NEW YORK — Burson has launched a ground-breaking AI-powered technology and consulting offer that connects drivers of reputation to specific and tangible business outcomes including stock price, sales and purchase intent.

Reputation Capital aims to offer clients a “live and dynamic view” of how reputation is measured, valued and managed as a business asset, so they can quickly make decisions that have a direct bearing on commercial success.

Burson global CEO Corey duBrowa said of the new offer: “Our core belief is that reputation is the most valuable asset that any organization possesses. It’s complex and constantly evolving, influenced by a variety of factors beyond any singular element such as trust. Traditional tools for measuring and shaping reputation simply can’t keep pace with the velocity and volume of challenges our clients are navigating today.

“With Reputation Capital, we're pinpointing the specific drivers of reputation, forecasting the impact of potential actions, connecting these insights directly to business outcomes, and pairing them with expert counsel. This empowers our clients to make informed decisions with speed and agility, ensuring their actions and communications positively impact corporate perception and business performance, and ultimately build a lasting competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

The Reputation Capital methodology defines eight levers of reputation management, including ‘citizenship and social responsibility’, ‘management and leadership’, and ‘creativity and innovation’. It uses advanced data and AI models to predict the potential impact of the media environment, news, narratives, events, or actions on each lever.

These models ingest and analyse information around the clock from proprietary sources and technology platforms, capturing signals ranging from client-owned information to digital and social media. This analysis yields an “almost real-time” reputation score that illustrates how a brand is perceived overall and isolates the specific levers where action can be taken to improve the brand’s reputation with a direct commercial impact. Burson counsellors then develop strategic and creative messages and ideas, which are then tested and refined based on how much impact they will have on the brand.

Reputation Capital analyses brand-specific signals across segments including geography, sector, reputation lever and audience, and uses live AI analysis to pinpoint hidden or emerging reputational risks and opportunities and forecast their likelihood of scale and impact.

The platform models the shareholder value of a company’s reputation by focusing on business outcomes – such as stock returns – that differ from market expectations, to provide a clear picture of the impact of specific factors, like reputation.

Burson worked with teams and clients across sectors and geographies to develop Reputation Capital, including data scientists and behavioural scientists in EMEA, the Americas and APAC.

EMEA chief data and intelligence officer Allison Spray told PRovoke Media: “The idea that reputation is a really powerful form of currency has never felt more true for our clients – businesses are trying to everything they can right now to lead through a tempest of issues and crises and are facing more scrutiny across stakeholder groups than ever. At the same time, we recognise that reputation is composed of a number of drivers, it’s not a singular thing like trust, so we wanted to provide visibility across those levers and give clients the ability to plan and manage activity and campaigns for the greatest business impact.

“In understanding how changes in stakeholder perception can influence business outcomes, we can provide them with evidence-based actionable estimates, including dollar value, which will enable them to make better decisions. We’ve been working with clients across a wide array of disciplines, and they like it.”

Spray also emphasised the importance of the human factor to make the most of even such a sophisticated AI tool: “I’m really excited to see this far more advanced data modelling and AI helps us provide intelligence for counsellors to think about how we advise clients. This is a great example of a solution designed to enhance human expertise: this advanced technology requires seasoned professionals to interpret data and provide really nuanced counsel.”

During the development of the tool, modelling of various companies and sectors showed a significant correlation between reputation and shareholder value. In the technology industry, for instance, shifts in company reputations contributed, on average, 0.97% in additional weekly returns – which in shareholder value ranges from USD $2.5 billion to USD $38 billion depending on the company being analysed. For one tech company profiled in the platform, a 1% increase in Reputation Capital score equated to $2.4 billion in added shareholder value, according to Burson.

“This profiling exercise underscores the critical role of reputation in driving financial outcomes,” said duBrowa. “For businesses, it highlights the tangible economic value of building, maintaining and enhancing reputation. For investors, it emphasizes the importance of considering reputation when evaluating potential investments. For boards, it makes reputation a more tangible asset for every company and brand.”

Burson’s global chief innovation officer Chad Latz said Reputation Capital was an improvement on the “backwards view” of traditional reputation management tools: “It changes the game by providing a dynamic understanding of a brand’s reputation in the marketplace and predicting the impact of actions relative to key business metrics. This latest innovation is unique in the marketplace and especially valuable during periods of turbulence or emerging opportunity, when advanced intelligence, urgent action, and sophisticated communications counsel are critical for safeguarding reputation or seizing potential.”

Grant Toups, global chief digital and intelligence officer, added: “Imagine knowing that perception around corporate integrity and governance, for example, or creativity, was having outsized impact on shareholder value creation compared to the other levers of reputation. Reputation Capital delivers that specificity, arming our clients with the predictive intelligence needed to build and sustain the reputational currency that drives business performance.  By transforming perception into actionable intelligence, we can help clients make reputation a distinct and quantifiable competitive advantage that can be optimized for maximum ROI.”

Reputation Capital has been validated by Augmented Intelligence Labs, an Oxford University enterprise, and includes features that are part of Burson’s proprietary cognitive AI solution, Decipher, created in partnership with Limbik.

Dr. Felipe Thomaz, associate professor of marketing at the University of Oxford and co-founder and MD of Augmented Intelligence Labs, counseled Burson on the solution’s development. He said: “Reputation Capital is an exceptionally advanced platform that takes the most comprehensive view of reputation – and provides the most actionable intelligence – of anything that’s currently on the market. The empirical evidence that Reputation Capital reveals about the attributes that comprise reputation is extraordinarily valuable information that can guide Burson’s counselors and the C-suite.”

Reputation Capital is the latest addition to the Burson Innovation Portfolio, a suite of AI-enabled tools that equip Burson’s communications experts to provide clients with faster, better insights; precision audience targeting; and culturally relevant creative. Reputation Capital is available through WPP Open, the AI-enabled marketing platform from Burson parent company WPP.