Bloomberg launches business consulting arm for intelligence services
The US-based business related news media corporation Bloomberg has established a management consulting outfit. The new firm will utilise the deep data mines of the Bloomberg terminals, along with an innovative AI system and the network’s 2,700 journalists to deliver clients with holistic analysis and solutions.
Bloomberg is a privately held financial software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The group delivers business and markets news, data, analysis, and video to the world, featuring stories from Businessweek and Bloomberg News, however Bloomberg is now seeking to leverage its vast reach in financial data, along with its heavy-weight media presence and its broad-based, deep-diving research to enter into the management consulting game.
The new consultancy, which will be based in New York – amid a host of newly arrived consulting firms looking to tap into the bullish American economy – will be given full access to the horde of data gathered via the Bloomberg terminals – the built-in research arms of Bloomberg Intelligence and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) – as well as the 2,700 journalists and analysts currently employed by the media giant. The company will also make use of a new AI-powered tool built over the past year, which it has named Bloomberg AIQ. The tool is designed to scrape the deep mine of Bloomberg content and 30,000 other publications, in order to aid clients in audience modelling, campaign analytics and thematic web search.
The media sales organisation will continue to operate within the consultancy model meanwhile, enabling the provision of a holistic media strategy service as well as more standard management consultancy offering. The sales team’s expansion into practice areas is to be overseen by Bloomberg global CRO, Keith Grossman, and meanwhile the new firm expects to hire between 20 and 25 people to supplement its fledgling practice areas, which also include financial services, tech & telecom, auto, government as well as luxury and lifestyle.
Bloomberg currently boasts an annual revenue of around $9.4 billion, however the expanding American consulting market – the largest in the world – presented the self-styled business experts with an opportunity to add to that revenue, by buying into the US management consulting market which according to most recent estimates reaps just under $100 billion in fee income each year. While adding a new stream of revenue—companies will pay between $150,000 to $200,000 per month for Bloomberg’s new service – officials at the company meanwhile stated the consultancy is not meant to make up for any potential downtrend in other areas, namely the Bloomberg Terminal, for which sales are up this year.
The company already has already lined up five clients, with two based in technology, one in financial services, one in the automotive space and another in retail. Two of the clients, CA Technologies and Hartford Funds, have been working with Bloomberg for several years, and are keen to continue their relationship.
According to Anna Griffin, Senior Vice President of marketing for CA Technologies, “Each year, they have become more adept at harnessing the power of the larger Bloomberg organization to provide strategic insights surrounding their unique audience that goes well beyond media alone.”
Chris Poe, Head of brand marketing for Hartford Funds meanwhile said the perceived advantage of the company’s media background was a major pull for his company, stating, “Their deep business knowledge provides us with unique access to a valued audience.”
“Everything we do is from and for our audience,” said Bloomberg Media global chief commercial officer Andrew Benett, a former employee of Havas and recent CEO of the Creative Group, who joined the company in June. “Yes, Bloomberg is a media owner, but it’s so much more… Given what’s happening in the industry with the complete blurring of the lines where consultancies are taking over agencies, we have a tremendous opportunity.”
