Competitive Intelligence Monitor
Regular, structured tracking of competitor communications activity to identify shifts in positioning, messaging, channel behaviour, and narrative, so you can anticipate, respond, or differentiate.
Monitor
Monitor
Media and social monitoring, issue detection, sentiment analysis, campaign measurement, and stakeholder reporting: the always-on intelligence that feeds the next cycle.
New to this phase? Read the Monitor reference
10 templates
Earned Media Report
A structured monthly or campaign-period analysis of PR and earned media coverage: what ran, where, with what tone and messaging accuracy, and what it signals about your media relations effectiveness.
Monitor
Quarterly Comms Review
A structured end-of-quarter review of the whole communications programme (across all channels, campaigns, and activity) that evaluates performance, extracts learning, and sets priorities for the next quarter.
Monitor
Sentiment Deep Dive
A structured framework for going beyond surface-level sentiment scores to understand why sentiment is moving, who is driving it, and what it means for how you communicate, used when a shift or pattern demands deeper analysis.
Monitor
Campaign Performance Review
Evaluate what your campaign delivered, why it performed as it did, and what you should do differently next time – in a structured format that's useful for both internal learning and stakeholder reporting.
Monitor
Insights to Actions Template
Framework for converting monitoring data and observations into specific, executable decisions that drive communications strategy and messaging adjustments.
Monitor Featured
Monthly Stakeholder Update
Executive reporting format that translates monitoring data and communications activity into Board or senior stakeholder briefing, balancing transparency with strategic narrative.
Monitor Featured
Issue Log Tracker
Risk management system that captures emerging issues, tracks their progression, and determines escalation level to guide response intensity and resource allocation.
Monitor Featured
Simple Comms Dashboard
Visual snapshot of key communications metrics in one place, designed for quick executive briefings and team accountability without overwhelming complexity.
Monitor Featured
Weekly Monitoring Brief
Systematic approach to tracking media mentions and social conversation to identify emerging trends, sentiment shifts, and response opportunities.
Monitor Featured
Applied
Applied in this phase
Everything tagged Monitor- experiment Monitor
The dashboard said we were winning: I paid a GEO/AEO tool to track my firm's AI visibility for a month
A paid AI visibility tracker ranked my consultancy first for a month. On the questions a buyer would ask without our name in them, AI engines named us in about one answer in nine.
- experiment Monitor
Gullible engines: what AI says about you, and the free way to check your GEO/AEO visibility
A fabricated award on one web page was repeated as fact by three chatbots. Here is what AEO and GEO actually mean, what the visibility tools do and do not buy you, and a free way to find out what the engines say about your organisation.
- article Monitor
The Lag Problem: Comms With AI in the Monitor Phase
Most monitoring tells comms teams what happened after the moment to act has passed. The Monitor phase asks a sharper question: how quickly can your team detect, interpret and respond to what is happening now?
Frequently asked questions
- Can AI do media monitoring and sentiment analysis?
- AI tools handle the volume: tracking mentions and scoring sentiment across news and social. Treat automated sentiment as a signal, not a verdict, and spot-check before reporting. These templates give you a structure for turning that raw data into decisions and stakeholder-ready reports.
- What's the best way to report communications performance to stakeholders?
- A consistent format that connects activity to outcomes, not just coverage counts. The Monitor templates (earned media reports, monthly stakeholder updates, and dashboards) give you a repeatable structure that works on top of any monitoring tool's exports.
- How often should a comms team run a monitoring brief?
- Weekly for live tracking, monthly for stakeholder reporting, and quarterly for a full programme review. The templates here cover all three cadences so nothing important slips between reports.
More in the Learn hub: live sessions and their write-ups, the 5-phase framework, and training.