How Boathouse Group is using AI to unearth brand narratives

Boston-based full-service creative agency Boathouse revealed a new AI tool that helps its teams develop brand narrative strategies, the company announced Tuesday. 

Narrative Transformation analyzes consumer data and online conversations to identify places where brands can insert themselves in ongoing narratives. Natural language processing helps the AI to rank minute-by-minute conversations according to the number of responses requested, such as the Top 10 trending conversations about a brand. 

Built on technologies from Signal AI and NetBase Quid, the tool is able to identify which audiences are talking about a brand — employees, investors, competitors or customers — and where they are located. The agency uses this data to shape a strategy to lead, shift or interject in those conversations. 

The tool includes a dashboard that helps creatives keep tabs on which hashtags and phrases people are using to talk about certain brands, helps brands analyze key metrics like sentiment and passion and provides comparative analytics in their sector. 

AI allows for Boathouse and its clients to get ahead of conversations online, said Peter Prodromou, president and founder of Boathouse. So far, the agency has tested the tool with several clients in beta. 

“With the evolution of the web and the way we all engage on it, [consumers] are now shaping brands through reviews, points of view and arguments on Twitter,” he said. “When you create a narrative and own it, you create more value for your organization, more recognition and more opportunity.” 

The tool was built on both PR and advertising principles, a strategy inspired by Prodromou’s extensive PR experience. 

He believes AI can unearth patterns that are vital to brand health, from stakeholder passions to employee attitudes.  

“[Narrative Transformation] is giving us a deeper understanding of behavior and engagement and content preference, which makes us better at our job,” said Prodromou.“That's the part of AI that's really fascinating to us.”