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MDC Partners Unveils PRophet to PR Marketplace

October 6, 2020

First-Ever AI-Driven Software Platform That Predicts Media Interest, Sentiment and Spread

NEW YORK , Oct. 6, 2020 /CNW/ -- MDC Partners (NASDAQ: MDCA) today launched PRophet , the first-ever AI-driven platform for the PR community to help predict media interest, sentiment and spread before a story is pitched. PRophet's proprietary technology samples millions of reporters' stories spanning thousands of print media outlets by deploying a proprietary combination of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) technologies.

Before PRophet, knowing with any certainty if a reporter will write a story remained a guessing game purely based on years of professional experience, labor-intensive research, and instinct with no performance-based data to support or guide a pitch. Similar to how movie studios and book publishers are using AI to predict the commercial potential for a script, PRophet helps brands and organizations perfect and refine earned media strategies before going to market with a pitch – enabling teams to intelligently develop strategies both around positive news and emerging issues and threats.

The software was born out of MDC's Ventures Inside program, developed by Stagwell Technology, and was conceived of and founded by Aaron Kwittken , a marketing and communications industry thought leader and founder of KWT Global , alongside former political strategist and Microsoft executive Mark Penn , chairman and CEO of MDC Partners and President of The Stagwell Group .

"The PR industry is woefully behind when it comes to real technology solutions. It's a race to the bottom of overpriced online media databases, imprecise monitoring tools and stylized measurement dashboards. PRophet uses AI to analyze past reporter behavior to actually predict future reporting potential. This has never been done before. It will revolutionize how PR professionals interact with journalists, making the interaction more efficient, and also provide them with irrefutable data to support their pitch strategy to internal stakeholders. It's like Waze for PR people," said Aaron Kwittken , founder and CEO of PRophet.

"Welcome Prophet! This is the first of a line of significant digital subscription products in the marketing field to come from MDC Partners. Aaron's vision, combined with the know-how of the MDC Ventures Inside team, and the technical expertise of StagwellTech, has produced a tremendous innovation at the intersection of AI and PR to help corporate PR departments and their agencies to better land their message in today's highly complex news environment," said Mark Penn.

PRophet is an easy-to-use tool developed and designed to help PR professionals deploy a data-driven approach to successfully pitching reporters. Currently, "media intelligence tools" only focus on which media to target based on dated or rudimentary information that's not performative or predictive. PRophet brings new value to every layer in the public relations ecosystem: from generating greater intelligence for internal strategy, to working in tandem with traditional media databases to perform even smarter and more efficiently, to creating more relevant and successful pitches and therefore better relationships between PR professionals and journalists. The result is better performance for individuals, press, companies and brands.

PRophet was brought to life from an internal competition by MDC Partners designed to draw out from its network of talent the most innovative ideas for internal, client, or consumer-facing products sitting at the intersection of technology and marketing strategy. As the winning concept, PRophet, was awarded an operating budget to bring the idea to market.

PRophet is now exclusively available to brands and can upskill in-house teams to better manage internal expectations around the "mediability" of a story idea or emerging issue/crisis. To request a demo of PRophet, visit prprophet.ai/home and follow PRophet on LinkedIn and Twitter for the latest platform updates, thought leadership, and insights into how PRophet is changing the PR game for the better.

About PRophet
PRophet is the first-ever AI-driven software-as-a service (SAS) platform designed by and for the PR community that samples past stories to better predict future media interest, sentiment, and spread through natural language processing and machine learning. PRophet is owned by Ahteed, LLC, an MDC Ventures company and was founded by marketing industry thought leader and entrepreneur Aaron Kwittken alongside former political strategist, technologist, and author Mark Penn , currently President of Stagwell Group and chairman and CEO of MDC Partners and formerly with Microsoft. To learn more, visit prprophet.ai/home .

About MDC Partners Inc.
MDC Partners is one of the most influential marketing and communications networks in the world. As "The Place Where Great Talent Lives," MDC Partners is celebrated for its innovative advertising, public relations, branding, digital, social and event marketing agency partners, which are responsible for some of the most memorable and effective campaigns for the world's most respected brands. By leveraging technology, data analytics, insights and strategic consulting solutions, MDC Partners drives creative excellence, business growth and measurable return on marketing investment for over 1,700 clients worldwide. For more information about MDC Partners and its partner firms, visit our website at mdc-partners.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/mdcpartners .

MDC Partners Media Contact:
Alexandra Delanghe Ewing
adelanghe@mdc-partners.com

PRophet Media Contact:
Defne Karabucak
Defne.Karabucak@PRProphet.ai