyst day” events, product launches and much more. Ensuring good processes and communications — so nothing slips through the cracks — is critical.
This year, at our ARchitect User Forum — to be held virtually Nov. 1-2, 2023 — attendees can learn how Bloomberg combines strong and transparent communications, data-driven insights, and AR productivity software with project management functionality. The result: their AR team consistently stays organized and aligned, meets project targets, and can easily evaluate project success.
We were thrilled to catch up with Alyssa Gilmore, Bloomberg’s global head of communications, and Beth Torrie, founder of Torrie Communications and adviser to Bloomberg, to learn more. Read on for a preview of their User Forum presentation and to get more details about Bloomberg’s AR mission and priorities.
Q: What is your role as it pertains to AR?
Alyssa: At Bloomberg, I lead a team of talented communications professionals in designing and executing fully blended strategic initiatives that protect, promote and future-proof our company’s brand. Our analyst relations program encompasses hundreds of analysts and delivers advisory, advocacy and assets to support our communications objectives and business goals.
Beth: In 2019, I founded Torrie Communications, a boutique analyst relations firm providing strategy and support for software and services companies. I have 20+ years of experience in analyst relations and tech marketing, and I built several of the most well-regarded analyst relations programs from inception to enterprise. Now, I support many companies as they take their programs to the next level. Since 2019, I have also supported Bloomberg, Alyssa and her global team with their analyst relations operations and with their ARchitect AR productivity software implementation.
Q: What is the mission of Bloomberg’s AR team?
Alyssa: It’s all about “Learn and Earn.” Bloomberg uses analyst research to inform and validate the development of many of our financial products including The Bloomberg Terminal, enterprise data, trading systems and more. We frequently work with analysts to deepen our understanding of markets and trends that impact our company and clients, and to share our expertise and thought leadership. We build and maintain bi-directional relationships with industry analysts to inform Bloomberg’s strategy and solutions, while ensuring that analysts maintain current and accurate information about how we provide unparalleled value to our customers.
Q: What AR challenges does your organization face?
Alyssa: Bloomberg’s biggest challenge is simply bandwidth. There are so many talented analysts with whom we’d like to engage more frequently and some AR initiatives we just don’t have time to undertake. Bringing on an adviser to partner with our in-house team has been essential to helping us prioritize and focus on what’s most important and impactful.
Q: How do you use people, process and technology to solve them?
Beth: Bloomberg uses ARchitect from ARInsights to create efficiency in information capturing, sharing and collaboration among our distributed team. As a data company, we appreciate the intuitive workflow and ease of data management it offers. We rely on ARchitect to report on interaction activity and gain insight into cross-team collaboration on analyst interactions.
We also use ARchitect to discover new, relevant analysts and explore the scope and depth of their impact, using Premium Content to track analyst mentions of our brand and industry across research, blogs and social media, as well as through analyst quotes in the news. In short, ARchitect helps the team prioritize analyst relationships and assess impact.
Q: What will people learn from your User Forum presentation?
Beth: We’re going to share how we use AR project management tools, processes and functionality to support and optimize a data-driven, blended communications program. Attendees will learn how we organize workflows for different projects, ensure streamlined and transparent communications, and keep everyone on the same page. We use ARchitect Project Manager to help with project management — staying on top of so many moving parts! — and, upon project completion, to evaluate how well we executed against our goals.
Q: How do you think the scope of AR has expanded and/or evolved in recent years?
Beth: The pace of technology innovation and its impact on people and organizations are intense. Companies rely on analysts and market research to finetune product strategies and market positioning to align with the quickly changing market and its nuances. Analyst coverage of timely topics for which Bloomberg is an expert source — particularly AI and ESG — has exploded, and the Bloomberg communications team relies on a central source for discovery and to assess the impact and value of the analysts and their research.
Q: What are you most looking forward to at User Forum?
Beth: We look forward to hearing interesting trends in market research and learning what concerns analyst relations leaders. We’re also eager to engage in discussions about how others are using ARchitect to support more efficient AR practices.
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Want to hear more from Alyssa, Beth and other AR pros? Join us for ARchitect User Forum, held virtually on Nov. 1-2, from 9 a.m. — 12 p.m. PT each day. It’s an opportunity to learn new AR strategies, listen to real-world success stories and exchange ideas with other AR practitioners across the globe. We hope you’ll register and join us!
