Data collection

Polecat searches and collects data from across an enormous suite of validated internet sources.

Structuring data

Polecat organises and structures data into what we call taxonomies. These represent extensive datasets comprised of hundreds of related topics and drivers, and thousands of keywords.

Measuring data

Our algorithms score this data to make it measurable and understandable in the context of your own performance, market trends, and competitors. This includes identifying key parties and sources of data, based on things like credibility and reach. Other data metrics include Sentiment, Impact, Trends, Drivers and more.

Delivering insights

All data is processed to be delivered as structured and understandable insight. We deliver the most relevant insight on trends and influences based on your organisational objectives, taxonomies, markets, and areas of interest.

Polecat offers many different ways to interpret data. The platform data can be used to produce charts, benchmarks, in-depth reports, and executive newsletters.

What is impact?

Polecat’s Impact measure cuts through the noise of countless conversations, articles, social posts, reports and more, to pinpoint the discussions that matter. It uses complex algorithms to look not just at mentions, but the significance of those mentions, across thousands upon thousands of sources and hundreds of different topics.

This analysis takes into consideration several different factors regarding any given mention:

Mentions

Credibility of the source

Audience reach

Sentiment

Volume of mentions

Significance in context

Quantity and quality of topics

The output combines these elements to represent your organisational impact. Organisations can then easily drill down into the detail to see what has contributed to this impact – including sources, topics and keywords.

Find out more in our What is Impact? blog

How does Polecat derive sentiment?

Polecat uses a best-in-class sentiment algorithm to derive sentiment. The given resource, for example a digital article, is assessed by the algorithm and given a sentiment score. Polecat then classifies these scores using boundaries for Healthy, Unhealthy, or Neutral.

The reliability of these scores is improved with the scale of resources analysed.

What data sources does Polecat collect from?

Polecat collects information from an enormous number of data sources across the internet, social media, and stakeholder sources. This includes online media publications, social media posts, research articles, organisational data, and much more – some of which are paid for sources while others are opensource. All sources are verified and validated.

All data is pre-curated based on your needs, so users don’t need to structure any data themselves.

What geographies does Polecat cover?

Polecat delivers data from global sources.

Based on our machine learning capabilities, we can automatically detect what locations are being mentioned within conversations and where content is being published. Impact by Geography helps to understand how impact is distributed across the countries of the world.

Users can see both what locations are being mentioned and the origin location of the publication in question.

What are Polecat’s ESG credentials?

Polecat is a leader in reputation intelligence, working with expert partners to develop highly curated and comprehensive data taxonomies. Our ESG data has been taken from verified and credible sources, and validated with experts in ESG.

We work with leading organisations, including Johnson & Johnson, Diego, Shell, HSBC and more.

Why Polecat?

Organisational impact, not just mentions

Polecat provides one combined score that considers everything from sentiment to credibility to reach, so you can understand the nature and quality of the impact you’re making. Whether negative or positive, you can analyse your exposure to see the what, why, how, and when behind every event.

Curated and contextualised data

Our pre-curated taxonomies analyse thousands upon thousands of keywords in the context of your business, your market, and your chosen perspective. Whether you want to understand your reputation regarding greenwashing in the context of climate, or ESG in the context of modern slavery strategies over time, Polecat gives you 360° visibility.

Intelligence at your fingertips

Polecat offers unparalleled speed to insight from enormous numbers of validated data sources. All intelligence in Polecat is ready to go, with no need for users to prepare data, perform any research or set up complex dashboards. Organisations can start measuring the topics of their choice and deliver board-ready reports, instantly: simply turn it on.

How does Polecat support dynamic materiality?

Polecat allows users to listen to the whole market conversation – not just a narrow part. Polecat shows you how trends are shifting and identifies what new topics are gaining share of the conversation, without you first having be aware of them. It doesn’t just show you what you’re watching, but it uncovers all the topics, themes, relationships and triggers that you never thought to look for.

Polecat also shows you historic views of how trends and impact have changed over time.

Plus, with near instant results users can perform materiality assessments at a much more regular cadence than the traditional interview approaches. Whether it’s historic views, change over time, or understanding the future, Polecat delivers more dynamic ESG and reputational intelligence.

Read more in our dynamic materiality blog