LONDON, November 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Durrants, the UK's leading media intelligence business, has taken a stake in Brighton-based social media monitoring company Brandwatch after being "blown away" by the company during a trial to find a social media monitoring partner.

The deal will enable Brandwatch, which already operates in 10 languages, to expand its current offer in the US and extend its service to cover Russia and China.

The investment in Brandwatch is the latest in a series of big deals in the social media monitoring space as companies gear up to tackle the challenges of monitoring brand conversations and reputation online. The social media marketing industry is growing by 34% a year and is expected to be worth $3.1bn a year by 2014.*

The investment comes after Durrants went to the market looking for a specialist social media monitoring company and Brandwatch came out on top following a rigorous trial period alongside several other leading international monitoring firms.

Jeremy Thompson, Durrants MD, said: "During the trial it quickly became clear that Brandwatch was head and shoulders above the competition. We were blown away by their relevant and timely coverage, strong account management and technical support, robust platform and user friendly service. It really was a case of liking the company so much we wanted to invest in it."

As well as the investment, Brandwatch's social media monitoring data will be used by Durrants' sister company Metrica, the award-winning global media analysis and evaluation company to track brands and conversations online and offer an enhanced social media service.

"There is a baffling amount of choice for PRs when it comes to tracking brand or client conversations online and our own research tells us that most PRs find social media monitoring one of their biggest challenges.** We're confident that Brandwatch, working alongside Metrica, will help PRs cut through the confusion and provide meaningful analytics," Thompson said.

Giles Palmer, Brandwatch CEO, said: "When it comes to monitoring social media it is important to find a supplier and data you trust. We've always been confident about what we provide but this move by Durrants provides a ringing endorsement of our service."

"We operate in a competitive space and I'm very proud that we were able to beat off stiff competition from several North American providers and managed to impress Durrants so much they wanted to invest in the company. The investment comes at an explosive time in the social media monitoring market and will help us push our product to the very top of the global pile."

Notes to Editors:

About Brandwatch:

Brandwatch (http://www.brandwatch.com) is one the world's leading tools for monitoring and capturing social media. Today, social networks are a massive indicator of consumer influence and brand positioning online. So for companies to know what and where discussions are taking place surrounding their brand online is imperative. Brandwatch captures, digests and translates this data into meaningful and useful information; armed with this information, Marketers and PR professionals can structure and track the direction and focus of their social media campaigns. Launched in August 2007 Brandwatch is used by customers around the world to monitor, capture and analyse trends in social media.

About Durrants, Metrica and Gorkana:

Durrants, the market leader in media monitoring (http://www.durrants.com), Metrica (www.metrica.net), the global media analysis and evaluation specialist and Gorkana, the UK's most trusted media/journalist database and community network (www.gorkana.com) are part of Discovery Group. This latest investment in Brandwatch supports Discovery Group's ambition to deliver greater insight to the PR and Marketing communities. The integration of intelligence from these services will deliver unique insights to help companies plan, monitor and analyse their PR more effectively than ever before.

Discovery Group is based on Old Street near the Silicon Roundabout, an area of East London where more than 100 tech and design companies have set up over the last five years. Prime Minister David Cameron recently announced that he wants to establish an East London Technology City and lure Google, Facebook and Microsoft to new offices in Olympic Park, a few tube stops from the Silicon Roundabout.

Metrica was acquired by Durrants in October 2009 and Gorkana was acquired by Durrants in April 2010.

*Forrester Research

**Gorkana survey of 205 Social Media Panel Event attendees, June 2010

For more information and interviews please contact:

Giles Palmer giles@brandwatch.com +44-1273-234290 Richard Bagnall Richard@metrica.net +44-20-7664-0800

SOURCE: Durrants

CONTACT: Giles Palmer, giles@brandwatch.com, +44-1273-234290; RichardBagnall, Richard@metrica.net, +44-20-7664-0800