Supernewsroom: Helping startups get better media coverage

• Easy-to-use tool to help startups gain better media coverage
• Aims to grow presence in Singapore in 2018

FINDING a platform to be seen and heard on, is incredibly challenging for new startups and that is the gap that communications platform Supernewrooms aims to fill as it strives to connect startups with relevant media outlets from Southeast Asia (SEA).

Supernewsroom recently entered into a strategic partnership with Cradle to help provide a platform for startups to reach out to media outlets and journalists to obtain publicity for their products, services or organisation.

“Everyone needs publicity and none more so than startups. Supernewsroom can act as an affordable yet easy to use Do-It-Yourself (DIY) tool for their public relation (PR) needs with access to a database of over 20,000 media contacts from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and more,” explained Supernewsroom founder and chief executive officer Manminder Kaur.

“Often times, startups don’t where to begin when they want to engage with the media and to make matters worse, they don’t possess the budget to engage with an external PR agency,” she said.

This often leads them to plan events on an ad hoc basis with no proper communications plan in place; resulting in poorly measured events and little data collected to analyse and quantify the results of each engagement.

She explained that Supernewsroom provides a comprehensive media database that enables its users to easily start, run and monitor a PR campaign from start to finish on their own.

Within the solution, users can directly reach out to journalists by sending press releases, invites or pitches with an email blast tool. Adding to that, they are also able to track articles and stories written by the media after events to understand the PR value generated.

With the strategic partnership with Cradle, startups can subscribe to Supernewsroom to start their own PR campaigns for RM500 a month.

“We are the first to partner with Cradle in this capacity and hope to take this model and apply it with other startup accelerators around Asia,” she said. In the coming year, Manminder hopes to up the reach of Supernewsroom to government agencies and bigger brands.

A recipient of Cradle’s CIP 500 grant in 2015, Supernewsroom’s Manminder said offering the platform to startups in need is their way of giving back and helping the startup community.

The initial injection of US$120,000 from the fund helped them with the start of the business but Manminder said they are looking to form strategic partnerships with a media conglomerate or global agency that would be able to help funding and marketing.

Thus, far Supernewsroom has already begun talks with a few and hopes to secure the support of one by next year.

Moving forward, Manminder said efforts are being made to add more features to Supernewsroom to make the platform more intelligent through an artificial intelligence (AI) system to provide recommendations and accurately match users with the right and relevant media that fits their industry profile.

She added that other features like social media monitoring and setting up of a marketplace for freelancers are also in the works.

On plans for 2018, much of Manminder’s attention will be focused on growing Supernewsroom’s presence in Singapore by replicating their current model of helping budding startups at Cradle and taking it to the island nation.

Related Stories:

Supernewsroom, Cradle in partnership to accelerate startup success

CanLaw pivots to bring more tech to legal profession

CapitalBay secures US$477K seed round led by KK Fund

For more technology news and the latest updates, follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.