Cision Acquires Trajaan: Search Intent Meets Social Listening for Smarter PR Decisions
Cision has acquired Trajaan, the search intelligence platform built to capture what people look for across search engines, e-commerce, social channels, and emerging GenAI assistants. For PR and communications teams, this means a clearer, faster read on demand signals that often show up before headlines, hashtags, or inbox alerts.
The move aligns Trajaan's always on, geo-specific search data with Cision's portfolio - Brandwatch, CisionOne, PR Newswire, and Cision's Insights Services - so teams can move from descriptive reporting to predictive, decision-ready intelligence.
"Bringing Trajaan into the Cision ecosystem unifies search intelligence, conversational insight, and AI-driven analytics, giving customers a deeper, more predictive understanding of the 'why' behind consumer behavior," said Guy Abramo, CEO of Cision.
Why this matters for PR and Communications
- A unified view of voice and intent: Pair social and media insights with search behavior to validate trends, forecast demand, and pinpoint motivations.
- Visibility into GenAI-driven discovery: Understand how AI assistants and platforms interpret categories, compare brands, and recommend products - a growing influence on buying paths.
- Faster decisions at local depth: Always on, geo-localized data helps you spot micro-trends, anticipate category shifts, detect brand risk earlier, and act with precision.
How Trajaan fits inside Cision's stack
- Brandwatch: Fuse search intent with social listening to verify early signals and prioritize narratives that will move.
- CisionOne: Bring search, social, and media data into one workflow for campaign planning, monitoring, and measurement.
- PR Newswire: Inform timing, angles, and distribution with intent trends that indicate where interest is building.
- Insights Services: Tap analyst-led reporting that blends descriptive and predictive views for leadership decisions.
What you can do now
- Update your KPI stack: Add search intent to share of voice, sentiment, and coverage quality. Tie spikes in queries to PR moments and outcomes.
- Build an early-signal dashboard: Track "questions asked" alongside social conversation to validate or kill ideas before committing spend.
- Monitor GenAI surfaces: Review how assistants summarize your category and competitors. Optimize messaging and assets accordingly.
- Tighten SEO/PR alignment: Coordinate with search teams on topics, headlines, and messaging that reflect rising queries.
- Strengthen issues playbooks: Use geo-specific intent data to detect risk faster and localize response plans.
Use cases PR teams can execute this quarter
- Launch validation: Check intent growth by region and refine angles before you pitch.
- Category listening: Track new questions and misconceptions, then craft explainers that earn coverage and links.
- Competitive watch: See where competitors are gaining interest and counter with targeted narratives.
- Predictive planning: Anticipate seasonal demand shifts and align story arcs, spokespeople, and distribution.
- Content strategy: Turn rising queries into owned content and PR hooks that editors actually want.
Executive perspective
"Acquiring Trajaan is a natural extension of the partnership Brandwatch announced earlier this year," said Guy Abramo, Chief Executive Officer at Cision. "By bringing Trajaan fully into the Cision ecosystem, we're unifying search intelligence, conversational insight, and AI-driven analytics to give customers a deeper, more predictive understanding of the 'why' behind consumer behavior - from the questions they ask to the signals that shape demand."
"Joining Cision allows us to scale our technology and vision globally," said Matthieu Danielou, CEO of Trajaan. "Together we can help brands understand what people search for, what they talk about, and how GenAI platforms shape their decisions - long before trends hit the mainstream."
Practical considerations
- Data governance: Align teams on access, permissions, and reporting cadence to avoid duplication or misreads.
- Attribution clarity: Decide how search intent, social volume, and media impact roll up into business KPIs.
- Team enablement: Train staff to interpret intent signals and connect them to narrative choices and timing.
Bottom line
Cision's acquisition of Trajaan gives PR and communications teams a cleaner path to predictive insight: what people search for, what they say, and what they intend to do - in one system. If you plan, pitch, or protect reputation, this brings earlier signals, sharper messages, and faster calls.
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About Cision
Cision provides consumer and media intelligence, engagement, and communication solutions to over 75,000 organizations, including 84% of the Fortune 500.
Media Contact
Cision Public Relations
CisionPR@cision.com
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